IDRF and CLIR Fellowship Question

[Aethelwulf]

Hi everyone,

I'm assembling materials for dissertation fellowship applications this coming fall and am wondering if it's worth applying for the IDRF and CLIR fellowships when I'll be expecting to finish in 2015/2016. Both of these fellowships are advertised as research fellowships rather than for writing up but my project (like many in the humanities) lends itself towards a process of combined research and writing chapter by chapter.

I anticipate that I can make a good case that these fellowships would be extremely helpful since my final chapter engages closely with items preserved in Greek museum collections. However I wonder whether it'll be worth my while applying when it would look likely from my application that I'd be finishing while holding the fellowship. If anyone has any wisdom from past applications on this then it would be great to hear it.

P.S. I realise the chances for both fellowships are laughably small anyway. But there's a big difference between small chance and no chance!

[cm125]

As you probably know, programs like the Mellon/ACLS diss. completion fellowship allow for both writing-up and research in the final year. I think they would see you as fitting into that category of grant. The awardees I know from CLIR and IDRF were conducting their primary field research. 

Their websites also rule it out:

CLIR:

"Who is not eligible to apply? -- Those who will be significantly engaged in writing their dissertations during the fellowship tenure. This is a research fellowship. Students may apply even if they have started dissertation research or done some writing, but CLIR's awards may be used only for original source research that applicants still need to do. Awards will not be granted to applicants who request support for intermittent research trips combined with the writing of their dissertations."

IDRF:

"Please note that the IDRF program supports research only and may not be used for dissertation write-up. ... Fellowships provide support for nine to twelve months of on-site, site-specific dissertation research. ... In addition, the IDRF program will not support dissertation write-up either at the home institution or elsewhere"