Though concerned primarily with the Catholic intellectual heritage, the Institute will support complementary research deriving from other Christian intellectual traditions as well as from Jewish and Islamic ones. It invites the participation of scholars without regard to religious belief. Fellowships are tenable for a semester or a full academic year, and fellows are expected to remain in residence for the entire time. Although fellows will spend the great majority of their time on their own scholarship, each fellow is expected to attend, and to give one presentation to, the Institute's weekly seminar. The Institute provides each fellow with office space, a telephone, access to the Notre Dame computer network, and limited photocopying and fax facilities, as well as the usual perquisites pertaining to faculty such as library and recreational privileges.
Fellowships are both stipendiary and non-stipendiary.
If applicants bring their own funding in the form of sabbatical pay or an outside fellowships, the Institute will attempt to supplement that funding in order to match the fellow's income with his or her current salary.