Scholarships for Women in STEM 2026 — Fully Funded List

Women remain underrepresented in science, technology, engineering and mathematics — in senior research roles especially. The good news is that a small number of serious, well-funded programmes exist specifically to change that, and several of them are open right now to women from Bangladesh, India, Pakistan, Nepal, Nigeria, Indonesia and other developing and emerging economies. This guide lists only real, verifiable programmes, checked against their operators’ official pages in October 2026. Where a programme is an award for researchers rather than a degree scholarship, we say so plainly. Where a famous programme has changed its rules — and one major one has, significantly — we explain exactly what changed, because applying under last year’s rules is one of the most common ways strong candidates waste a cycle.

One honesty note before the list: the phrase “fully funded” in this article’s title reflects what applicants search for, not what every programme below delivers. Some of these awards cover a full degree’s costs when combined with a university package; others are substantial grants — USD 20,000 to USD 50,000 — that form one part of a funding plan. We label each programme’s real value and what it does and does not cover, so you can build a realistic budget. For a wider search, start with the StudyGraduate scholarship directory and compare destinations in the university directory.

At a Glance: Women in STEM Funding Compared

1. AAUW International Fellowships — Now STEM-Only

The AAUW International Fellowships, run by the American Association of University Women since 1917, are the best-known women-only graduate fellowships for study in the United States. The programme supports women who are not US citizens or permanent residents, and it has funded more than 3,600 women from over 150 countries.

The critical change you must know: for the current cycle, AAUW has limited the International Fellowships to STEM disciplines. Earlier editions of this fellowship — and hundreds of older web pages still circulating — describe it as open to all fields. That is no longer the case. For the 2027–28 fellowship year, applications opened on 17 August 2026 and closed on 17 September 2026 (5:00 pm US Eastern), and eligible programmes are formally classified STEM degrees: fields listed by AAUW include agriculture, architecture, biology, chemistry, earth and environmental sciences, engineering, geology, health and medicine, mathematics and statistics, materials science and physics, psychology and psychiatry, technology, data and computer science, and zoology. Eligibility is judged by the classification of your degree programme, not just your research topic, so check your programme against AAUW’s STEM list before assuming you qualify.

Value. The stipend is USD 20,000 for a master’s or first professional degree and USD 25,000 for a doctorate, paid in two equal instalments at the start and midpoint of the fellowship year. Older sources also quote USD 50,000 for postdoctoral research; if you are a postdoctoral applicant, confirm the current postdoc terms on the official page, because the current cycle’s published stipend summary emphasises the master’s and doctoral awards. Treat AAUW as a major contribution, not full funding: US tuition alone can exceed the stipend, so most fellows combine it with a university assistantship or tuition waiver.

Eligibility in brief. You must be or identify as a woman; hold a degree equivalent to a US bachelor’s with a minimum cumulative GPA of 3.5 on a 4.0 scale for your highest degree; be admitted to or enrolled in your first master’s or an academic or professional doctorate at an institution accredited by the US Department of Education; begin your programme on or before 15 September 2027 and complete it on or after 30 April 2028 for the 2027–28 cycle; and study full-time while residing in the US or your research country. A limited number of awards support Graduate Women International members studying outside both their home country and the US. AAUW gives preference to applicants who show a prior commitment to advancing women and girls and who intend to apply their expertise in their home country or community.

2. Schlumberger Foundation Faculty for the Future

The Faculty for the Future programme, funded by the Schlumberger Foundation, is arguably the most generous women-only STEM fellowship in the world — and one of the most specific. It funds women from developing and emerging economies for PhD or postdoctoral research in STEM at a recognised university or research institute abroad. It does not fund master’s degrees at all; if you are looking for master’s funding, skip to sections 5 and 6 of this guide instead.

Value. Grants are awarded on the basis of an itemised budget, up to USD 50,000 per year for PhD study and up to USD 40,000 per year for postdoctoral research, and they can be renewed subject to academic progress and references — renewal is not automatic. The University of York’s official funding page confirms the up-to-USD 50,000 per year figure and the 2027/28 cycle dates.

Dates. Applications for the 2027–2028 fellowships opened on 1 September 2026 and close on 7 November 2026 (the York page specifies 6:00 pm GMT). This is one of the nearest real deadlines in this guide, so if you are eligible, this application deserves your immediate attention.

Eligibility in brief. You must be a female citizen of an eligible developing or emerging economy country (the Foundation publishes the eligible-country list each cycle; dual citizenship with a developed country generally disqualifies), hold an excellent academic record, and have applied to, been admitted to, or be enrolled at a host institution abroad. Uniquely, the programme looks for a teaching track record in your home country and a credible plan to return — to academia, STEM entrepreneurship or public policy — plus evidence of outreach encouraging young women into science. Fellows are expected to return home on completion and contribute to socio-economic development there. If returning home is not your plan, be honest with yourself: this programme is designed around return, and applications are read with that lens.

