This opportunity is intended for leaders with a proven track record of accomplishment and influence in their field, and for whom a Bellagio residency will accelerate progress on an important project.
Strong applicants will be forward-looking with a history of advancing breakthrough ideas or actions. They should be curious, collegial, and collaborative—open to giving and receiving feedback from a diverse group of fellow residents.
To get started, please complete the Pre-Application Questionnaire. For additional information, see the Application Rules, and Evaluation Rubric.
The Rockefeller Foundation welcomes applications from qualified individuals over 18 years of age from anywhere in the world. Successful applicants must demonstrate significant professional accomplishment and influence in their field.
Officials of the United States government as defined by the U.S. Internal Revenue Service, individuals who have had a residency at the Bellagio Center within the last five years, individuals who have had two prior residencies at the Bellagio Center, and related parties of The Rockefeller Foundation are not eligible to apply.
Individuals who have applied in the past but were not selected for a residency may apply again. For more information on eligibility, please see the Application Rules.
Officials of the United States government are not eligible for a residency. Former employees of the United States government may be eligible, subject to review by the Rockefeller Foundation's legal team. Non-U.S. citizens employed by a foreign government may be eligible, subject to review by the Rockefeller Foundation’s legal team.
There is not a specific level of seniority or years of work experience required for the residency. However, given the importance of demonstrating significant professional accomplishment and influence in one’s field, applicants with ten or more years in their field tend to be more competitive than applicants who are at an early stage in their career.
All residency projects must satisfy the requirements for charitability set by the U.S. Internal Revenue Service, which include such things as provision of relief to the poor, advancement of education or science, preservation of the natural environment, or promotion of social welfare. Projects may promote social welfare through a variety of means, including by eliminating prejudice and discrimination, defending human and civil rights, or combating community deterioration.
Guidance around charitable purpose is provided in Section 5 of Application Rules. When presenting your project, please be sure to clearly articulate your project’s charitable purpose, including who will benefit from the project and how that benefit will be accomplished through your work.
Books and literary projects may be offered for sale, but the resident should be the author and retain the intellectual property rights to the manuscript as an author. Projects solely for the commercial benefit of a for-profit organization and owned by that organization are not eligible.
The writer or filmmaker can generally receive royalties for their work, provided that they retain ownership of the intellectual property they generate and that the material they produce is publicly released. Films cannot be released by commercial distributors without a plan for public dissemination that ensures the film is accessible to a target audience or the general public at low or no cost.
The creation of art can itself have a charitable purpose, and we welcome residents who are applying to improve or enhance their literary, artistic, musical, scientific, or teaching talents. You do not need to sell your work and donate to charity to satisfy the charitable criteria, but we expect you to share your art with a broad audience for their education and enjoyment.
Depending on your responses to the Pre-Application Questionnaire, you may receive a results screen with an invitation to apply to the residency.
Please save the results screen at the end of the questionnaire for reference (print to PDF) and also bookmark the URL you receive. If you receive an invitation to apply at the end of the questionnaire but are having an issue connecting to the online application platform, please check to make sure you are using the latest version of Chrome as your browser. If you continue to experience difficulties, you may need to open the invitation URL you receive in an incognito window. Please email us if you need technical support.
If you do not receive an invitation to apply, your responses may have indicated you are not a good fit for the program. You may retake the Pre-Application Questionnaire and rethink your responses, but please keep in mind that this program is highly competitive, the application requires a significant amount of time and effort to complete, and those who most strongly match the four criteria are likely to advance to the interview stage.
The Rockefeller Foundation releases an annual open call for residency applications (typically in February or March each year). When you are ready to apply, check the Foundation’s website for information about the next open call.
Applicants must have a specific project they want to advance during the four-week residency and demonstrate how their project will be catalyzed by this opportunity.
Projects should be bold and compelling, with significant positive social impact and breakthrough potential. Projects can include scholarly research, applied practice, or a work of art. There should be a specific output or deliverable that is meaningfully advanced during the residency period and likely to be highly influential. Projects should be timely and well-suited to benefit from the unique cross-cultural, cross-disciplinary environment of the Bellagio residency.
