The UNESCO / Kingdoms Institute: Kingdom of Saudi Arabia – AlUla Fellowships Programme is run jointly by UNESCO and the Royal Commission for AlUla. It selects ten heritage professionals for a 24-month, full-time programme.
Fellows spend six months conducting research in AlUla, 12 months in a UNESCO Culture Programme traineeship at Paris headquarters or one of eight named field offices, and six months with a partner national commission or designated heritage entity. The programme focuses on heritage research, conservation, and management.
Benefits & funding
- The official UNESCO AlUla page describes the programme as fully funded.
- Rotation 1 includes international and regional economy travel, accommodation, food, local transport, a stipend, and medical insurance.
- Rotations 2 and 3 include economy travel, duty-station stipends covering living costs, and medical insurance.
- UNESCO and the host entities do not provide an allowance for passport or visa expenses.
Eligibility
- Applicants must hold the nationality of one of the 103 invited UNESCO Member States or eight Associate Members listed in Annex 1.
- Applicants must be at least 25 and under 40 when applying.
- A master’s degree or equivalent in a listed culture, heritage, architecture, planning, archaeology, conservation, museum, policy, anthropology, arts, international relations, social science, or related field qualifies.
- A bachelor’s degree can qualify instead when combined with two additional years of relevant experience.
- Excellent spoken and written English is required across the programme; knowledge of another UNESCO official language is preferable.
- Individual Rotation 2 traineeship posts add their own language requirements: fluent Russian for the Almaty post, Arabic for the Cairo post, working Arabic for the Paris culture and emergencies post, and French for the Yaoundé post.
- No residency or gender restriction is stated.
Can you apply?
Here's who can apply
Decoded from the official rules. A free account checks them against your passport, degree and age in seconds.
Eligible nationalities
Angola · Benin · Botswana · Burkina Faso · Burundi · Cameroon · Cabo Verde · Central African Republic · Chad · Comoros · Republic of the Congo · Côte d'Ivoire
+ 99 more
DR Congo · Djibouti · Equatorial Guinea · Eritrea · Eswatini · Ethiopia · Gabon · Gambia · Ghana · Guinea · Guinea-Bissau · Kenya · Lesotho · Liberia · Madagascar · Malawi · Mali · Mauritius · Mozambique · Namibia · Niger · Nigeria · Rwanda · São Tomé and Príncipe · Senegal · Seychelles · Sierra Leone · Somalia · South Africa · South Sudan · Togo · Uganda · Tanzania · Zambia · Zimbabwe · Algeria · Bahrain · Egypt · Iraq · Jordan · Kuwait · Lebanon · Libya · Mauritania · Morocco · Oman · Palestine · Qatar · Saudi Arabia · Sudan · Syria · Tunisia · UAE · Yemen · China · Cook Islands · Fiji · Kiribati · Maldives · Marshall Islands · Micronesia · Nauru · Niue · New Caledonia · Palau · Papua New Guinea · Samoa · Singapore · Solomon Islands · Timor-Leste · Tokelau · Tonga · Tuvalu · Vanuatu · Anguilla · Antigua and Barbuda · Aruba · Bahamas · Barbados · Belize · British Virgin Islands · Cayman Islands · Cuba · Curaçao · Dominica · Dominican Republic · Grenada · Guyana · Haiti · Jamaica · Montserrat · Saint Kitts and Nevis · Saint Lucia · Saint Vincent and the Grenadines · Suriname · Trinidad and Tobago · France · Italy · Malta
Education required
Bachelor · Master
Age requirement
25–39 yrs
Circlebreaker is a free database of global fellowships, scholarships and programs — every one decoded like this.
We only check the criteria we have data for. Always confirm full eligibility on the official page before applying.
Application process
- 1Review the programme page, application guide, research profiles, traineeship posts, application form, and proposal form.
- 2Prepare a two-page CV, certified degree copies, the English application form, a one-page English motivation letter, the proposal form, a two-minute English video, and a passport copy.
- 3Submit the complete file by email to alulafellowship@unesco.org before the announced deadline; the 2025 call is closed.
Program timeline
Applications opened for Edition II
Jul 28, 2025
Application deadline at midnight Central European Time
Sep 22, 2025
Candidate selection
2025-09 to 2026-01
Fellowship awards planned
2026-02
Rotation 1 in AlUla
2026-03 to 2026-09
Rotation 2 at UNESCO
2026-10 to 2027-10
Rotation 3 with a national entity
2027-11 to 2028-05
Future edition
No opening date announced