“Apple PhD Fellowship” most often refers to Apple Scholars in AI/ML, Apple’s institutionally-nominated PhD fellowship for doctoral students doing research in artificial intelligence and machine learning. It is a real, currently active, privately funded program — not a federal or research-council mechanism — and it works differently from most funding a research office encounters: students cannot apply to Apple directly, and only students at institutions Apple has invited to participate can be considered. This guide covers who runs the program, how nomination actually works, what the award funds, and how it compares to other named PhD/postdoctoral fellowships already covered in this cluster.
What the program is
Apple Scholars in AI/ML is administered directly by Apple’s Machine Learning Research group, not by an outside foundation or trust. Per Apple’s own program announcements, it recognizes PhD students doing research across a defined set of AI/ML topic areas — for the 2026 cohort these included 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, and Data-Centric AI. As of the 2026 announcement, the program was in its seventh year and had supported more than 120 scholars in computer science and engineering at the graduate and postgraduate level.
The fellowship package has three components, per Apple: PhD funding, mentorship from an Apple researcher, and an internship opportunity. Multiple university graduate-school and research-office pages that publicize the program to their own students describe the funding component as covering full tuition and fees for two academic years, plus a living-expense stipend (reported by several participating universities as up to $40,000 per year) and $5,000 per year for research-related travel. Because Apple does not publish a single canonical dollar figure on its own announcement pages in the same terms every year, treat the exact stipend figure as approximate and confirm the current-cycle amount against the nominating university’s own posting or Apple’s current-year announcement before advising an applicant.
How nomination works
This is the detail that matters most for a research administrator: students do not apply to Apple directly. Apple invites a set of partner institutions to participate each cycle, and each invited institution runs its own internal nomination process to select which of its own PhD students it puts forward — Apple then makes final selections from the pool of university-nominated candidates. This is the same structural pattern as a federal limited-submission competition (where a funder caps the number of nominees per institution and the institution runs an internal competition to choose them), even though Apple’s program is privately funded and outside any federal mechanism.
Practically, this means:
- A student’s eligibility depends first on whether their own institution has been invited to participate that cycle — not every PhD-granting institution is included every year.
- The internal nomination deadline set by the university is typically earlier, sometimes by weeks, than any date Apple itself publishes, since the university needs time to run its own review before submitting nominees.
- Research offices, graduate schools, or specific departments (frequently computer science or electrical/computer engineering) are usually the office of record for the internal call — the exact office varies by institution, so this is worth confirming locally rather than assuming a single university-wide process.
- Because Apple sets the applicant-eligibility window (for example, requiring a specific number of years remaining in the PhD program as of a given fall term), an institution’s internal nomination process typically mirrors those same eligibility bounds rather than setting its own.
Eligibility, in Apple’s own terms
Per Apple’s program materials and the eligibility guidance participating universities relay to their own students, applicants must be full-time PhD students pursuing research in one of the program’s designated AI/ML topic areas, must be enrolled full-time at a nominating (invited) institution, and must have a defined number of years remaining in their doctoral program as of the relevant fall term — recent cycles have specified two or three years remaining. Because both the eligible topic list and the exact remaining-years window are set fresh each cycle, don’t treat a prior year’s eligibility rules as binding for the current one; confirm against the current-year announcement.
How it compares to other named PhD/postdoc fellowships
Apple Scholars in AI/ML sits in the same general category as other privately or corporately funded, institutionally-nominated fellowships covered elsewhere in this cluster — for example the Schmidt Science Fellowship, which is philanthropically funded through Schmidt Futures and the Rhodes Trust. Both share the defining structural feature of nomination-based rather than direct-apply access, and both sit outside NIH’s F-series and K-series mechanisms and outside UKRI/Marie Skłodowska-Curie structures covered under NIH Fellowships (F30/F31/F32/F33). The practical difference for a research office is discipline and scope: Apple’s program is narrowly scoped to AI/ML research areas relevant to Apple’s own product and research priorities, where federal training mechanisms and broader philanthropic fellowships are typically discipline-agnostic or cover a wider scientific scope.
As with any externally, non-federally funded award, institutions should apply their standard handling for outside funding — effort reporting, outside-activity and conflict-of-interest disclosure, and any intellectual-property terms specific to Apple’s award agreement — rather than assuming it maps onto federal training-grant compliance categories.
Frequently asked questions
Can a PhD student apply to the Apple Fellowship directly?
No. Apple Scholars in AI/ML is a nomination-only program. Students cannot submit an application straight to Apple; their institution must be one of the institutions Apple has invited to participate that cycle, and the institution runs its own internal process to select which students it nominates.
Is the Apple PhD Fellowship the same every year?
The program has run annually for several years (in its seventh year as of the 2026 cohort, per Apple), but the list of eligible AI/ML research topics, the remaining-years eligibility window, and the list of invited institutions are all set fresh each cycle. Always confirm current-cycle terms against Apple’s own current-year announcement or your institution’s internal call, rather than relying on a prior year’s terms.
What does the fellowship actually fund?
Per Apple’s program description, it funds PhD support (commonly reported by participating universities as tuition/fees plus a living-expense stipend) for two academic years, plus a separate annual allowance for research-related travel, along with non-monetary components: mentorship from an Apple researcher and an internship opportunity.
Who at my institution handles the nomination process?
This varies by institution — it may sit with the graduate school, the research office, or a specific department (most often computer science or a closely related engineering department). Because Apple issues invitations to specific institutions rather than opening the program universally, confirm first whether your institution is currently an invited participant before looking for an internal nomination contact.