All projects must demonstrate a clear charitable purpose. When presenting your project, please be sure to clearly articulate your project’s charitable purpose, including who will benefit from the project and how that benefit will be accomplished through your work. Please see Section 5 under the Application Rules for more information.
Projects that build upon existing programs from an applicant’s place of employment are allowed. However, if the applicant works for a for-profit company, the project must be independent from the duties of the paid job function.
Note that projects that require access to specialized equipment or offsite excursions are not a good fit for this program. Residents must bring any materials needed for their project with them to the Bellagio Center.
Please be sure to review the Evaluation Rubric for more information on how projects will be evaluated.
Applicants must select one of the following project types that best describes their residency project:
Regardless of project type, all projects must demonstrate a clear charitable purpose.
Applicants must select one of the following themes that best describes their residency project:
Under the umbrella of Addressing Climate Change, there are four themes:
Under the umbrella of Building Vibrant, Connected, and Resilient Societies, there are three themes:
The General Open Call is open to any practitioners, academics, and artists working in any discipline or area of study. Projects can be based on any topic but must demonstrate clear social impact and charitable purpose.
If your project relates to more than one theme, select the one that is the strongest fit. If your project does not favor one theme more than another, select General Open Call. You may also describe how your project relates to more than one theme in your application under Project Description, Impact, and/or Project Fit.
For more information about these themes, visit the Bellagio Center Residency Program site.
We recommend reviewing the residency program application before you take the Pre-Application Questionnaire to fully understand what is required. The application includes narrative questions where you will be asked to describe your professional background, your proposed project, and its intended social impact. You must also submit a brief video, curriculum vitae or resume, and work samples.
The deadline to register and submit your completed application is Thursday, April 25, 2024 at 5:00 p.m. U.S. Eastern Time. This deadline is firm – we strongly encourage you to register and begin your online application as soon as possible, and at the latest by Friday, April 4, 2024, to allow yourself time to respond to all the requirements and address any technical issues that may arise.
Applications will first be reviewed for completeness, eligibility, and general fit with the program. Should it pass administrative review, your application will move to an expert panel for review.
During the expert panel review, your application will be evaluated on the following dimensions:
We strongly recommend reviewing the Evaluation Rubric before you apply.
Based on the results of the expert panel review, a subset of applicants will be invited to interview with Rockefeller Foundation staff. At the same time, those applicants will be given instructions on how to collect references from the two individuals they identify in their application.
The expert panel will conduct their work over the summer and we anticipate sending interview requests in the fall 2024. All applicants will receive an update on the status of their application in the fall. Applicants who are selected for a residency will be notified before the end of the year. Please review the Timeline for more information.
The video is an opportunity for you to introduce yourself and your project vision in a manner that is different from the written narrative. It will not be evaluated for production quality but will be considered alongside the written narrative when applying the evaluation rubric. You’ll note that no element of the rubric refers specifically to the video. Reviewers will be asked to consider your application in its entirety when applying the dimensions, so the video is just one component of your overall submission.
Each application must include a brief video of at least 60 seconds (to avoid the YouTube short status) and no more than 90 seconds that introduces you, your project, and why now is the ideal time for a Bellagio residency. Your video should not be professionally produced – an informal video created on a smartphone is expected.
Your video must adhere to the following guidelines, or else it will render your application ineligible:
After you record your video, you will need to upload it to YouTube, copy the YouTube URL, and then paste the URL in the space provided in the application. If you need technical support, you can contact us at questions@rfbellagio.org.
Each application must include a brief video of no more than 90 seconds that introduces you, your project, and why now is the ideal time for a Bellagio residency. Your video should not be professionally produced – an informal video created on a smartphone is expected.
The following are instructions for recording and uploading your video on YouTube:
After the selection process concludes and you have been notified of your application status, we recommend deleting your video or changing the video setting to private.
If you need technical support, you can contact us.
As part of your application, you must submit a single PDF that includes two work samples that best reflect your capacity to execute your proposed project. The PDF cannot exceed 10 MB and a total of five pages.
Work samples can include, but are not limited to, writing samples, project summaries, images, and links to external video or audio content. For each sample, please include a 2-3 sentence description of the sample and why you chose to include it.
