Apple Scholars in AI/ML PhD Fellowship 2026

The Apple Scholars in AI/ML PhD fellowship program recognizes the contributions of emerging leaders in computer science and engineering at the graduate and postgraduate level. The PhD fellowship in AI/ML was created as part of the Apple Scholars program to support the work of outstanding PhD students from around the world, who are pursuing cutting edge research in machine learning and artificial intelligence. For more information, see here: Fellowship Finder – Apple PhD Fellowship in AI/ML

The program operates by invitation only, i.e., only select universities have been invited to participate. Students do not apply directly to Apple but instead must be nominated by their university. This means that students must be nominated by their department, and each department may submit up to three nominations to the university. Then, a campus review panel assembled by the Graduate College will select up to three finalists for consideration in the national competition.

The fellowship offers two years of support, which includes:

• Up to $40,000 annual stipend to assist with actual living expenses and related expenses.
• Full coverage of tuition and fees for 2 academic years.
• $5,000 travel grant each year to support research-related travel and associated expenses.
• Mentorship with an Apple researcher.

Eligibility:

• Applicants must be full-time doctoral students at the Siebel School that are pursuing research in one of the topical areas listed by Apple. This year’s research areas are: Privacy Preserving Machine Learning; Human Centered AI; AI for Ethics and Fairness; AI for Accessibility; AI for Health and Wellness; ML Theory; ML Algorithms and Architectures; Interactive ML and Agents; Speech and Natural Language; Computer Vision; Information Retrieval and Knowledge; Data-Centric AI.
• Applicants must plan to be enrolled full time at the nominating university at the start of Fall 2026, and expect to be enrolled through the end of the 2027/2028 academic year.
• Applicants must have either two or three years remaining in their graduate program as of Fall 2025. Students with less than two years, or more than three years, remaining in their graduate program at that time are not eligible.
• Students of any citizenship/nationality are eligible.
• Applicants may NOT be supported at the time of application or during the fellowship period by another industry-sponsored full fellowship.

Please note: Nomination packet materials should not contain confidential or proprietary research.

All formatting guidelines must be followed or the applicant will be disqualified.