Harvard Radcliffe Fellowship: Science, Engineering, and Mathematics Grant

The Harvard Radcliffe Fellowship supports exceptional scientists, writers, and artists, offering a unique interdisciplinary community at Harvard University. With 50 fellowships awarded annually, it seeks diversity in applicants, emphasizing innovative projects in science, engineering, and mathematics. Ideal candidates have significant scholarly achievements and can collaborate across disciplines, addressing pressing issues like climate change and social justice. This fellowship fosters creativity and independent research, making it an ideal opportunity for transformative work in various fields.

NOTE:  See page for Humanities, Social Sciences, and Creative Arts here.
Radcliffe Fellowship Program
Radcliffe fellows are exceptional scientists, writers, scholars, public intellectuals, and artists whose work is making a difference in their professional fields and in the larger world.
Based in Radcliffe Yard—a sanctuary in the heart of Harvard University—fellows join a uniquely interdisciplinary and creative community. A fellowship at Radcliffe is an opportunity to step away from usual routines and dive deeply into a project. With access to Harvard’s unparalleled resources, Radcliffe fellows develop new tools and methods, challenge artistic and scholarly conventions, and illuminate our past and our present.
The Radcliffe Fellowship Program awards 50 fellowships each academic year. Applicants may apply as individuals or in a group of two to three people working on the same project. We seek diversity along many dimensions, including discipline, career stage, race and ethnicity, country of origin, gender and sexual orientation, and ideological perspective.
We welcome applications from a broad range of fields and perspectives. The strength of our fellowship program is its diversity.
Focus Areas
We welcome proposals relevant to the Institute’s focus areas, which include:
Reflecting Radcliffe’s unique history and institutional legacy, we welcome proposals that focus on women, gender, and society or draw on the Schlesinger Library’s rich collections.Climate change and its human impacts, especially projects that address the disproportionate impacts of the climate crisis on marginalized or under-resourced communitiesLegacies of slavery
Interdisciplinary exchange is a hallmark of the Radcliffe fellowship. We welcome proposals that take advantage of our uniquely diverse intellectual community by engaging with concepts and ideas that cross disciplinary boundaries.

Eligibility

Applicants in science, engineering, and mathematics must:Have received their doctorate in the area of the proposed project at least two years prior to their appointment as a fellow.Have published at least five articles in refereed journals. Most science, engineering, and math fellows have published dozens of articles.What are some examples of the kinds of projects in the sciences that are well suited for a Harvard Radcliffe fellowship?Scientists who will be collaborating with a lab or group at a local institution and can obtain a letter of support from that labScientists proposing to write a book reflecting on the larger implications of their research or who wish to communicate to new audiencesScientists who are interested in projects that cross disciplinary linesProjects that do not rely on extensive infrastructure—e.g., research in theoretical fields, data science, computer science, mathematics, statistics, and so on.Applicants from throughout the world are encouraged to apply. Harvard University typically sponsors J-1 scholar visas for Harvard Radcliffe Fellows. Applicants cannot be students in doctoral or master's programs at the time of application submission unless the dissertation has been accepted and degree is forthcoming (and field specific eligibility requirements have been met). Applicants must demonstrate a strong body of independent work that has been published, exhibited, or performed.You do not need to be affiliated with an academic institution to be eligible to apply.We accept group applications of two or three individuals who propose to work on the same project. As a fellowship group you would spend the year pursuing your group's research interests or project. All group members must meet the eligibility requirements for their fields

Ineligibility

Former Harvard Radcliffe fellows (1999-present) are ineligible to apply.This is not intended to serve as a post-doctoral fellowship. Applicants must demonstrate a strong body of independent research and writing.