IAS Faculty Fellowship Application

Next Application Deadline: Monday, November 2, 2026
Applications open October 1, 2026

The Institute for Advanced Study (IAS) Residential Faculty Fellowship is a transformative experience designed to offer time, space, resources, and community in which faculty—at any stage of their career—can focus on their own research and creative work. Fellows spend a semester in residence at the IAS, share feedback with one another, and benefit from the IAS’s supportive, interdisciplinary community. 

See a list of current and past IAS Residential Fellows

Resources Provided

  • Fellows are provided with individual work spaces in the IAS offices for the duration of the fellowship.
  • Access to IAS spaces, which include co-working space, a comfortable living room, a kitchen stocked with refreshments, and other amenities. Fellows also receive support booking several Northrop event spaces, including the Crosby Seminar Room, which is designed to accommodate a variety of activities and includes hybrid event technology.
  • Community, connection, and opportunities for collaboration with the interdisciplinary IAS Residential Fellows cohort, and broader IAS Affiliate network.
  • Project amplification via the IAS network, including our website, newsletter, and social media channels.
  • Optional consultations with IAS staff, including our Director of Grants and Research Advancement, who can discuss project development and funding opportunities; our Programming Manager, who can discuss event planning; and our Communications Manager, who can discuss storytelling opportunities, promoting your work, and/or working with media.
  • Additional professional and project development opportunities are built into the fellowship via workshops and other activities, and can include a range of introductions to other IAS affiliates and resources across the University and beyond.
  • This is a paid fellowship: The Institute covers half of the fellow’s B-base salary and fringe for the semester in residence, up to a maximum of $35,000. (This will cover half of a semester’s salary and fringe of faculty whose B-base salary is below $102,489; the home college is responsible for the fellow’s remaining salary and fringe.)
  • Fellows from the Crookston, Duluth, Morris, and Rochester campuses will receive $15,000 for relocation expenses during the fellowship semester; please note that relocation funds are taxable.

Eligibility

  • All regular faculty—from any discipline—across the University of Minnesota are eligible to apply.
  • Fellowships are open to faculty at all ranks. We encourage applications from assistant and associate professors.
  • We encourage applications from faculty doing community-engaged scholarship.
  • Scholars who are engaged in collaborative work may apply in teams of two or three. Those applying as part of a team may include the same general project description in their individual applications, but each must also include at minimum a paragraph describing precisely what their contribution to the final project will be. Applications from faculty applying in teams will be evaluated on individual merit as well as part of the group.
  • Important: Residential faculty fellowships are not official leaves; fellows may still have non-teaching responsibilities in their home departments. We strongly encourage applicants to discuss with their department chair/head, in advance of applying, the implications of a semester’s teaching leave. All applications are subject to departmental and collegiate approval for this teaching leave.
  • Important: Those who have held an IAS Residential Fellowship in 2022-2023 or later, or who are current members of the IAS Advisory Board are not eligible to apply. 

Expectations & Schedule

The IAS Residential Fellowship is designed as a collaborative, residential experience, with fellows expected to be consistently present and actively engaged with both their cohort and the broader IAS community. Fellows are expected to participate fully in core activities—including weekly works-in-progress seminars and 1:1 meetings with cohort members, Thursday writing and research hunkers, and attending IAS public events—and to take advantage of IAS resources and professional development opportunities. The fellowship is not intended to serve as a sabbatical or leave for extended research travel; fellows should plan to conduct fieldwork, research trips, or other activities requiring extended absence before or after the fellowship. Fellows are in physical residence at the IAS at minimum on Tuesdays and Thursdays and the occasional Mondays, Wednesdays, or Fridays. A typical weekly schedule includes the following (see below illustration for an average weekly schedule):

  • Tuesday morning, Works-in-Progress Seminar
  • Tuesday afternoon, 1:1 Meeting with a Cohort Member
  • Thursday morning, IAS Hunker
  • Thursday afternoon, IAS Conversations
  • Occasional Thursday afternoon: IAS Public Event
     
A weekly calendar showing activities on Tuesdays and Thursdays, as described in the bullet points above