FY 2027 Fulbright Teacher Exchange Program

FY 2027 Fulbright Teacher Exchange Program

Historical reference: the FY 2027 competition is closed

The FY 2027 Fulbright Teacher Exchange Program was a U.S. Department of State, Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs (ECA), Office of Academic Exchange Programs competition for one cooperative agreement. The selected organization was expected to design, implement, and oversee a suite of Fulbright Teacher Exchange programs for U.S. and international K-12 educators. This was an institutional implementation opportunity, not an individual teacher fellowship.

The official notice set the application deadline at June 29, 2026, 11:59 p.m. Eastern Time in Washington, D.C. The official listing now identifies the opportunity as archived on July 29, 2026. It is therefore not accepting applications. The page is retained as a historical reference for organizations tracking the program, preparing for a possible future announcement, or comparing the requirements of ECA exchange competitions.

No new FY 2028 Fulbright Teacher Exchange competition was announced in the official sources checked for this update. The FY 2027 Notice of Funding Opportunity says that, subject to satisfactory implementation and the availability of funds, ECA intended to renew the award for two additional consecutive fiscal years before openly competing it again. That statement is not a new application announcement and does not create a current deadline. Readers should wait for a new official ECA or Grants.gov notice before treating a later cycle as open.

Key details from the official FY 2027 notice

The amount was a planning estimate rather than a guaranteed payment. The notice says that ECA could reduce, revise, or increase proposal budgets according to program needs and the availability of FY 2027 funds. The listing described one expected award with an award minimum and maximum of $10,500,000, while the NOFO used “approximately” and made the funding conditional. Organizations assessing the historical opportunity should use the conditional language from the NOFO rather than treat the figure as an entitlement.

What the cooperative agreement covered

The recipient would administer several related exchange models rather than a single travel award. For U.S. educators, the listed components were Fulbright Teachers for Global Classrooms, Fulbright Leaders for Global Schools, and the Fulbright Distinguished Awards in Teaching Program. For international educators, the components were Fulbright Teaching Excellence and Achievement and the Fulbright Distinguished Awards in Teaching Program for International Teachers. The notice also reserved a budget for alumni, outreach, and multiplier activities for both U.S. and international educators.

The planning allocations in the notice totaled approximately $4,250,000 for U.S. participants, $6,000,000 for international participants, and $250,000 for alumni, outreach, and multiplier work. Within those figures, the notice described approximately $2,800,000 for Teachers for Global Classrooms, $350,000 for Leaders for Global Schools, and $1,100,000 for the U.S. Distinguished Awards in Teaching component. It described approximately $4,400,000 for international Teaching Excellence and Achievement and $1,600,000 for international Distinguished Awards in Teaching. These component budgets were estimates for proposal planning and remained subject to ECA direction and available funds.

The program design connected professional learning with classroom and school impact. U.S. Teachers for Global Classrooms participants would complete a yearlong model with online coursework and an international study visit of about 15 days. Leaders for Global Schools would support visits by U.S. school or district administrators to education systems abroad. U.S. Distinguished Awards in Teaching participants would undertake a three- to six-month professional development experience. International Teaching Excellence and Achievement participants would attend six-week cohorts at U.S. universities, while the international Distinguished Awards in Teaching component would support longer professional development placements.

The recipient’s operational responsibilities included outreach and screening, participant recruitment and selection, placement, orientation, training, monitoring, and participant support. The recipient would also handle relevant visa and exchange administration, health coverage enrollment for participants, sub-award competitions when needed, fiscal management, reporting, monitoring and evaluation, alumni activity, and compliance with FFSB and State Department guidance. The notice also required schedules for communicating with ECA, overseas partners, prospective applicants, and participants about recruitment, placements, travel, and cross-cultural preparation.

Who was eligible

The NOFO was narrower and more specific than an individual teacher application. Eligible applicants had to be U.S.-based not-for-profit organizations, including think tanks and civil society or nongovernmental organizations, or U.S. not-for-profit public and private educational institutions. The Grants.gov listing separately described nonprofit 501(c)(3) organizations other than institutions of higher education, public and state institutions of higher education, private institutions of higher education, and other applicants as defined in the full announcement. The full NOFO is the better source for the broad U.S. not-for-profit and U.S.-based requirements.

