Cultural Affairs Office

Grants and Training Opportunities

The following list includes both U.S. Government programs and grants, and training opportunities supported by other organizations. Please also visit our Study in the United States page.

Alfred Friendly Press Fellowships 

The Alfred Friendly Press Fellowships (AFPF) is an American non-profit, non-governmental organization. For twenty-one years, AFPF has provided print journalists from developing countries with professional training opportunities in American newsrooms. This year, approximately ten journalists will be selected to spend five months reporting for an American news organization. Unique among the many training programs available to journalists, AFPF is the only one to offer a non-academic, long-term, hands-on experience in a single newsroom. It is hoped that through such hands-on training, Fellows will learn practices, standards, and values of U.S. journalism which they can adapt and apply in their home countries.

Elizabeth Neuffer Fellowship

The Elizabeth Neuffer Fellowship provides an opportunity for a woman journalist working in the print, broadcast or Internet media to spend an academic year in a tailored program that combines access to MIT’s Center for International Studies and other Boston-area universities and two media companies, The Boston Globe and The New York Times.

The Elizabeth Neuffer Fellowship is open to women journalists whose focus is human rights and social justice. A successful applicant will be dedicated to a career in journalism in print, broadcast or Internet media and will show a strong commitment to sharing knowledge and skills with colleagues upon the completion of the fellowship. 

Hungarian-American Enterprise Scholarship Fund

The Hungarian-American Enterprise Scholarship Fund's (HAESF) objective is to promote free enterprise and development in Hungary and to continue to strengthen ties between the United States and Hungary by creating opportunities for accomplished Hungarians and those of great promise to gain professional experience in the United States, thereby enhancing their contribution to Hungarian society.
Deadlines:
April 1 and October 1 for the Undergraduate Fellowship and Senior Leaders and Scholars Fellowships
April 15 for the Graduate Scholarship and University Academic Scholarship

The Hungarian-American Fulbright Program

The Fulbright Program of the U.S. Government provides opportunities for study, research, and teaching in the U.S. Created in 1946 "to increase mutual understanding between the people of the United States and the people of other countries," the Fulbright program also provides opportunities for U.S. citizens to study, conduct research, and teach in Hungary.
Deadline: in May of each year

Reagan-Fascell Democracy Fellows Program

The National Endowment for Democracy (NED) invites applications to its Reagan-Fascell Democracy Fellows Program. Established in 2001 to enable democracy practitioners and scholars from around the world to deepen their understanding of democracy and enhance their ability to promote democratic change, the program is based at NED's International Forum for Democratic Studies, in Washington, D.C.

The program offers five-month fellowships for practitioners to improve strategies and techniques for building democracy abroad and five- to ten-month fellowships for scholars to conduct original research for publication. Projects may focus on the political, social, economic, legal, and cultural aspects of democratic development and may include a range of methodologies and approaches. The fellows program is intended primarily to support practitioners and scholars from new and aspiring democracies.
Deadline: Applications for fellowships in 2008-2009 must be received no later than November 1, 2007. Notification of the competition outcome is in April 2008.

Trust for Mutual Understanding Grants

The Trust for Mutual Understanding Grants are intended to help cover international travel, per diem, and related expenses of Russian, Eastern and Central European, and American participants in cultural and environmental exchanges. Among the types of activities supported by TMU common to both the cultural and the environmental fields are advanced training programs, workshops, conferences, seminars, joint research projects, and exchanges intended to aid organizations in the region seeking to achieve greater institutional stability.
Deadline: The Trust reviews final grant proposals at meetings held in winter, spring, and fall. The deadlines for receiving completed applications are:
-- February 1st for the Winter Meeting
-- May 1st for the Spring Meeting
-- October 1st for the Fall Meeting

Courses by the United States Telecommunications Training Institute (USTTI)

The United States Telecommunications Training Institute (USTTI) is a joint venture between leaders of the U.S. communications industry and ranking officials from the Federal Government. The goal of this collaborative effort is to share the United States' communications and technological advances on a global basis by providing a comprehensive array of free telecommunications and broadcast training courses for qualified women and men who manage the communications infrastructures in the developing countries of the world.
Deadline: varies by program

The World Press Institute (WPI) Fellowship Program

The World Press Institute (WPI) Fellowship program aims to expose fellows to working conditions in the U.S. media. Part of the goal is to promote more accurate reporting about the United States by international journalists. The fellowship consists of seminars and briefings by faculty at Macalester College in Minnesota, followed by a three-month tour across the country. Fellows visit a variety of news outlets and other institutions.

WPI looks for journalists with a high level of tolerance for other cultures and a willingness to travel extensively in the United States. The fellowship covers all expenses as fellows visit newsrooms and conduct interviews in many different states.
Deadline: December 31 of each year

NATO Grants and Fellowships

In addition to its well-known political and military dimensions, NATO has a "third dimension" which seeks to encourage interaction between peoples, to consider some of the challenges facing our modern society and to foster the development of Science and Technology.
Deadline: varies by program