2025-2026 Fiddler Innovation Fellowship

The Fiddler Innovation Fellowship honors University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign undergraduate and graduate students for excellence in addressing cultural, societal, or global challenges with innovative solutions that incorporate the interdisciplinary areas of creativity, art or design, and technology. The innovative solution must have the potential for making a significant impact. The recipient will receive an award of* $10,000* in the form of direct deposit to the student’s University account, and a trophy. The Fiddler Innovation Fellowship is awarded by the Emerging Digital Research and Education in Arts Media (eDream) Institute, which is endowed by Jerry Fiddler and Melissa Alden. eDream is based at the National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA).

Eligibility
Students who are registered as full-time, on-campus students during the 2025-2026 academic year at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign are eligible.

Evaluation Criteria
Special achievement in interdisciplinary innovation (which incorporates creativity, art or design, and technology) that addresses cultural, societal, or global challenges in the past two years.

Nomination Requirements
Note: University units, faculty members, mentors, and advisors may nominate. Mentors do not have to be employed by the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. Students may not nominate.

Submission
Each unit is limited to two nominations. The same student may not be nominated for both awards.

Selection
A limited number of finalists will be chosen by the Fiddler Innovation Fellowship Committee. The finalists will be notified by email and will be announced prior to the Awards Ceremony. One recipient will be chosen from among the finalists, and will be announced at the Awards Ceremony in Spring 2026.

For more information see the TEC website: https://tec.illinois.edu/programs/iip