Guidelines for Fellowship Proposals - Proposing fellowship Activities

Fellowships support independent research for the purpose of enhancing the training experience of an individual. The primary objective is to support training activity rather than research outcomes. 

For an individual fellow, the fellow generally identifies a faculty sponsor or mentor and provides a description of the fellow’s research plan. A mentoring plan is usually included. MIT agrees to administer the award on behalf of the recipient.

For a fellowship program:

  • the statement of work (SOW) should describe a program for educating or training graduate students or postdocs in a general area of study, rather than describing a single research project
  • the SOW should also describe:
    • Selection process and criteria
    • Training environment and mentoring plan
    • How fellows will propose/develop their own research activities

It should be clear that fellows maintain the final decision(s) regarding the direction of their research

In both cases, support is modest:

  • Stipend (not salary)
  • Research or institutional allowance to be used for tuition, health insurance, travel, computer purchase, materials and supplies (with faculty sponsor approval)

Note:

  • Fellows are not employees
  • If graduate fellowship activity is included, full tuition must be budgeted. Fellowships do not benefit from the Institute’s tuition subsidy policy.
  • Fellowships are not subject to F&A or fund fees.

Additional information about fellowship activities can be found at this page: Graduate and Post-Doctoral Fellowships.

See the Postdoctoral Services website for details on the differences between postdoctoral associates and fellows.