Every applicant needed a Unique Entity Identifier issued through SAM.gov and an active SAM.gov registration. Because the anticipated award exceeded $130,000 in ECA funding, the notice required applicants to demonstrate at least four years of experience conducting international exchanges. The proposal also had to comply with the NOFO and the Proposal Submission Instructions; failure to meet those requirements could make a submission technically ineligible. Only one proposal from each applicant organization would be considered.

There was no required cost-sharing percentage. That did not remove the need for a credible, detailed budget. Applicants still had to explain the cost of each program component, staffing, participant support, travel, partnerships, outreach, monitoring, and other proposed activities. The organization also needed enough exchange, financial, legal, and reporting capacity to administer a large, multi-country program under substantial ECA involvement.

Individual teachers, school administrators, and international educators were participants in the planned program models, not the eligible applicant for this cooperative agreement. Their eventual participation would be handled through the recipient’s open, merit-based recruitment and selection processes and through partner organizations, Fulbright Commissions, Regional English Language Officers, U.S. embassies, and other relevant education partners.

Application materials and original submission process

The FY 2027 competition is closed, but its submission requirements are useful for historical planning. The complete solicitation package was available through Grants.gov and the ECA funding-opportunities page. Applications could be submitted only electronically through Grants.gov. The NOFO warned that Grants.gov registration could take up to four weeks, so an organization needed to check its registration and begin preparation well before the closing date.

The required application package included:

• SF-424;
• an executive summary;
• a proposal narrative describing the overall suite and each component;
• SF-424A;
• a detailed line-item budget;
• a budget narrative; and
• separate sub-budgets for each program component, including alumni, outreach, and multiplier activities.

The narrative needed to show how the organization would recruit, screen, place, orient, supervise, and support educators in multiple program models. It needed to address collaboration with ECA, overseas partners, Fulbright Commissions, embassies, host universities, and school or district leaders. A credible proposal would also explain how the applicant would manage J-1-related responsibilities, participant health coverage, data and reporting, sub-awards, risk, and post-program alumni work.

The notice required the full application to be uploaded by the stated closing time. There were no exceptions for late applications; submissions received after the deadline were to be automatically rejected by Grants.gov and found technically ineligible. The authorized organization representative would receive a Grants.gov acknowledgement and tracking number, and the applicant was responsible for confirming that the complete package had been received without transmission errors.

Questions about the solicitation were directed to Michael Kuban in ECA’s Office of Academic Exchange Programs at [email protected]. The notice instructed correspondents to identify the funding opportunity title and DFOP0018211 in communications. That contact information is preserved here for recordkeeping only; it should not be treated as confirmation that a new round is open.

How to use this page now

Do not submit an application against this page. First check the current ECA funding-opportunities page and Grants.gov for a new notice, a new funding opportunity number, a new NOFO, and a current deadline. A later announcement may change the eligible applicant categories, program models, budget allocations, registration instructions, countries, participant numbers, or policy requirements. The FY 2027 notice itself allowed ECA to adjust program components and country participation as priorities and funding changed.

Organizations considering a future cycle can use the archived notice to begin a readiness review. Confirm that the organization is U.S.-based and not-for-profit, maintain an active SAM.gov registration and UEI, document at least four years of international exchange experience, identify the authorized representative, and assemble evidence of financial and program controls. It is also useful to map likely partners, participant support procedures, host-institution oversight, selection safeguards, reporting ownership, and alumni activities before a future NOFO appears.

The most important distinction is the scale of the applicant’s role. This opportunity was designed for an organization capable of coordinating a portfolio of exchange programs and maintaining close operational communication with ECA. A teacher with a strong classroom record may be a good future participant, but that person would not apply as the institutional cooperative-agreement recipient. Until an official future competition is posted, this FY 2027 page should be read as an archive of the published requirements, funding estimate, deadline, and program design—not as a live funding opportunity.

Official sources

• FY 2027 opportunity listing, including the archived status, eligibility summary, funding amount, deadline, and document links.
• FY 2027 Fulbright Teacher Exchange Program NOFO, the controlling source for eligibility, program responsibilities, application contents, and submission rules.
• Fulbright Programs for U.S. K-12 Teachers, the Department of State program overview for the broader teacher-exchange activity.