3. OWSD Fellowships — For Women Scientists in the Developing World

The Organization for Women in Science for the Developing World (OWSD), a UNESCO programme based in Trieste, runs two fellowship routes that matter for readers of this guide. OWSD’s eligible-country list — the Science and Technology Lagging Countries, or STLCs — includes Bangladesh, Nepal and many African and Asian nations; check the current list on OWSD’s official site coverage and its fellowships pages, because eligibility turns on that list.

OWSD PhD Fellowship. This fellowship supports women from STLCs to complete a PhD in a STEM field at a host institute in another developing country — South–South mobility is the deliberate design. It is a research-costs fellowship rather than a salary: it covers items such as research equipment and consumables, travel and selected living-support lines as defined in the current call. Because the budget lines and call timing change between editions, download the current call document from OWSD before budgeting, and do not rely on figures quoted in older blog posts.

OWSD Early Career Fellowship. If you already hold a STEM PhD and are employed at a university or research institute in an STLC, the Early Career Fellowship offers up to USD 50,000 to lead a research project at your home institution, build an internationally credible research environment, and develop leadership and partnership skills. Your institution must guarantee your salary for the fellowship duration — the fellowship does not pay it — and must waive overheads on the grant. Applicants must show at least five years’ residence in an STLC (not necessarily consecutive). Bangladesh appears on the OWSD eligible-country list, which makes both OWSD routes directly relevant to many StudyGraduate readers.

4. L’Oréal-UNESCO For Women in Science — Described Accurately

The L’Oréal-UNESCO For Women in Science programme, running since 1998 across more than 110 national and regional programmes, is frequently mislabelled in scholarship lists as a study-abroad scholarship. It is not one. It is primarily a system of fellowships and awards for women who are already researchers — typically at PhD or postdoctoral stage — recognising and funding research, usually carried out in the scientist’s own country or region. National programmes set their own amounts, age limits and deadlines; for example, the Dutch programme offers fellowships for a five-month research residency at NIAS-KNAW in Amsterdam for women researchers with 3–10 years of post-PhD experience holding a position at a Dutch institution, with the next call expected in January 2027 according to NIAS.

Why include it in a scholarships guide? Because if you are a woman in STEM planning a research career, this programme belongs on your medium-term map: win your degree funding first (sections 1, 2, 3, 5 and 6), then target your national For Women in Science call as a PhD candidate or postdoc. Check the programme portal at forwomeninscience.com for your country’s call and rules — amounts genuinely differ by country, so we deliberately quote none here.

5. Programmes That Ended or Changed — Do Not Apply on Old Information

Google’s women-in-technology scholarships. The programme many readers remember as the Anita Borg Memorial Scholarship continued for some years as the Google Women Techmakers Scholars Program. Google has not run a current open cycle of that named scholarship that we could verify on an official page at the time of writing, so we do not list application dates for it. If you find a page advertising it with a 2026 deadline, verify on Google’s own student scholarships page before spending time on it — third-party listings for this programme are frequently years out of date.

AAUW’s scope change (section 1) is the other trap: non-STEM applicants who prepared under the old rules are no longer eligible. And a general warning that applies across this whole guide: any “women in STEM scholarship” with no identifiable operating organisation, no official domain and an application fee is not a scholarship — it is a scam pattern. Every programme in this article can be traced to its operator’s own website, listed in Sources & Verification below.

6. Open-to-All STEM Funding Where Women Win in Large Numbers

Women-only programmes are few and competitive. Your realistic funding plan should also include the big open STEM schemes, where women form a large share of recipients and where several packages are genuinely fully funded:

• Erasmus Mundus Joint Masters — full scholarships (tuition participation costs plus a monthly allowance) for joint master’s degrees studied in at least two European countries; open to all nationalities and all genders, with STEM catalogues every year. See our Erasmus Mundus guide.
• DAAD EPOS (Germany) — for professionals from developing countries on development-related master’s and PhD courses; the verified current rate is €992 per month for master’s study and €1,300 per month for doctoral study, rising to €1,400 from February 2026. See our DAAD scholarship guide and note strong German STEM hosts such as TU Berlin and TU Darmstadt.
• Australia Awards — the Australian Government’s flagship full scholarships for partner countries, covering tuition, living allowance, establishment costs and airfares for undergraduate, master’s and PhD study. See our Australia Awards guide and STEM-strong hosts such as the University of Melbourne and UNSW Sydney.
• Commonwealth Scholarships (UK) — funded by the UK Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office for candidates from eligible Commonwealth countries, covering airfare, tuition and a monthly stipend for master’s and PhD study. See our Commonwealth Scholarship guide.
• Fulbright Foreign Student Program (USA) — country-administered, typically covering tuition, living stipend, airfare and health insurance for graduate study; women are strongly represented. See our Fulbright guide.

