ProFellow’s member base of more than 260,000 fellowship seekers gives us helpful insights into the world’s trendiest fellowships for students, academics, and professionals. In addition to the Top 10 Most Popular Fellowships of 2023, we’ve discovered fellowship programs in the U.S. and abroad that were in a class of their own this year. We identified the top 10 trendiest programs this year by comparing the number of new favorites by our members in 2023 to that of 2022.
Congratulations to those fellowship programs that made the list! The ProFellow community thanks you for providing opportunities for those seeking funding and support to achieve social impact.
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1. Open Society Foundations Soros Justice Fellowships
The Soros Justice Fellowships support outstanding individuals—including lawyers, advocates, grassroots organizers, writers, print and broadcast journalists, artists, filmmakers, and other individuals with distinctive voices—to undertake full-time projects that engage and inform, spur debate and conversation, change policy or practice, and catalyze change around the U.S. criminal legal system at the local, state, and national levels. Fellowships can be either 12 or 18 months in duration and may be undertaken with the support of a host organization.
2. NPR Next Gen Radio
Next Generation Radio is a 5-day, audio-focused, digital journalism project. Projects are hybrid (remote and in-person), designed to give competitively selected participants the opportunity to learn how to report and produce a non-narrated audio piece and a companion multimedia story. Those chosen for the program are paired with a professional journalist who serves as their mentor for the week and is paid a stipend for their work. Successful applicants have some qualitative experience with digital media. You do not need to be an enrolled student to apply. You can apply for a project at any time.
Interested in this fellowship? Read our interview with NPR veteran Doug Mitchell.
3. Landecker Democracy Fellowship
Annually, the Fellowship brings together diverse leaders from the European Union, the United Kingdom, and the United States who spend one-year creating projects that reinvent democratic spaces. Candidates must have at least five years of professional experience. Fellows will design and implement their projects. Humanity in Action provides guidance, programming, and supervision through a virtual and on-site training and community-building program throughout the year. Each Landecker Fellow receives a stipend of 10,000 euros and up to 5,000 euros in seed funding for implementing their project idea. All training expenses and travel and accommodation costs for the in-person Action Academy are covered. To apply for this program, you need to have been born in or after 1983.
4. NEH Summer Stipends
Summer Stipends support individuals pursuing advanced research that is of value to humanities scholars, general audiences, or both. Recipients usually produce articles, monographs, books, digital materials, archaeological site reports, translations, or editions. Summer Stipends provide $6,000 for two consecutive months of full-time research and writing. Recipients must work full-time on their projects for these two months and may hold other research grants supporting the same project. Summer Stipends typically support work carried out during the summer months, but arrangements can be made for different times of the year.
5. Open Society Foundations Soros Equality Fellowship
The Soros Equality Fellowship seeks to support individual leaders with 10+ years of work experience influencing racial justice. The Fellowship aims to provide a space to incubate new ideas, promote risk-taking, and develop different thinking methods that challenge and expand our existing assumptions. A successful project should identify a challenge and propose a critical intervention that will meaningfully address the systems that reinforce inequities and discrimination in the United States. Applicants must be able to devote at least 35 hours per week to the project if awarded a Fellowship. Applicants may be based outside the U.S., provided their work directly pertains to a U.S. racial justice issue and can demonstrate proficiency in spoken and written English.
6. HPHR Public Health Thought Leaders Fellowship
The HPHR public health thought leaders fellowship is a 6-month program and platform comprising 2 months of technical training and content workshopping and 4 months of content creation and promotion. Fellows who complete the program requirements of 8 posts and promotions will receive a certificate of completion. Top-performing fellows will be offered a position to continue amplifying their thought leadership on HPHR’s platform as a Columnist. Participants will gain creative freedom to bring their public health and health equity passions to a global audience and develop their voices and brands. Anyone who already has strong writing skills can apply.
7. Fulbright U.S. Scholar Program
The Core Fulbright Scholar Program offers over 500 teaching, research, or combination teaching/research awards of 2-12 months in over 125 countries. Opportunities are available for college and university faculty and administrators as well as for professionals, artists, journalists, scientists, lawyers, independent scholars, and many others. In addition to several new program models designed to meet the changing needs of U.S. academics and professionals, Fulbright is offering more opportunities for flexible, multi-country grants. Only U.S. citizens are eligible to apply.
8. ASF Fellowships for Americans in the Nordic Countries
The American-Scandinavian Foundation (ASF) offers year-long fellowships of up to $23,000 and short-term (1-3 months) fellowships of up to $5,000 to graduate students (preferably conducting dissertation research) and academic professionals interested in pursuing research or creative-arts projects in the Nordic region (Denmark, Greenland, Faroe Islands, Finland, Iceland, Norway, Sámpi, and Sweden). ASF’s award program for study and research abroad has been the Foundation’s most long-standing commitment to educational exchange. Awards are made in all fields.
9. Rotary Foundation Global Grant Scholarship
Global grant scholarships fund international coursework or research at a graduate level or equivalent for one to four academic years. Global grants also may support vocational training teams, which are groups of professionals traveling abroad to either learn more about their profession or teach locals. The field of study must align with one or more of the following areas of focus: Peace and conflict prevention/resolution, disease prevention and treatment, water and sanitation, maternal and child health, primary education and literacy, and economic and community development. Contact your local Rotary club for more information.
Interested in this fellowship? Read The Ultimate Guide to Winning a Rotary Global Grant Scholarship, written by Rotary Global Grant Scholarship winner Luisa Banchoff.
10. National Endowment for the Humanities Fellowship
Fellowships support individuals pursuing advanced research that is of value to humanities scholars, general audiences, or both. Recipients usually produce articles, monographs, books, digital materials, archaeological site reports, translations, editions, or other scholarly resources in the humanities. Projects may be at any stage of development. Fellowships cover periods lasting from six to twelve months at a stipend of $5,000 per month. The maximum stipend is $60,000 for twelve months.
If you enjoyed learning about these fellowships, be sure to also check out The Top 10 Most Popular Fellowships of 2023!
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