For PhD candidates: conduct research with this award funded by the Austrian Federal Ministry of Education, Science and Research
For more information on the various awards available in Austria, please visit the global Fulbright website.
Applications for this award must be submitted online using the IIE platform linked to the button below. Please be sure to read the information on this page before starting your application.
Applications are not currently being accepted. The link to the online application management system will be available on this page when the application period starts.
Fulbright Austria (the Austrian-American Educational Commission) offers up to seven grants for full-time research and/or study. Four of these are Fulbright-Mach Awards, which are named after Austrian physicist and philosopher Ernst Mach and funded by the Austrian Federal Ministry of Education, Science and Research (BMBWF). The Fulbright-Mach Awards are specifically designated for applicants with a master’s degree at the time of application.
Fulbright proposal types
Independent study/research: Yes
Graduate degree enrollment: No
Benefits
Applicants at all degree levels will be considered, including graduate-level students and PhD candidates. Applications are also welcome from musicians enrolled in performance programs. Applicants who are graduating seniors or have recently completed their undergraduate degrees may apply for full-time research and study grants, but should note that—due to the limited number of grants in this category and competition with applicants of more advanced academic standing—competition is rigorous every year. Therefore, applicants are advised to apply for grants combined with English teaching assistantships.
Individuals who have applied for but are not selected for full-time research grants may, at the discretion of Fulbright Austria, alternatively be considered for a grant combined with a teaching assistantship.
Fulbright Austria reviews project proposals for their coherence and quality and also takes into account their ability to contribute to the promotion of mutual understanding between the people of Austria and the United States. It is particularly—but by no means exclusively—interested in the promotion of Austrian studies and in proposals of bilateral or comparative relevance that enhance Austrian-American collaboration.
Accepted degree levels
Bachelor's
Master's
PhD
Science and technology applicants
Science and technology applicants are encouraged to apply for the Fulbright-Austrian Marshall Plan Foundation Awards for Graduate Studies and PhD Research in Science and Technology.
Ineligibility
Applicants proposing study or research in medicine or veterinary medicine will not be considered.
Foreign-language proficiency
Required: Intermediate level of German
German-language proficiency is necessary to fulfill the Fulbright Program's bilateral mandate of promoting mutual understanding, to negotiate the challenges of everyday life, and to fulfill university admission requirements. As a rule, university courses are taught in German, although an increasing number of courses are offered in English; thus, all applicants must submit "Form 7: Language Self-Evaluation" and "Form 8: A Foreign Language Evaluation by a qualified language instructor." Both forms are available on the Embark online application system.
Dependents
Dependent support is not available.
Henry Blood was a 2023–24 recipient of the Fulbright-Mach Award for Doctoral Candidates. Henry's affiliate for his research project was the University of Vienna, and his reserarch project was entitled Railroads and the Transformation of State and Society in the Habsburg Empire. Watch the interview to find out more about Henry's experience and about his recommendations to others considering this specific US Fulbright student grant in Austria.
All grantees, including PhD candidates, must be fully matriculated at accredited universities in Austria to facilitate tuition remission, health insurance, the use of libraries, archives, etc. Applicants should identify the individuals and institutions that will provide on-site guidance and include letters of affiliation. Invitations are absolutely necessary and should indicate how applicants will be anchored at the institutions.
Affiliation fees/tuition
Fulbright Austria facilitates university enrollment at the applicant's preferred university, and the Austrian government provides for the waiver of tuition fees at public institutions. Fulbright Austria does not cover tuition costs for enrollment at private institutions of higher education or other programs of advanced study in Austria that do not waive tuition fees.
Affiliation for music and fine-arts applicants
Admission procedures at Austrian institutions of music and the arts vary. Universities of music and the arts may require auditions and/or entrance examinations, along with submission of a portfolio. Instruction is frequently still based on "master classes" where professors select and train students for an extended period. Therefore, applicants are required to have established contact with Austrian music and/or art professors before applying for a grant and must solicit invitations to study with said professors.
Applicants should inquire about audition and/or admission requirements and dates well in advance. Candidates may be required to travel to Austria at their own expense to audition (as early as February) or may be admitted without auditions as exchange students, provided they have corresponding invitations. Fulbright Austria offers grants for musicians contingent upon university acceptance and enrollment and does not provide grants based exclusively on private study. Auditions at universities of music and the arts are highly competitive in Austria. Virtuosity is an important criterion for admission, and institutions prefer younger candidates.
...this award has allowed me to finally travel to Austria for nine months to study the sources of keyed trumpet music to which I have been wanting to gain access and, just as importantly, is allowing me to meet other professionals in my field with whom I hope to become life-long colleagues and friends.
-Robert Warren Apple, 2018–19 US Fulbright student, University of Vienna
Nikko Bilitza
University of Vienna
Learning from Austrian Platform Capitalism: The Austrian Model and the Future of Work
Henry Blood
University of Vienna
Railroads and the Transformation of State and Society in the Habsburg Empire
Bella Ruhl
University of Vienna
Care Labor Controversies: Austrian Feminist Debates in Transnational Perspective 1970-1990
Sarah Christensen
University of Vienna
Enslaved Women in the Early Middle Ages from Iceland to the House of Islam, c. 500-1100
Emily Eubanks
University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna
The Music Salon of Karoline Pichler: Bürgerlich Music Culture in Biedermeier Vienna
Jeremy Killion
University of Vienna
Cities in Crisis: Urban Administration in Vienna during the First World War
Alice Lee
University of Graz
Auditing the Opera: The Financial History of Opera Houses in late 19th-c. Austria
Christopher Londa
University of Graz
Authorship and Literary Labor in Ancient Rome
Kelly Riordan
University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna
Rediscovering and Performing the works of Robert Fürstenthal
Stephen Zaksewicz
University of Vienna
The Ends of the World: Planetarity in Contemporary Austrian Prose
Kathleen Johnson
University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna
Research and Performance of Walter Bricht's Lieder
Joshua Klier
University of Salzburg
Researching Austrian Populism and its Appeal - Supply and Demand-Side
Alice Matthews
Kiki Kogelnik Foundation
Space Age Happenings: Kiki Kogelnik's Performances of the Spectacle
Miriam Ross
University of Veterinary Medicine Vienna
Can Companion Dogs Differentiate Between Humans’ True and False Beliefs?
Adam Barnhardt
University of Vienna
An Analysis and Description of Sociolinguistic Resources in Vienna, Austria
Amy Millet
University of Vienna
Talking Through Food: Culinary Womanhood in Nineteenth-Century Austria
Jane Hines
University of Vienna
Phantasie: The Musical Imagination in 19th-Century Vienna
Andrew Hoffman
University of Graz
Outcomes of Language Contact: The Case of Gottscheerisch
Douglas McKnight
University of Graz
Persecution and Resistance: The Carinthian Slovenes, World War II, and Cultural Memory
Andrew Ramsey
University of Klagenfurt
Drone Localization Using Signals of Opportunity
Richard Smith
University of Vienna
Promethean Empire: Habsburg Nation-Building in Bosnia and its Transformation of the Empire
Christopher VanDemark
University of Vienna
Reform, Rehabilitation, and Resistance in the Postwar Austrian Schoolhouse, 1945–1955
