RCCHU Funding Opportunities (Research Fellowships & Graduate Scholarships)

What you get

The Real Colegio Complutense at Harvard University (RCCHU) runs several separate awards. Each one pays you to study or do research at Harvard. What you get depends on which programme fits you:

• Graduate degree scholarships: money towards a Master's or PhD at a Harvard graduate or professional school. The amount is set case by case and can cover tuition fees. It runs for one or more years, renewed each year. If it covers all your yearly Harvard costs, you cannot add any other funding for the same studies.
• Predoctoral short-term fellowships: about 3,900 EUR per month (4,200 USD) for a research stay of 3 to 5 months at a Harvard department, centre or school. A fellowship is a funded research stay. For the 2026 call the stay falls between September 2026 and July 2027.
• Postdoctoral fellowships (2+2): about 67,000 EUR per year (72,000 USD) for two years of research at Harvard, with the option to return to your home university for two more years. This programme is currently being revised.
• Faculty short and long-term fellowships: funding for a research stay of 3 to 6 months in a row, for tenure-track or full professors. The amount is not published.

All of these are open to fields across Harvard, including sciences, humanities, law, medicine, public health, economics, engineering and architecture.

Who can apply

• Level: You are a graduate student, a PhD candidate, a recent postdoc, or a full-time professor, depending on the programme.
• Nationality: You are a Spanish citizen, or an EU/Schengen citizen with proven permanent residence in Spain.
• Your university: You belong to an RCCHU partner university in Spain, and its delegate backs your application.
• Field of study: Open to almost any subject taught at Harvard.
• No existing funding (predoctoral): For the predoctoral fellowship you have no other funding for international research stays.
• Grades (postdoctoral): For the postdoctoral fellowship you need a recently awarded PhD with honours, a TOEFL score of at least 100, and a J-1 visa.
• Harvard invitation (faculty): For the faculty fellowship you need an invitation letter from a Harvard faculty, department or centre, plus a US visa.

How to apply

Read the current call for the programme you want on the RCCHU site. Then fill in the online form and upload your documents before the deadline. Your application must go through the delegate of your partner university, who evaluates and endorses it. For the 2025 predoctoral and postdoctoral calls the deadline was 15 April.

How realistic are your chances?

These awards are cut narrowly. You must belong to a Spanish partner university, hold Spanish or Schengen-in-Spain status, and win the backing of your university's delegate before your file even reaches Harvard. That keeps the applicant pool small for each programme. If you clearly fit one route and your delegate supports you, your prospects are solid. Note that the postdoctoral and Harvard Medical School programmes are currently under revision.