The Ford Foundation International Fellowships Program for in Brazil, in operation in 2002 through 2009, conducted eight rounds of selection for graduate scholarships, which allowed awardees to attain master's and doctoral degrees in the areas of their choice. The Carlos Chagas Foundation, a private nonprofit organization, founded in 1964 and dedicated to the assessment of cognitive and professional skills and research in education, was selected to run the program as an international partner. The IFP Brazil Office was headed by Fulvia Rosemberg, a researcher in the Department of Educational Research of the Carlos Chagas Foundation. The IFP program in Brazil had some distinctive features stemming from its context of intense ongoing national debate over affirmative action in higher education. The IFP program was presented as an affirmative action program, to the extent that it targeted people generally underrepresented in graduate schools. The goal of the program was to provide preferential treatment to certain social groups that, due to the social structure of the country, normally had the least possibility of access, retention and success in postgraduate education. Each year, IFP offered about 40 scholarships for master’s degree (24 months) and doctorate (up to 36 months) degrees to the social groups which, according to National Household Survey of 2003, had the worst indicators of access to postgraduate education,. Another characteristic of the IFP program in Brazil was its attempt to balance the respect for local practices with the international rules governing the program. The program in Brazil graduated 306 IFP Fellows by the time the office was closed in 2013.

Digital materials were received in August 2013 and comprised 2.71 GB of office files, images, presentations, and publications. The paper materials were received in two installments; the first and largest shipment (16.25 linear feet) was received in August 2012, and the other (1.25 linear feet) - in May 2013. As part of the IFP archiving program, the IFP Brazil website (known as Programa Bolsa) was harvested semiannually starting in 2012 and until late 2013. 270 Brazilian Fellows gave their consent to open most of their files to researchers in the Reading Room. The documents are in English and Portuguese.