Funding

Fully Funded

Fellowship•Italy · Bellagio

Bellagio Center Residency Program

The Rockefeller Foundation

Application Deadline

Closed · March 20, 2026

Reopens ~Mar 2027

Official Page

The Bellagio Center Residency Program gives individual leaders 26 uninterrupted days to advance one specific project at The Rockefeller Foundation’s center above Lake Como in Italy. Each cohort holds a maximum of 14 residents, and the Foundation expects to host roughly 100 residents a year drawn from academia, the arts, and professional practice. Residents work in a private studio, eat communally with the rest of the cohort, and present their project once to the group in an informal hour-long dialogue.

Every project must carry a clear charitable purpose as defined by the U.S. Internal Revenue Service — advancing education or science, protecting the environment, relieving poverty, or promoting social welfare — and must produce a concrete output such as a book, film, article, strategy, or new work of art. The Foundation runs an annual open call; the round for 2027 residencies closed on 20 March 2026, and residents from that round are notified by the end of 2026.

Benefits & funding

  • 26 days of room and board at the Bellagio Center in Lake Como, Italy, including meals and access to laundry facilities
  • A private studio for working
  • Travel funding to and from the resident’s home country
  • Ground transportation to and from the Center on arrival and departure
  • Most reasonable visa costs for attending the residency
  • Lifelong membership of the Bellagio Network of past residents
  • A spouse or partner may join for the first 5 days; the program does not pay their travel, and children, other family members, and friends cannot be accommodated
  • No monetary grant or stipend is paid
  • Not covered: medical care, insurance, taxes, and support for accompanying dependents; residents are told to arrange their own travel and stay insurance

Eligibility

  • Open worldwide to academics and scholars, artists and writers, and senior practitioners such as nonprofit leaders, journalists, private-sector leaders, and public advocates, in any discipline
  • Applicants must be 18 or older
  • English at CEFR B1 level or above; all application materials must be submitted in English, though the project itself may be carried out in another language
  • A specific project with a clear charitable purpose and a defined output that can be meaningfully advanced in 26 days; projects cannot exist primarily to generate profit or benefit a for-profit company
  • Applications are accepted from individuals or from teams of two, provided the two are not based in the same organization
  • No minimum seniority or years of experience is required; the Foundation notes that applicants with ten or more years in their field tend to be more competitive
  • Not eligible: U.S. government officials as defined by the Internal Revenue Service; people who are or would be public officials outside the United States during the residency; candidates for public office or people working on a political campaign during the residency; anyone who held a Bellagio residency in the last five years; anyone who has already held two Bellagio residencies; Rockefeller Foundation personnel and their related parties; people on international sanctions lists; and residents of jurisdictions barred from trade relations with the United States
  • Projects needing specialized equipment, offsite excursions, or research-library access are not a fit — residents must bring all materials with them
  • No lobbying, electioneering, or voter-registration work may be carried out during the residency

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  • Age requirement

    ≥ 18 yrs

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Application process

  1. 1
    Read the Residency Program Terms and Conditions, the application FAQ, and the evaluation rubric before starting.
  2. 2
    Complete the pre-application questionnaire on the residency platform; responses determine whether an invitation to submit an expression of interest (EOI) follows.
  3. 3
    Submit one EOI covering a single project — background, project summary, intended output, theme, and a one-sentence “Because of Bellagio” statement.
  4. 4
    Shortlisted applicants are emailed an invitation in mid-May and submit a full application: written answers on breakthrough potential, impact, expertise and cohort fit, plus an unlisted captioned YouTube video of no more than 90 seconds and a CV of no more than five pages.
  5. 5
    Applications pass an administrative check, then go to an expert panel scored on impact, clarity, expertise, and influence.
  6. 6
    A subset is interviewed by video call from early August; all applicants hear back in the fall and selected residents are notified before the end of the year.
  7. 7
    Residents sign a residency agreement and are assigned their 26-day dates according to Center availability.

Program timeline

  1. March 2026

    Open call for 2027 residencies; expressions of interest accepted

  2. Expression-of-interest deadline

    20 March 2026, 5:00 p.m. U.S. Eastern

  3. Shortlisted applicants notified and invited to submit a full application

    Mid-May 2026

  4. Full application deadline

    10 June 2026, 5:00 p.m. U.S. Eastern

  5. Administrative review and expert-panel scoring

    June–July 2026

  6. Interviews begin by video call

    Early August 2026

  7. All applicants receive a status update

    Fall 2026

  8. Selected residents notified

    By 31 December 2026

  9. Residencies take place, 26 days each, on dates assigned by the Center

    2027

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