Use the world university rankings to shortlist hosts whose laboratories and supervisors fit your research direction — funders fund a plan, not just a person.

Eligibility: The Patterns That Decide These Awards

Across the women-only programmes, five filters decide most applications before merit is even read. First, citizenship and residence: AAUW excludes US citizens and permanent residents; Faculty for the Future requires citizenship of an eligible developing or emerging economy and generally excludes dual citizens of developed countries; OWSD turns on STLC residence. Second, stage: Faculty for the Future is PhD/postdoc only; AAUW’s current cycle is for a first master’s or a doctorate in a classified STEM programme; OWSD Early Career requires a completed PhD plus institutional employment. Third, academic record: AAUW states a 3.5/4.0 minimum GPA explicitly; Faculty for the Future expects an excellent record without publishing a single cut-off. Fourth, host admission: all of these programmes expect you to have applied to, been admitted to, or be enrolled at the host institution — none of them finds you a university place. Fifth, mission fit: commitment to women and girls (AAUW), return-and-teach plans (Faculty for the Future), and institution-building at home (OWSD) are scored criteria, not decoration. Evidence yours with specifics: mentoring, teaching, outreach, community projects.

How to Apply: Step by Step

1. Build your shortlist by stage, not by fame. Master’s applicants: AAUW (next cycle) plus the open schemes in section 6. PhD and postdoc applicants: Faculty for the Future, OWSD and AAUW.
2. Secure the host place first. Apply to the university or institute and keep the admission letter or application acknowledgement; every programme above asks for it.
3. Read the current-cycle rules on the operator’s site. Download the official guidelines PDF; note the eligible-country list, the budget caps and the exact deadline time zone.
4. Prepare an itemised budget. Faculty for the Future and OWSD assess budgets line by line; vague totals score badly. Separate tuition, living, travel, equipment and childcare lines where the form allows.
5. Write the mission-fit statement with evidence. Name the girls you mentored, the classes you taught, the outreach you ran — with dates and numbers you can defend.
6. Choose referees who know your research and your teaching. Brief them on the programme’s stated priorities so their letters address them.
7. Submit early through the official portal only. None of these programmes charges an application fee; any site asking you to pay to apply is not the operator.
8. Keep proof of submission and monitor the stated notification window. AAUW’s cycle, for example, notifies in April following a September close — plan your university deferral options accordingly.

Required Documents

• Passport or national ID showing citizenship (and, for Faculty for the Future, evidence you do not hold developed-country dual citizenship, if asked).
• Degree certificates and full transcripts, with certified English translations where required; AAUW requires the bachelor’s equivalence and GPA evidence.
• Admission letter, enrolment proof, or application acknowledgement from the host institution.
• Research proposal or study plan naming your field’s STEM classification where the programme requires it.
• Itemised budget in the programme’s format.
• CV covering research, teaching and outreach — not employment alone.
• Two or three recommendation letters, as specified in the current call.
• Proof of employment and salary guarantee (OWSD Early Career) or teaching record (Faculty for the Future), where the programme requires it.

Deadlines and Timeline

Tips to Strengthen Your Application

Apply to more than one programme: the women-only awards are small cohorts, and the same research proposal — properly retargeted — can serve AAUW, Faculty for the Future and an open scheme in one season. Quantify your outreach: “mentored 40 schoolgirls in a coding club for two years” beats three paragraphs of general commitment. If your GPA is below AAUW’s 3.5 floor, do not round it up — apply instead where no floor is published and let research output carry the case. For Faculty for the Future, make the return plan concrete: name the institution, the courses you would teach, and the laboratory or programme you would build. Finally, treat the budget as an academic document: every line should map to a real cost you can evidence.

Common Mistakes

• Applying to Faculty for the Future for a master’s degree — it funds PhD and postdoctoral research only.
• Applying to AAUW in a non-STEM field under the current STEM-only rules, or missing its explicit 3.5 GPA requirement.
• Describing L’Oréal-UNESCO as a degree scholarship in your study plan — selectors notice, and it signals you have not read the programme.
• Budgeting from old blog figures instead of the current official call (amounts and country lists change between editions).
• Hiding a plan not to return home from a programme — Faculty for the Future — whose entire design is return and institution-building.
• Paying an “agent” or a lookalike website to submit; all programmes here accept free applications only through their official portals.

