Tips For Roster Candidates
Roster candidates should not contact U.S. Embassies and Fulbright Commissions in efforts to develop Fulbright Specialists Projects.
When considering how to develop a grant, it is important to remember that you should not contact the Fulbright Commissions or U.S. Embassies. Only host institutions can submit a project proposal to the local Fulbright Commission or U.S. Embassy. Fulbright Commissions and U.S. Embassies cannot help you locate interested institutions or otherwise develop a project.
The best approach to finding an interested host institution is to use your contacts with foreign academic institutions and scholars.
If you have taught or studied at foreign post secondary degree-granting academic institutions, get in contact with them and discuss the possibility of developing a Fulbright Specialists project to meet their needs in a particular area. If you have contact with a foreign Fulbright grantee or other visiting scholar, whether at your home campus or another U.S. campus, discuss the possibility of collaborating with them at their home institution, or get in contact with former foreign visiting scholars.
A useful tool in the development of overseas contacts are the directories of current and past US Scholars and Visiting Scholar which can be searched by discipline and country. These online directories provide the name, title, discipline, and home institution of all Fulbright visiting scholars from 1998 to the present.
The Fulbright Occasional Lecture Fund is another useful tool for developing foreign contacts. The Fulbright Occasional Lecturer Fund (www.cies.org/olf/) allows U.S. institutions to invite Fulbright visiting scholars at other U.S. universities to present guest lectures on their campus, and funds travel for 2 or 3 day trips. This program can be utilized by Roster candidates both to utilize visiting scholars’ expertise while they are in the United States and to develop contacts at overseas institutions.
Other potential resources for developing foreign contacts include:
- Library of Congress’s Portals to the World site: www.loc.gov/rr/international/portals.html - This site offers links to electronic resources, arranged by country or geographic region, with links for each, sorted in a wide range of broad categories.
- Braintrack: www.braintrack.com - Education index of over 8300 links to higher education institutions in 194 countries
- The international office on your campus or its library
- Fulbright campus representatives play a vital role in promoting the Fulbright Program within the U.S. Higher Education community. To view the list of campus representatives, visit www.cies.org/campus_reps/.
- International students and faculty, as well as area studies faculty, on your campus who may know people in your discipline in other countries
- The international division of your professional organization may have information about the status of your discipline and the educational system in other countries, as well as names of people who could serve as contacts or direct you to others who could.
- Area Studies Research Centers funded by Title VI of the Department of Education
- Professional journals in your field-look for authors from the country you are interested in.
- Fellows of the Hubert H. Humphrey Fellowship Program: www.humphreyfellowship.org/
- Country pages on this Web site at www.cies.org/country/
- 4 international higher education directory and search engine: www.4icu.org/
- CIES program officers: Program officers may have leads; contact the appropriate program officer for the country you are interested in.
Be aware of the limits and benefits of pursuing projects in the country and region in which you are interested
Each country participating in the Fulbright Specialist Program has a limited number of grants each year. Competition for these grant opportunities can be high in certain world areas, particularly Western Europe. You may wish to explore opportunities in under represented areas such as the Middle East, Africa and Eurasia, to significantly improve your chances of receiving a Specialists grant during your five year term.
Consider the possibility of working with more than one host institution
Joint project proposals are permitted under the Fulbright Specialists Program. Because of the host institution’s responsibility to pay a portion of the costs of the program it is sometimes difficult for potential hosts to commit to Fulbright Specialists projects. Sharing the costs with another institution may be an attractive option for some potential host institutions.
Roster candidates should become acquainted with the situation on the ground in each country in which they are interested. To learn more about some of the countries participating in the Fulbright Program and to research potential hosts, please visit the Country Pages.
It is important for a Specialists Roster Candidate to keep his or her contact information and Curriculum Vitae up to date
As the Fulbright Specialist Program was designed to impact relations both at home and abroad, a grantee must reside in the United States at the time of selection and plan to return to the U.S. after the project. It is your responsibility to inform CIES of any plans to move abroad, as residing overseas will make you ineligible for a Fulbright Specialist grant.
When your name is matched to a project CIES staff will attempt to contact you to ascertain your availability for and interest in the project. We need to have current contact information in order to do this so please inform CIES of any change of address, permanent or temporary.
Additionally, host institutions use CV information to determine the best candidates for their project. Updating your CV content will enable CIES to contact you for any potential projects that might match your expertise.
To update your contact information or Curriculum Vitae
Roster candidates may update their contact information or CV by e-mailing new information to fulspec@iie.org and informing us that you want to update your information on the Roster.
Please note the character limit for the CV information is 25000 characters (spaces included). In order to update your CV please prepare your responses to our CV form using the Word document, found here. When complete, e-mail the word document to fulspec@iie.org (Word or text formats preferred) and inform us that you want to update your CV for the Roster database. |
