Visiting Scholarships provide opportunities for graduate students, early career faculty, researchers, and other young professionals who wish to use the Field Museum's collections.

Applications for Visiting Scholarships are open from October 1, 2024 until November 8, 2024 (11:59pm Central Standard Time). We typically send award notification in late December. Scholars must accept their offers by January 15.

Awards provide $1,500 to $2,500 to each scholar. International scholars can request up to $3,900. Applicants to the African Scholars program are eligible for up to $9,000 to cover travel, lodging, and living expenses, and visa costs. (Awards to foreign scholars are subject to US taxes.)

Research must begin within 12 months of the award and no earlier than March 1; although scholars may extend their visit into the following year.

Application Requirements

We judge applications by the project’s feasibility and relevance to the Museum’s collections and research. At the same time, applicants must communicate their projects’ importance and potential impact in a manner that’s compelling to a broader audience, i.e. beyond specialists in the relevant field. The project description should spark excitement for and curiosity about the work.

A Field Museum sponsor must endorse your application. Review the scientists eligible to sponsor visiting fellows on the list of sponsors. Please contact your potential sponsors to communicate your background, goals and objectives. It is the applicant's responsibility to provide their proposal to sponsors allowing them sufficient time to write and submit endorsement letter. Applications submitted without this endorsement are incomplete.

Proposed budgets should estimate costs for airfare, plus approximately $1,000 per month for accommodation, and meals. Before preparing a budget, we recommend consulting your Museum sponsor. Foreign applicants should also factor in taxes and local travel, as well as visa costs which the Museum may or may not be able to defray.

Please note in your application if you are applying to the African Scholars program.

Every applicant must submit:

1. A project description detailing their research, its purpose, significance, and relevance to the Field Museum’s collections; collaboration(s) with Field Museum curators and other Museum sponsors; and procedures and methods used in the project. The description must be no longer than two pages, double-spaced, 12-point font with one-inch margins.
2.  It is the applicant's responsibility to ensure that they provide their proposal to their sponsor with sufficient time for them to write and submit an endorsement letter to scholarship@fieldmuseum.org. All other required application materials should be submitted to this Google Form. Sponsors should be sure to consult the guidelines for endorsing candidates before submitting their letters of reference.
3. CV (in English) with names and contact information of two references other than your Field Museum sponsor.
4. One letter of reference from a non-Field Museum recommender, sent by the recommender scholarship@fieldmuseum.org before the deadline.

Field Museum sponsor(s) must send their letters of endorsements before the deadline to scholarship@fieldmuseum.org.

Foreign Nationals

Please let us know as early as possible if you will need a J-1 visa, or would like discuss other visa options. We advise allowing ample time—approximately two months—with your application to ensure that you will have the visa before your intended travel date.

Contact Us

For more information about Visiting Scholarships or your application, email scholarship@fieldmuseum.org.