FAQs

Are these scholarships really fully funded?

Some are, some are not, and this guide labels each one honestly. Faculty for the Future grants of up to USD 50,000 per year can cover a PhD’s full costs at many universities, especially combined with a tuition waiver. AAUW’s USD 20,000–25,000 is a substantial stipend but rarely covers full US costs alone — pair it with an assistantship or waiver. Erasmus Mundus, Australia Awards and Commonwealth packages are designed as full funding. Always build a budget that shows total cost against total confirmed funding before you accept a place.

I want a master’s degree. Which women-only option fits me?

AAUW is the main women-only master’s route in this list, and its current cycle requires a formally classified STEM programme at a US institution plus a 3.5 GPA. Faculty for the Future and both OWSD fellowships do not fund master’s study. In practice, most women funding a STEM master’s combine an open scheme — Erasmus Mundus, DAAD EPOS, Australia Awards or Commonwealth — with university scholarships, which is why section 6 matters as much as the women-only list.

Can women from Bangladesh apply to these programmes?

Yes, to several. Bangladesh is on OWSD’s Science and Technology Lagging Countries list, making Bangladeshi women scientists eligible for OWSD routes subject to the residence rules. Bangladeshi citizens are eligible for AAUW if they meet the academic criteria, and for Faculty for the Future if Bangladesh is on the Foundation’s current eligible-country list — confirm that list in the live call, because it is republished each cycle.

Does AAUW still fund non-STEM fields?

Not in the current cycle. The 2027–28 International Fellowships are limited to STEM disciplines, judged by your degree programme’s formal classification. Older pages describing an all-fields fellowship are out of date. If your field is outside AAUW’s STEM list, look at the open schemes in section 6 and at our general scholarship guides.

What happened to the Google Anita Borg / Women Techmakers scholarship?

The programme ran under the Anita Borg name and later as Women Techmakers Scholars. We could not verify a current open cycle on an official Google page at the time of writing, so this guide lists no dates for it. Treat any third-party page advertising a 2026 deadline for it with caution and verify on Google’s own scholarships pages.

Is L’Oréal-UNESCO a scholarship I can use to study abroad?

Generally, no. For Women in Science is primarily a fellowship and awards system for women already working as researchers, usually in their own country or region, with each national programme setting its own rules. A small number of national editions fund research visits or residencies — the Dutch edition funds a residency at NIAS for researchers already holding a Dutch position — but it is not a route to a funded degree abroad.

Do I need an admission offer before applying?

For practical purposes, yes. AAUW requires you to be admitted or enrolled, or at minimum to have applied with the institution named; Faculty for the Future requires that you have applied to, been admitted to, or be enrolled at the host institute; OWSD Early Career requires proof of employment at the host institute. None of these programmes secures a university place for you, so run your university and funding applications in parallel.

Can I hold one of these awards together with another scholarship?

It depends on the programme’s rules on concurrent funding, and you must declare other awards where the form asks. AAUW fellows commonly combine the stipend with university assistantships, but some funders prohibit double-funding of the same cost lines. Read the current guidelines and, if in doubt, ask the programme office in writing before accepting two awards.

Sources & Verification

• AAUW — International Fellowships official programme page (aauw.org): cycle dates 17 August – 17 September 2026, STEM-only scope, stipends of USD 20,000 (master’s) and USD 25,000 (doctorate), 3.5 GPA requirement, first-degree and accredited-institution rules.
• University of York — Schlumberger Foundation Faculty for the Future funding page (york.ac.uk): up to USD 50,000 per year, 2027/28 cycle, closing 7 November 2026, 6:00 pm GMT, women from developing and emerging economies, PhD and postdoctoral research.
• Schlumberger Foundation — Faculty for the Future programme materials via official partner announcements: applications 1 September – 7 November 2026; up to USD 40,000 per year for postdoctoral research; return-home and teaching expectations.
• OWSD — official site and 2026 award announcements (owsd.net): Early Career Fellowship up to USD 50,000, STLC eligibility and eligible-country list including Bangladesh, PhD fellowship for study in another developing country.
• NIAS-KNAW — L’Oréal-UNESCO For Women in Science Fellowship page (nias.knaw.nl): Dutch programme terms, 3–10 years post-PhD, next call expected January 2027.
• L’Oréal-UNESCO For Women in Science — programme portal (forwomeninscience.com) and national rules documents: national programmes set their own amounts and deadlines.

Disclaimer: StudyGraduate is an information portal, not an agency. Scholarship amounts, eligible-country lists and deadlines change every cycle — always confirm the details on the official programme website before applying. Nothing in this article promises or implies selection, admission or visa approval; those decisions rest solely with the funders, universities and immigration authorities.