Interdisciplinary Doctoral Fellowships at the IAS

Anticipated IAS Application Deadline: October 13, 2025 at 11:59 p.m. CT

Interdisciplinary Doctoral Fellowships at the IAS are designed to allow fellows to participate in and benefit from the IAS’s interdisciplinary community of scholars. IDFs participate fully alongside IAS faculty fellows, where they benefit from the community of scholars and share their work across disciplines. In addition, each fellow is provided with individual workspace in the IAS’s offices in Northrop on the Twin Cities campus. Fellows attend the weekly Residential Fellows work-in-progress seminars and participate in other activities of the IAS.
 

About the Fellowship

  • IDF Fellows receive $2,500 in research funding support.
  • IDF Fellows receive individual workspace in our offices in Northrop and access to IAS personnel, community, and resources.
  • This is a residential fellowship. In order to create and maintain community, fellows are expected to be physically present at the IAS during their fellowship for weekly work-in-progress seminars and to attend IAS public presentations.

Applications Instructions

Please review the application instructions outlined on the Graduate School’s IDF webpage for full details. Note, Oct 10, 2025: The following instructions have been slightly edited for clarity, but application requirements have not changed.

Applicants for the Graduate School’s Interdisciplinary Doctoral Fellowship are required to include a letter of support from the host center or institute’s director in their application. The IAS will review applications and notify applicants whether or not their applications will be supported by the IAS. The IAS will provide a letter of support to the Director of Graduate Studies or Graduate Program Coordinator of those students whose applications will be supported in advance of the Graduate School’s deadline.

Important: Required materials for IAS consideration are the following due to the IAS FIRST, on October 13, 2025 at 11:59 p.m. CT. Please use the IAS Application Form as your cover page.  Please consult the Graduate School’s instructions for full application contents and requirements.

  1. IAS Application form (opens in new tab)
  2. IRB/IACUC documentation
  3. Research proposal
  4. Letter of Support (2-page maximum) from Advisor and/or Co-Advisor
  5. Letter of Support (1-page maximum) from a Faculty Mentor(s) affiliated with the Host Center, Institute, or Initiative, see below for eligibility

Application Process

All materials will be submitted via email to [email protected] by Monday, October 13, 2025 at 11:59 p.m. CT. The subject line should read “IDF Application: Student Name.” 

You have two options for submitting materials:

  1. The student’s Director of Graduate Studies or Graduate Program Coordinator or other departmental staff may compile and send all of the materials directly to the IAS. All materials should be combined into a single PDF per email and sent via attachment.
  2. The student may send the research proposal and IRB/IACUC (if applicable) to the IAS in one combined PDF, and ask the DGS to send the letters of support from the faculty mentor and advisors separately. Faculty mentors and advisors may also send letters to the IAS directly. Important: if the application is being sent in two parts, please indicate this in the body of the email.