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
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 and guidelines on proposing new programs for postdoctoral scholars [Touchstone required].