Harvard Environmental Fellows Program 2027 |Fully Funded

Recently finished your PhD and looking for a postdoctoral fellowship that pairs a genuine salary with access to one of the world’s leading research universities? The Harvard Environmental Fellows Program 2027 offers exactly that, funding two years of interdisciplinary environmental research at Harvard University.

Run by the Harvard University Center for the Environment (HUCE), the program pairs each fellow with a faculty host from any school or department across the university, giving fellows the freedom to propose research projects in virtually any discipline connected to environmental challenges. HUCE expects to award approximately five fellowships for the 2027 cohort, keeping the program small and highly selective.

However, this isn’t a general scholarship for students — it’s a postdoctoral fellowship specifically for people who already hold a doctorate or comparable terminal degree. Therefore, confirming your degree timeline against the program’s eligibility window matters before you invest time in a full application.

Quick Facts

• Host Institution: Harvard University Center for the Environment (HUCE), Cambridge, Massachusetts
• Program Type: Two-year postdoctoral research fellowship
• Funded By: Harvard University Center for the Environment
• Eligible Applicants: Anyone worldwide with a doctorate or comparable terminal degree, any nationality
• Cohort Size: Approximately five fellows annually
• Application Deadline: December 1, 2026

---

About the Environmental Fellows Program

Unlike a fixed-curriculum fellowship, the Environmental Fellows Program is built around pairing each fellow with a Harvard faculty host who shares an interest in their proposed research. As a result, fellows can work across disciplines — from the sciences to law to history — as long as their project addresses environmental challenges in some meaningful way.

HUCE also runs a co-curricular program of biweekly dinners with faculty and guest speakers, helping fellows build connections across the cohort and the wider Harvard community. If you’re comparing other postdoctoral or advanced research opportunities, the KAUST Scholarship 2027 in Saudi Arabia offers a useful contrast — a graduate degree program rather than a postdoctoral fellowship, but similarly research-intensive.

What’s Covered (Financial Benefits)

The Environmental Fellows Program provides a genuine salary rather than just a stipend. Fellows receive:

• A salary of $92,000 per year
• Eligibility for employee health insurance
• Up to $2,500 reimbursement for relocation expenses
• A $2,500 annual allowance for travel and other professional expenses

Callout: Unlike many postdoctoral fellowships that offer a modest living stipend, this program pays a full employee-level salary with benefits — a meaningfully different funding structure from the tuition-and-stipend model used by most graduate scholarships, like the Asia Pacific University ADB Scholarship 2027.

Eligibility Criteria

To apply for the Environmental Fellows Program, you must:

• Hold a doctorate or comparable terminal degree, awarded between May 2023 and August 2027
• Applicants without a PhD may still apply if working in a field where the PhD is not the typical terminal degree
• Secure a faculty host at Harvard willing to sponsor your proposed research (each faculty member may only host one fellow at a time)
• Be prepared to propose a research project in any discipline, as long as it connects to environmental challenges
• Applicants of any nationality worldwide are eligible

Note that a small number of specific faculty members are confirmed as unavailable to host fellows for the 2027 cohort, so checking current faculty availability before finalizing your proposal is worthwhile. Just as with the University of Milan DSU Scholarship, these program-specific details are easy to miss if you only skim the general eligibility criteria.

Required Documents

Based on the program’s structure, applicants should prepare:

1. A research proposal, clearly connected to environmental challenges and a specific faculty host
2. A host letter, confirming a Harvard faculty member’s willingness to sponsor your fellowship (due shortly after the main application deadline)
3. Letters of recommendation
4. Proof of degree completion or expected completion, within the eligible May 2023–August 2027 window

How to Apply

1. Identify a potential faculty host at Harvard whose research interests align with your proposed project — many, though not all, are listed on the Salata Institute’s website.
2. Reach out to prospective hosts to discuss your research idea and their willingness to sponsor your application.
3. Prepare your research proposal, tailored to your chosen host and discipline.
4. Submit your application before the December 1, 2026 deadline.
5. Arrange for your host letter and recommendation letters to be submitted shortly after, typically around 10 days following the main deadline.
6. Prepare for a possible interview, since a select group of applicants may be asked to discuss their proposal with the selection committee over video.

Therefore, starting the faculty outreach process well before December matters just as much as the written proposal itself, since a confirmed host is central to a competitive application.

Why This Fellowship Is Worth the Effort

Few postdoctoral fellowships combine a genuine full-time salary, direct mentorship from Harvard faculty, and the freedom to pursue interdisciplinary environmental research across virtually any department. In addition, the program’s small cohort size and structured co-curricular events create close, lasting connections between fellows and faculty that extend well beyond the two-year appointment.

If you’re exploring more fully funded postdoctoral and research opportunities, browse our full list of scholarships to compare Harvard’s program against other options.

Frequently Asked Questions