Application Requirements
Please submit all three completed sections of your application as one combined PDF to fellowship@rdh.com:
1. Challenge Approach (750 word maximum)
The 2026 RDH Fellowship: Building Science Challenge explores how building science research can meaningfully address real-world challenges facing the built environment today. Applicants must select one theme and describe how their research interests could connect to, inform, or advance solutions within that area.
For 2026, we have identified the following theme options for the RDH Fellowship: Building Science Challenge.
- Building enclosure resilience and durability in the face of climate hazards (such as wildfires, flood, wind, hail, and other extreme events).
- Lowering embodied carbon and operational energy in building enclosures and materials.
- Prefabricated and modular building enclosures and materials, including implications for performance, constructability, and risk.
- New and innovative building materials, including emerging technologies and performance-driven material systems.
Using one of the above themes, describe how you would approach this challenge. What questions would you explore? What information, references, or methods might you draw from? What makes this topic compelling to you? How would your research help clarify, improve, or advance practical building science solutions in this area?
The Fellowship is designed to push research beyond academia and toward real-world industry impact. Your response should show how funding would advance a meaningful solution within your selected theme. We want to see how you navigate ambiguity, define scope, and connect curiosity to building science practice.
2. Technical Artifact (1 example, 2 page maximum)
Submit one example that demonstrates how you frame complex technical or spatial problems and communicate your thinking clearly. This does not need to relate directly to the Challenge theme.
Visual submissions may include:
- Diagram or sketch
- Analytical graphic
- Excerpt from a class project
- Conceptual model or annotated drawing
3. Personal Statement (300 word maximum)
Respond to the prompt: Why are you interested in the RDH Fellowship, and what do you hope to gain from participating?
Eligibility
Applicants must:
- Be enrolled full-time in an undergraduate, master’s, or doctoral program at an accredited post-secondary institution in Canada or the United States.
- Be pursuing studies in building science or a closely related discipline, such as engineering, architecture, energy performance, sustainability, or building enclosure design.
How Fellows Are Selected
The application process is designed to evaluate how applicants think, not the completeness of a finished technical solution.
We look for evidence of:
- Practical, real-world application potential
- Problem framing
- Curiosity and judgment
- Clarity of communication
- Follow-through potential
The application submission is not looking for:
- Fully resolved technical solutions
- Completed or finalized research outcomes
Mentorship & Independent Research
Fellows may use the award to support their own independent graduate research or exploratory work related to building science. Throughout the Fellowship, RDH offers mentorship through optional check-ins and review conversations focused on goal alignment, problem framing, and translating research thinking to real-world practice. RDH mentors serve as thought partners rather than research supervisors, and Fellows retain full independence over the direction, methods, and outcomes of their work.
The Fellowship culminates in a final presentation to RDH mentors, where Fellows share their research journey, key insights, and reflections on how their work connects to broader building science practice.
Fellowship awards are tiered to recognize varying levels of achievement:
- Gold ($5,000)
- Silver ($3,000)
- Merit ($2,000)
Awards are granted based on merit. RDH reserves the right to adjust the number and value of awards in any given year.
Important Dates and Deadlines
Call for Submissions Opens
February 23, 2026
Application Deadline
May 31, 2026
Fellow Notification & Award Distribution
June 2026
Questions? Contact fellowship@rdh.com