Opportunities for Researchers | Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard University

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Photo by Kevin Grady/Harvard Radcliffe Institute

Whether looking to work on individual projects or to collaborate with colleagues, researchers at all levels will find opportunities at Radcliffe. We offer yearlong and short-term residencies as well as financial support for research projects.

Each year, Harvard Radcliffe Institute hosts leading scholars, artists, and public intellectuals from around the world in its renowned residential Fellowship Program. Radcliffe brings together scholars to foster interdisciplinary collaborations that lead to new ideas, innovative research, and the advancement of knowledge; programs range from small, intensive workshops to large public conferences. The Institute's Schlesinger Library on the History of Women in America offers a variety of research grants to support new scholarship on women, gender, and sexuality.

The Radcliffe fellowship helped my work progress in almost too many ways to count. It is the most amazing opportunity I have been afforded in my career. It gave me the time for unimpeded thinking, creating, and exploring.

Many of the research problems I’ve worked on have come from other fields, so the idea of being part of a community of scholars in all kinds of disciplines—ranging from physics to history to art and music—is incredibly appealing, both on a personal level and as a way to expand my horizons beyond my current research directions.

The Radcliffe Institute forges links among different humanities fields, as well as among the humanities, other scholarly disciplines, and the wider world.

The temptation for everyone who writes in the wake of government service is to litigate some of the debates that went on. My being at Radcliffe, in an environment where people bring such wholly different perspectives, has helped pull me out of my government, bureaucratic navel-gazing. It has helped me to look up rather than back and to try to write something that’s more enduring, more forward-looking.

This is one of the best-run institutions I’ve ever been associated with, even in a temporary fashion.

The seminar was a dream come true. The connections made, the projects in progress, the learning that happened and continues to occur, the invitations for opportunities that have resulted—I have been astounded by the impact of that experience. The work that Radcliffe does and helps to support is changing lives.

Radcliffe Fellowship

Scholars and practitioners at the forefront of the arts, humanities, journalism, sciences, and social sciences apply to our competitive Fellowship Program to pursue bold ideas, artistic endeavors, and new research. Applicants come from across Harvard University and around the world. Radcliffe fellows receive a stipend of up to $78,500 for one year. This opportunity is open to the general public; see program details for specific eligibility requirements.

Accelerator Workshops

Harvard Radcliffe Institute’s Accelerator Workshop Program provides funding to scholars, practitioners, and artists to propel their original research programs or projects toward a specific outcome: a publication, a grant application, a course curriculum, an exhibition, a performance, or policy recommendations, to name only a few possibilities. With an eye toward accelerating the spread of innovative ideas and knowledge into the academic or public realm, our workshop program brings participants together to further develop and refine their work as they prepare for its eventual dissemination. This opportunity is open to Harvard faculty; see workshop details.

Exploratory Seminars

Harvard Radcliffe Institute’s Exploratory Seminar Program provides funding to scholars, practitioners, and artists for collaboration in an interdisciplinary exploration of early-stage ideas. Our program encourages intellectual risk taking as participants gather in an intensive seminar setting to explore new fields of research and inquiry. Hundreds of Harvard faculty members and current and former Radcliffe fellows have benefited from this program, which challenges its participants to reimagine the boundaries of knowledge through multidisciplinary discussion. This opportunity is open to Harvard faculty and Radcliffe fellows.

New England Regional Fellowship Consortium

The New England Regional Fellowship Consortium offers grants to encourage projects that draw on the resources of 18 major cultural agencies, including the Schlesinger Library. This opportunity is open to the general public (see specific requirements at link).

Schlesinger Library Dissertation Grants

The Schlesinger Library invites predoctoral scholars whose dissertation research requires use of the Library’s collections to apply for research support. Grants of up to $3,000 will be given on a competitive basis. Applicants must have advanced to candidacy in a doctoral program in a relevant field and have an approved dissertation topic, and priority will be given to those whose projects require use of materials available only at the Schlesinger Library.

Schlesinger Library Research Support Grants

The Schlesinger Library invites scholars and other serious researchers at any career stage beyond graduate school to apply for support for their work in our collections. Grants of up to $3,000 will be given on a competitive basis. Applicants must have a doctoral degree or equivalent research and writing experience, and priority will be given to those who have demonstrated research productivity and whose projects require use of materials available only at the Schlesinger Library.