Side Project Funding
OPTIONAL FOR MASTER'S CANDIDATES
PLEASE NOTE: The Community Side Project is a grantee-led initiative. Your Main Contacts are here to clarify any questions about funding guidelines, but are NOT Academic Advisors who can assist with the planning, executing, or providing of support to help tailor the project to your personal academic and professional goals.
PROJECT ALLOWANCE
All Teaching Assistants and Master’s Candidates receive a 500€ project allowance. The project allowance may only be used for approved expenses and all grantees must submit receipts to the Commission to justify any amount spent. Please refer to the sections below for more information on eligible language classes and eligible project allowance expenses depending on your Grant Program.
SIDE PROJECTS:
TA & Master's Candidates Key Deadlines
Finalize your Side Project Goals & Plan
Deadline: Project Proposal & Language Classes
Deadline to begin language classes
Review folder and submit progresss report
Funding Request Deadline
Receipt Deadline
Finalize your Side Project Goals & Plan
- This is a great time to familiarize yourself with your Host City, your Host Institution, your schedule and daily commute and consider how feasible the Side Project you proposed over a year ago (when you prepared your application) really is.
- You may encounter a previously unknown aspect of your Host Community that inspires a completely new idea, or decide that your original idea is the one that makes the most sense for your placement.
- Submit a Language Class Request Form is to confirm with the Commission if you plan to take language classes (Spanish or the co-official language of your region) and the expected costs. Note: Grantees may spend a maximum of 250€ of the project funds on language classes. Classes must begin no later than February 1, 2026. Receipts uploaded after this date cannot be reimbursed.
Deadline: Project Proposal & Language Classes
Deadline for the Side Project Proposal Form and the Language Classes Request Form.
- Your Side Project Proposal Form should include a fully developed plan for your side project, with a clear element of cultural exchange, as well as a full budget (if applicable).
- You must fill out the the Project Funding Request Form if you plan to use project allowance funds to develop/initiate your side project. Funding requests take some time for our Finance Department to process, but once the APPROVED request appears in your Google Folder you are free to make your purchase and upload the required receipt.
- Your Main Contact will email you if the Funding Request is DENIED
- Reimbursements will be added to your next or final stipend payment. If your receipts add up to over €100, email your Main Contact if you would like reimbursement sooner.
Deadline to begin language classes
Deadline to begin language classes. The Language Class Request Form closes.
No receipts uploaded for language classes after this date will be reimbursed.
Review folder and submit progresss report
Grantees are asked to upload all receipts to date and input all expenses in your individual Google Drive receipts folder.
- Side Project Progress Report deadline and reminder for all grantees to upload all receipts to date.
- Note: By this date, if you do not foresee using any funds for your side project and/or language classes throughout the entirety of the grant, please inform your Main Contact at the Commission by email.
Please keep in mind that, once you report that you do not foresee using any of your project allowance, no further funds from your project allowance will be issued for the rest of the grant; no exceptions will be made.
Funding Request Deadline
No further Funding Requests will be accepted, as such requests cannot be processed in time by our Finance Department for the final receipt deadline.
Receipt Deadline
Important: ALL REMAINING RECEIPTS MUST be uploaded by May 10th for final payment on June 2nd. No reimbursements will be made in the following cases:
- You have not uploaded all of the receipts for your approved expenses to your personal Google Drive folder, or
- The receipts you uploaded do not meet the appropriate guidelines, or
- You never submitted a Funding Request form for the receipts you uploaded
PROJECT PROPOSAL GUIDELINES
Project Guidelines
- The project must have a clear intercultural component (intercultural exchange between the U.S. and Spain).
- You should have an active role in the project. If your side project is volunteering, you should have an active role in the organization that you are volunteering with.
- There should be clear objectives and an end goal with a final product. The final product should be something in a format that can be shared with others, including, but not limited to, future Fulbright grantees, the U.S. Embassy in Madrid, regional governments, other Fulbright Commissions, etc.
- The project you choose has to be something new. For example, if you are already volunteering virtually with an organization, you should not count your continued collaboration with this organization as your Side Project.
- At the end of the grant, you will be required to submit reflections on objectives carried out and describe how U.S./Spain cross-cultural exchange was achieved.