Please note, work samples:
Text content must be in a legible, readable font. We understand there may be cases in which older work is relevant to the proposed project or will help speak to your qualifications – a summary (written in the past five years) of this past work would meet the work sample guidelines. Work samples that are extensions of previously produced work are admissible. Excerpts from a book or article are fine. If your project is related to a conference or to scientific research, a draft article or a journal article is fine to include.
Artists can share multiple projects within the five-page limit. There is a lot of leeway in terms of the kinds of samples you choose. One painting may be one sample, but you may also provide a series of paintings as one sample provided you do not exceed the page limit and you provide a clear contextual explanation for the series and why you chose it.
For more information about work samples, please see the Application Rules.
Each application must include a CV or resume of no more than five pages that includes the following information as applicable:
Contact information for two references must be submitted as part of the application (see Section E. Other Materials). References should be individuals familiar with the applicant’s work and capable of providing insights into the merits of the proposed residency project. Please note that references will not be contacted until the interview stage. If selected for an interview, references will be contacted in August 2024 and asked to complete a specific form. Applicants selected for interview can also notify us at that time if there are changes with the references.
All applications and accompanying materials must be submitted or translated/subtitled in English to ensure consistency across all submissions during the review process and reduce the risk of translation error or misinterpretation.
Work samples in other languages are allowed as long as the English translation is included. Videos can also be in another language as long as they are subtitled in English. If your CV or resume is fully translated into English, it is fine to leave organization names and other items that have no direct translation in the original language.
Yes, projects that are not in English are allowed. However, applicants must be able to speak about their project in English, which is the common language of the program.
Interviews will be conducted through a video conference call.
Each applicant can only submit one proposal.
The Bellagio Residency Program accepts applications from teams of two people working on a collaborative project. Teams that bring together people from different institutions, geographies, and disciplines are especially encouraged to apply. When applying as team, please adhere to the following guidelines:
General Guidelines
Registration Guidelines
Each team member should provide the same responses to the following registration questions:
All other registration questions should be answered individually by each team member.
Application Guidelines
Each team member should provide the same responses for questions in Section A of the application, which includes:
All other application questions (Sections B-E) should be answered individually by each team member.
We understand that projects may shift and evolve over time. If you are selected for a residency and your project outputs or other key project components have changed, you can inform the Bellagio program staff and they will evaluate whether the changes are acceptable.
Due to the high volume of applications received, we cannot provide feedback on any individual application.
We invite you to visit our Bellagio Center Residency Directory.
We invite you to visit the main Bellagio Center Residency Program site.
Applicants are invited to indicate dates they are available for a residency (see question 22 in the application). When completing the application online, you can indicate your availability for as many sessions that work for your schedule beginning September 2024 through November 2025.
While we do our best to accommodate individual date preferences, the Bellagio Center has limited capacity each month and ultimate dates will be assigned based on Bellagio Center availability. All residencies are four weeks to ensure consistency across each cohort.
Each cohort includes a maximum of 15 residents.
Residents can bring a spouse or partner to join them for all or part of their residency. We are not able to accommodate children, other family members, or friends.
If awarded a residency, you will receive four weeks of room and board at the Bellagio Center in Lake Como, Italy. This includes meals, a private studio for working, access to laundry facilities, and ground transportation to/from the Center upon arrival and departure. Travel funding to and from your home country is also available when there is financial need. Residents can also bring a spouse/partner to join them for all or part of their residency.
English is the official language of the program. Many residents speak multiple languages but are encouraged to speak English as the common language to help facilitate community interaction and engagement.
The two programs are quite different. The residency program is designed to support individual leaders to advance a specific project during their four-week stay. As part of the residency, individual residents also participate in a vibrant community with fellow residents. Residency applications are available on The Rockefeller Foundation website starting in February or March each year.
Convenings are typically five days long and can accommodate groups of up to 22 participants. They are led by a convening organizer and designed to achieve a goal that requires the coming together of a specific group of stakeholders. Convening applications are available on The Rockefeller Foundation website starting in April or May each year.
Please visit our website to learn more about the Foundation’s focus areas and grants program.
The Bellagio Center Residency Program hosted a Q&A webinar on Thursday, March 21, 2024. Review the recording of this webinar and if you have additional questions, you may email us.
