About Fulbright: The flagship program
The Fulbright Program is known worldwide as the flagship program for top students and scholars – studying, researching and working with the best in their fields. All of them with a commitment to advance the betterment of the world and to work for the ultimate goal of the Fulbright program – world peace.
In Denmark, the Fulbright Program is based upon a bi-national agreement from 1951 between Denmark and the U.S.A. The work is conducted by a bi-national commission with a board of 4 Danes and 4 Americans, and with the American ambassador to Denmark as honorary chair. Both governments support the work economically through annual base allocations on their state budgets, and today Fulbright Denmark receives additional support – financial and in-kind – from many other places.
Since the Fulbright Program began in Denmark in 1951 over 3.500 of “the best and the brightest” Danes and Americans have participated, working on mutual understanding and sparring with the world’s elite within their fields. Over the last 20 years, the number of annual scholarships awarded by Fulbright Denmark to Danes and Americans has varied between 25-50, and the advising numbers have varied from 4,000-8,000.
37
Fulbright alumni have served as heads of state or government
59
Fulbright alumni from 14 countries have been awarded the Nobel Price
72
Fulbright alumni are MacArthur Foundation Fellows
84
Fulbright alumni have received Pulitzer prices
Fulbright Denmark
To step up this work for the future and to make more of the strong brand name Fulbright, Fulbright Denmark has initiated direct cooperation with leaders from the corporate and academic worlds to focus on three areas: Space, Sustainability and Life Sciences. The areas have been chosen because both countries have much to offer but also to learn from one another within these fields – and they are all important fields for a better future.
Fulbright Denmark is a builder of relationships between knowledge institutions, students and scientists, and for corporates in Denmark and the USA. Fulbright Denmark opens up for opportunities beyond the financial support of the Scholarship recipients.
Fulbright Center
Besides the focus on the three main areas, the flagship program of Fulbright Denmark also keeps supporting American studies in Denmark; the arts; as well as other areas of special DK/U.S.A. interest. To be better capable of this, we have created the Fulbright Center, housed in Nørregade 7 A with Fulbright Denmark. Here we can invite in other grants with a U.S. focus aligning with Fulbright’s, like the prestigious Crown Prince Frederik Fund and the Thanks to Scandinavia grants for Danes, including the Victor Borge Music Scholarship. And here we can house our advising services for prospective Fulbright grantees at graduate level and above. The advising is free and top professional, the only place in Denmark with this focused knowledge about American university level education, and a way in which we can service many Danish students beyond the scholarships.
Like the Crown Prince Frederik Fund’s Scholarship is governed by the Harvard Kennedy School’s credo “Ask what you can do”, Fulbright Denmark, the flagship program, represents a unique opportunity to help shape the future and help young Danes and Americans reach their highest goals.
We must dare to think “unthinkable” thoughts. We must learn to explore all the options and possibilities that confront us in a complex and rapidly changing world. We must learn to welcome and not to fear the voices of dissent. We must dare to think about “unthinkable things” because when things become unthinkable, thinking stops and action becomes mindless.
— J. William Fulbright, Senate speech, 1964