How to find, contact, and secure a Fulbright host affiliation

For the IIE Fulbright US Student Program research award, most countries require you to have a host affiliation. The ETA does not require an affiliation. A Fulbright host affiliation is an institution or organization you are affiliated with while doing your Fulbright project. In your application, the host institution submits an Affiliation Letter that shows your relationship and how they are supporting you. The Fulbright Affiliation Letter shows in-country support for your project and demonstrates that you have the necessary resources and/or network to carry out your project. There are many types of possible affiliations and relationships. Countries may have different requirements for what qualifies as an affiliation, but generally an affiliation will be one of the following:

• a university

• scientific lab

• NGO/nonprofit

• museum or archive

• government agency

Fulbright Affiliations can provide a wide variety of support. They can: 

• Provide mentoring or advising to your research or project

• Give you access to physical resources like an archive, research site, or gallery space

• Give you connections/introductions to certain populations 

• Incorporate you into an existing research group as a collaborator

Finding a Fulbright host affiliation

Finding a good host affiliation is a critical component of the Fulbright application process. A strong Affiliation Letter can be key to securing an award.

If you don’t have a large network in the host country, finding an affiliation can be one of the most challenging parts of the application. It can be daunting: choosing whom to contact, knowing what to say, and anxiously waiting for a response.

We recommend a two-pronged approach: using your personal network, and doing cold outreach.

Start with your personal network. 

Talk to everyone in your personal network who can give you leads on who to contact or connect you with possible host affiliations. If you have been to the host country previously to study abroad or travel, reach out to people you met there who might be able to connect you with someone in your field.

Professors, advisors, and colleagues--regardless of whether or not they have connections to your proposed host country--may have ideas for who to contact in your field. For example, a former professor you had in undergrad might be connected with others doing work in your target host country. Even if you graduated, reach out to staff and professors from your alma mater for thoughts on affiliations.

Use the internet and social media as your guide

Writing effective cold emails is a good life skill to have. This is a skill that will help you land jobs or find apartments in tough rental markets. The worst case scenario is that somebody doesn't respond or says no. There is no harm that can come to you from writing cold emails. You can find contact information for people through organizational websites or social media and contact them through email, LinkedIn, or even Twitter. 

You can start by going through university websites in your host country for professors who sound interesting to you and writing them a personal email (not a copy and paste generic email). Briefly tell them about you and that you are applying for a Fulbright and why you are interested in their work, then ask for more information or an informational interview. You can reach out to organizations or other researchers doing work in your topic area or with the population you want to reach. You can even contact authors of publications that have inspired your work. 

Your intention should be to start a conversation; at this juncture, you’re not looking to ask them to commit to being your affiliation. If you are intentional in your outreach, this will probably take no more than two dozen cold emails.

Additional Resources

Don't let the challenge of securing an affiliation get you down. Because we’ve noticed that identifying and securing an affiliation presents a particular challenge, we’ve created this online course focused on getting a Fulbright affiliation. The course includes creative strategies for identifying host affiliations and sample templates for cold emails and affiliation letters.

Still have questions? Chat with a Fulbright expert

We host regular free virtual office hours where you can with one of us to have your questions answered. Office hours are great for people who don’t have access to a campus Fulbright Program Adviser.