- If you choose to carry out your side project at your Host Institution, your project should not be something that is already included in your responsibilities at a TA as your school or something that is already part of the school’s English curriculum. Even if it is related to teaching English to students at school, it should be an initiative developed by the grantee and not by the school, although the school has to approve of the project.
- Your project must be carried out outside of normal hours of your assigned schedule at your Host Institution.
Receipt Guidelines
- Receipts should be saved: Last name, First name_brief expense description_Amount and currency. Examples:
- Karatas, Janna_Gloves community garden_12,47 USD
- Ibañez, Leticia_Gallego classes_250 euros
- Cusack, Meg_Conference travel_112,39 euros
- Receipts should have a CIF or NIF (Official Tax number). It is usually near the top of the receipt under the business’s name.
- Receipts should be itemized. Receipts that do not list the specific items purchased will not be accepted. If an itemized receipt is impossible to procure, please reach out to your main contact at the Commission for further guidance.
- Receiving reimbursement.
- Reimbursements will be added to your next or final stipend payment. If your receipts add up to over €100, email your Main Contact if you would like reimbursement sooner.
Reminder: To keep track of all stipend payments and reimbursements issued to you by the Fulbright Commission, check the “Bank and Payment” tab on the Fulbright.es Portal. Please address any specific questions to your main contact at the Commission.
PLEASE NOTE:
PERSONAL ENRICHMENT: Classes, activities, and other pursuits that serve the grantee unidirectionally (joining a sports team, dance class, observing teaching methodology in Spain and the U.S.) are considered for personal enrichment and are not admissible as a side project. There must be an active role in coaching, advising, or producing a deliverable such as a research paper or final event.
step 1
SUBMIT REQUEST TO USE FUNDS
STEP 2
APPROVED REQUESTS APPEAR IN YOUR GOOGLE FOLDER
STEP 3
UPLOAD RECEIPT FOR APPROVED EXPENSE
ACCESSING PROJECT FUNDS
Language fUNDING gUIDELINES
- Grantees may use up to 250€ of their 500€ project allowance on Spanish classes or classes in the regional language of the city in which you are living (Catalan, Galician, etc.,).
- When available, a list of language academies recommended by past grantees has been included in each city guide, and a quick Google search will bring up a list of language academies in your host city.
- The Project Allowance was approved by participating Sponsors and Regional Governments under the condition that the funding used is funneled back into the local community. This is why language classes must be taken at a local place of business in the Host Community, and not online or by a freelancer.
TIP: Past grantees recommend the group classes at local Escuelas Oficiales de Idiomas for both Spanish and regional languages. If you are interested in this option, you may need to sign up for these classes as soon as you have arrived in September.
- Language classes must be started by February 1, 2026 and must be taken at an academy, not privately with a tutor (clases particulares). Submit your language classes funding request via the Google Form below. Once you receive approval, upload your receipt(s) to your individual Google Drive folder.
If you are looking for something more informal, check out local language meet-ups (intercambios).
DELE Exam
The 250€ from the project allowance eligible for use for language classes cannot be used to cover DELE/SIELE exam costs.
For more information, please visit the Instituto Cervantes’ website or write to their informational email address directly: infodele@cervantes.es.
SIDE pROJECT FUNDING GUIDELINES
- Project funds (up to 500€) can only be used towards one side project, although grantees are free to participate/be involved in as many projects as they want.
- Food and drink purchases are not eligible for reimbursement unless the sole focus of the project is nutrition.
- Hardware/technology expenses are generally not eligible for reimbursement.
- Expenses cannot be used to pay third parties for their collaboration. The project must be grantee-led and external organization’ participation must be on a volunteer basis. Project funds cannot be donated to the organization with which you are volunteering.
- Expenses must be directly related to the project and essential for the success of the project. You must describe exactly why expenses are essential and how they will be incorporated into the project.
- We cannot cover transportation (rented car, buses) that transports students or other community members due to liability reasons.
Closes February 1st
Closes 30th April
SIDE PROJECT LIBRARY
The Project Allowance was approved by participating Sponsors and Regional Governments under the condition that the funding used is funneled back into the local community. That is why all project proposals and expense receipts must be thoroughly justified. See above the guidelines for submitting a funding request.
Check out our Side Project Library below to see how fellow Fulbrighters have used their funding to make and impact in their Host Community.