Fulbright and the University of Birmingham

The Fulbright Commission was established in 1948 to foster mutual educational understanding between the US and the UK through academic exchange. It supports a number of schemes, and the University of Birmingham is proud to participate in many of these.

All awards are made by the Fulbright commission, and full details of how to apply may be found at the Fulbright Commission website.

 The call for applications for the 2024-25 Fullbright awards are now closed.

Fulbright Distinguished Chair 

The University of Birmingham is delighted to host a Fulbright Distinguished Chair, the most prestigious Fulbright award. This six-month secondment for a prominent US Professor to be based at the University of Birmingham, with access to all the University's research collections, provides an opportunity to undertake research and build links in the United Kingdom.

Applications for 2024-25

Award length

6 months

Award start period

September 2024 - April 2025

Grants may begin any time after September 1, 2024, but before April 30, 2025.

Application deadline

Applications are now closed. 

Fulbright Researcher Opportunities

The University offers one Fulbright-University of Birmingham Scholar annually, whereby a researcher based at a US institution may visit the University of Birmingham for a period of 3-9 months to conduct research in any subject.

Applications for 2024-25

Award length

3-9 months

Award start period

September 2024 - April 2025

Grants may begin any time after September 1, 2024, but before April 30, 2025.

Application deadline

Applications are now closed. 

We are also happy to host holders of Fulbright Scholar Awards (all disciplines) who wish to come and conduct research in the condusive environment of the University and its campus.

Fulbright Postgraduate Scholarships

The Fulbright-University of Birmingham Award is made to a US postgraduate student to study for one year at Birmingham, either as part of a programme of study at a US institution or on a one-year programme at Birmingham. Please refer to the Fulbright Commission website for information on the application processes and deadlines.

In addition to this, the University of Birmingham is also happy to host further Fulbright Award holders in their studies.

Fulbright Forum 2018

The University of Birmingham is proud to have hosted the prestigious annual Fulbright Forum in January 2018.

Group photo of attendees at the January 2018 Fulbright Forum

During the event, 55 American ‘Fulbrighters’ had the chance to explore the cultural and historical resources that make the University of Birmingham one of the world’s top 100 destinations for academic study and research.

The Forum provides an annual opportunity for American grantees to explore and enjoy a different part of the UK hosted by one of the UK’s top universities. It is particularly special this year as the inaugural event in celebration of the US-UK Commission’s 70 anniversary.

Fulbright profiles

Dr Adam Ward

Dr Adam Ward, Associate Professor, Paul H. O’Neill
School of Public and Environmental Affairs, Indiana University

Environmental scientist Dr. Adam Ward from the School of Public and Environmental Affairs at Indiana University, will be with us at UoB from December 2021 to October 2022 as a Fulbright Scholar. Dr Ward specializes in quantifying the transport of water, energy, and pollutants through hydrological landscapes, and the ecological implications of these fluxes.

Dr Ward’s research focuses on hydrological connections between streams, their landscapes, and their aquifers as a control on biogeochemical processes and ecosystem function, particularly the transport and fate of compounds in the environment. Specific interests include transport of nutrients in agricultural landscapes, contaminants of emerging concern in streams and wetlands, and carbon export from catchments.

His Watershed Hydrology & Engineering group uses a combination of field-based experiments, environmental observation, and numerical modelling to quantify couplings between physical, biological, and chemical systems. These skills are applied in interdisciplinary teams to predict water quantity, water quality, and ecosystem responses to changes in key drivers including land use change, land management activities, and climate change. Dr Ward is also interested in innovative teaching methods, having prototyped several service-learning activities and innovative teaching methods in his existing courses.

Dr Ward was previously a Vanguard Fellow with the Institute of Advanced Studies at the University of Birmingham. This visit focused on interdisciplinary science and environmental metagenomics in the river corridor, catalysing collaboration around hydrological and ecological processes in the river corridor.

During his time at the University of Birmingham, Dr Ward will be collaborating on research with Professor David Hannah and Professor Stefan Krause, examining and advancing predictive understanding of river corridor services and functions.