Important Message About New Guidelines for Applicants

In an effort to broaden the participation of U.S. scholars in the Fulbright Program, the J. William Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board* has revised its policies regarding the eligibility of U.S. scholars who have previously held Fulbright awards under the Student, Scholar and Teacher Programs.

As always, preference will be given to candidates who have not had a previous Fulbright award. Effective for the 2007 competition, recipients of a traditional Fulbright Senior Scholar award (defined as longer than two months) are eligible to receive another traditional award five years after the date of completion of the previous award. The maximum number of traditional Fulbright Senior Scholar awards is two in a lifetime.

The five-year requirement between traditional awards does not apply to the Fulbright Senior Specialist Program or other short-term awards, which are defined as awards of under two months duration. Recipients of a short-term award are eligible to receive a traditional or a second short-term award two years after the completion of the preceding short-term award.
Recipients of a traditional award are eligible to receive a short-term award two years after the completion of the traditional award.

The maximum number of any combination of traditional Fulbright awards for Senior Scholars is limited to two with the following conditions and exceptions:

Preference will be given to candidates who have not had previous Fulbright grants. However, recipients of a basic Fulbright grant are eligible to receive another basic Fulbright grant five years after the date of completion of the previous grant. (For serial grants, the five-year period begins at the end of the final grant in the series.) The five-year requirement between two basic grants does not apply to short-term grants, which are defined as grants of under two months duration. (See also Short-term Grants). Waiting periods with regard to short-term and basic grants are as follows.

The full text of the new J. William Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board Policies incorporating all of the changes applicable to the Fulbright Scholar Program for 2007-08 may be found in Chapter 600: U.S. Lecturers and Research Scholars (.PDF).