Cognitive Science Graduate Fellowships for Interdisciplinary Research Projects
(2007 - 2008)
The Northwestern Cognitive Science Program offers fellowship support for graduate students engaged in interdisciplinary research in cognitive science. These one-year fellowships are awarded competitively, based on the quality of research proposed, on the candidates’ qualifications, and on the interdisciplinarity of the research.
An application consists of:

1. A proposal of a maximum of 5 pages in length, outlining the project and its relation to cognitive science.
2. Letters from two faculty sponsors in different disciplines endorsing the project and agreeing to be actively involved in it. The sponsor from the home discipline should include a brief description of the student's progress to date in graduate school. These fellowships have a dual purpose: (a) to encourage interdisciplinary research by graduate students, and (b) to encourage faculty to engage in interdisciplinary collaboration and growth. For this reason, faculty sponsors should aim to be active collaborators in the research.
3. Grad student's vita.

DEADLINE: Friday, April 4th

GUIDELINES FOR ADVANCED FELLOWSHIP PROPOSALS

1. Proposals must bridge two disciplines, and must be sponsored by one faculty member in the student's home discipline and one faculty member in the related discipline (for example, a linguistics student who proposes work on computational approaches to parsing could have one sponsor from Linguistics and one from Computer Science). Generally the faculty should be from two different departments, but there are exceptions—e.g., cognitive psychology and neuropsychology. Petitions for exceptions will be considered in cases where two distinct disciplines occur in the same department. We strongly advise petitioning in advance so that the committee can make its judgment before you go to the effort of preparing the proposal.
2. Faculty letters should (1) clearly establish a strong understanding of the project and commitment to the collaboration on the part of both sponsors and (2) make clear the interdisciplinary contributions of the project.
3. Faculty members should sponsor no more than one proposal in a given year. If a faculty member really wants to sponsor more than one, he or she should write a letter saying why they are doing this.
4. Because we hope that these fellowships will seed long-term projects, preference will be given to second- and third-year students over students in their fourth year or beyond. THESE FELLOWSHIPS ARE NOT FOR DISSERTATION SUPPORT, BUT FOR INTERDISCIPLINARY RESEARCH.
5. At the end of the Fellowship period, the students will give a presentation describing their projects and progress.
6. Fellowship amounts will be roughly matched to other University fellowships. Awardees are also eligible for reimbursement for traveling to a conference (up to $500). The student need not be presenting at the conference to have his/her expenses reimbursed.
7. Proposals and supporting letters to the fellowship committee should be sent to the Cognitive Science Program at cogsci@northwestern.edu (electronic submission preferred; please use Microsoft Word), or on paper to
   Northwestern Cognitive Science
   Swift Hall 214,
   2029 Sheridan Rd.
   Evanston IL, 60208-2710
   

DEADLINE Friday, April 4th