Fulbright Public Policy Fellowship

Only U.S. citizens are eligible to apply for an award through the Fulbright U.S. Scholar Program. If you are not a citizen of the United States, please visit the Fulbright Visiting Scholar Program.

To begin the process, go to the application.

Application Components

Essays

Fulbright Public Policy Fellows will be hosted by ministry officials as “technical specialists” and spend approximately 80% of their time carrying out ministry-directed projects.  Approximately 20% of their time will be dedicated to their independent professional project.

All Fulbright Public Policy applicants are required to complete short essay questions to explain your specific strengths as a candidate and motivation for participating in the Fellowship to reviewers and potential hosts. You will be asked to address your experience and skills, what you are proposing to do, why it is important, why you, and what impact you hope to have. Your essays must be clear and compelling to audiences both inside and outside your field. Guidelines regarding the essay questions are below:

Experience and Skills (up to 3,000 characters, including spaces and punctuation):

• What knowledge and experience do you bring to this fellowship, including specific strengths, academic training, and relevant work experience, and how will they be transferable and beneficial to your potential host ministry?

• Describe how you have supported and assisted policy related projects.  Be specific about the public policy challenge you addressed, the outcome, and how you worked with others to address it.

Career Trajectory (up to 2,000 characters, including spaces and punctuation):

• What is the trajectory you have followed, and what are your plans for the future? How does the Public Policy Fellowship fit into your career path and future goals?  This is separate from the facts presented elsewhere in the application and may address your personal history, background, development, and the opportunities to which you have, or have not been exposed.

Country Selection, Preparation and Impact (up to 3,000 characters, including spaces and punctuation):

• Why have you selected this country?
• What experiences have prepared you to work in this country? Include any prior experience(s) living or working in a foreign culture or culture different from your own.
• What needs and interests of the host ministry and host country will you address?
• What challenges do you expect to face as a foreign national working in the host country government? How will you adapt, address, or manage them? Provide examples of your familiarity with the culture and chief public policy challenges of the country/region for which you are applying.

Professional Project (up to 3,000 characters, including spaces and punctuation):

• What do you propose to do? 
• What is the anticipated impact and benefit your project would have on your host community? Please be specific and also consider outcomes with the potential to be broad and sustainable. What facilities and resources do you plan to utilize in the host country?
• What is the anticipated impact your participation would have on your professional development and career? 

CV/Resume

All applicants must include their resume which details their relevant professional experience.

Content Guidelines:

• List employment history, including relevant public policy and other professional experience.
• If including publications, use full citations.
• List items chronologically, starting with the most recent.
• Refereed publications should be listed separately from non-refereed publications.

Format Requirements:

• Up to 5 pages, single spaced, 12-point or larger font size; 1-inch margins
• Headers and/or bullets to organize and convey key elements
• File type: Adobe PDF or Word document
• Include page numbers
• Only Latin alphabet characters are allowed (i.e., do not include any words or phrases that contain non-English characters)

Letters of Recommendation

The application requires two letters of recommendation. Letters of recommendations evaluate your professional work, including the abilities and expertise you bring to your project; your ability to adapt; and the merits of the project.

• Applicants must register their recommenders in the online application and are responsible for ensuring their letters are submitted by their recommenders via the online system by the application deadline. Recommenders cannot submit their letters outside the online system
• Applicants can track the status of the letters of recommendations on their online application and can send reminders to recommenders to submit their letters of recommendations by the application deadline.
• Letters of recommendations can be submitted by your recommenders before or after you submit the application but must be submitted by the application deadline.
• All recommendation letters must be in English.

Who may serve as a recommender?

Letters should be from those who know you and your work well and can address the points below, as listed under the “For Recommenders” section:

• One letter from a colleague or supervisor at your current place of employment. If your institution or employer recently changed, one of the letters should be from someone at your previous institution or employer.
• One letter from a colleague within your discipline. This can be someone outside of your current place of employment and can include colleagues with whom you have collaborated on research in the last several years in the U.S. or abroad.

Who cannot serve as a recommender?

• Relatives; representatives of U.S. Embassy posts or Fulbright Commissions in the country of application; representatives of the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs (ECA) at the U.S. Department of State; representatives of the Institute of International Education
• Anyone who serves as a recommender may not also provide the applicant with an invitation letter
• Anyone who serves as a recommender may not also provide the applicant with a language evaluation

For Recommenders

• Please see these instructions for those providing letters of recommendation.

Format Requirements

• Up to 3 pages
• On letterhead and signed (recommended)
• Only Roman characters are allowed.
• File type: Adobe PDF (recommended) or Word document

Please retain an electronic copy of your submitted recommendation. 

Language Proficiency

Fulbright Public Policy Fellows will be required to carry out a position in a foreign government ministry effectively and seamlessly. Meeting the language requirements is critical for completing the daily requirements of the professional placement. For research grant activity, language fluency sufficient to complete the research project is required. For applicants without local language proficiency, feasibility of conducting research must be demonstrated in both the project statement and the language self-evaluation form of the Fulbright application. Non-native speakers who have local language abilities will be asked to also register an external evaluator within the application.

The award description in the Catalog of Awards indicates the required level of language proficiency and which evaluation(s) are needed for each participating country.

The language component of the application has two parts detailed below. Requirements vary by country per the award description.

Self-evaluation: 

The Language Skills page in the application displays the award’s foreign language skills requirement and contains the self-evaluation. You can list up to three languages relevant to the proposed project and indicate your level of proficiency for each. Following that you will then respond to short questions regarding your proficiency, including past experience and planned study.

External evaluation: 

The Recommendations and Language Evaluations page in the application is where you register a qualified foreign language evaluator. This component is required for applicants to Colombia and Peru.

• A qualified foreign language evaluator should be an instructor in the language or otherwise qualified to evaluate language proficiency.
• Anyone who serves as a language evaluator for your application cannot also provide a recommendation letter for your application.
• For applications where proficiency in multiple languages may be necessary, the application will allow for up to two external language evaluations to be submitted.

For those providing the foreign language evaluation, please see these instructions. 

Professional Project

What kinds of activities are considered professional projects?

Professional projects should be an independent, public policy focused proposal that identifies and addresses the needs and interests of the host ministry and host country; demonstrates potential to advance knowledge, and to establish lasting connections and ties with the host country.  A smaller component of the Fellowship (20% of total time), the independent professional project must be carried out in consultation with the ministry, on a schedule that meets the ministry project timeline/goals/etc. for your specific assignment.  Applicants should create projects that may include studies, practical experience in actual operations, visits to organizations in their professional field, workshops, public lectures or other appropriate professional experiences. Their project plans should include a concrete description of the planned activities during the grant period as well as the expected benefits for completing the project for their professional field.