The National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship Program (GRFP) is now accepting applications.

This GRFP helps to ensure the vitality of the human resource base of science and engineering in the United States and reinforces its diversity. The program recognizes and supports outstanding graduate students in NSF-supported science, technology, engineering, and mathematics disciplines who are pursuing research-based master’s and doctoral degrees at accredited U.S. institutions. The NSF welcomes applications from all qualified students and strongly encourages under-represented populations, including women, under-represented racial and ethnic minorities, and persons with disabilities, to apply for this fellowship.

Fellows share in the prestige and opportunities that become available when they are selected. Fellows benefit from a three-year annual stipend of $32,000 along with a $12,000 cost of education allowance for tuition and fees (paid to the institution), opportunities for international research and professional development, and the freedom to conduct their own research at any accredited U.S. institution of graduate education they choose. 

NSF Fellows are anticipated to become knowledge experts who can contribute significantly to research, teaching, and innovations in science and engineering. These individuals are crucial to maintaining and advancing the nation’s technological infrastructure and national security as well as contributing to the economic well-being of society at large.

Eligibility criteria:

1. Citizenship

Applicants must be United States citizens, nationals, or permanent residents of the United States by the application deadline.
 

2. Degree Requirements

Fellowships are awarded to individuals in the early stages of their graduate study. Below are general guidelines for determining eligibility according to the degree requirements criterion:

-Applicants are expected to have adequate preparation to begin graduate study and research by summer or fall 2014. This is nearly always demonstrated by receipt of a bachelor’s degree in a science or engineering field earned prior to fall 2014.

Individuals are typically eligible to apply:

-During the senior year of college

-After graduating from college and prior to entering graduate school

-During the first year of graduate school

-Prior to completing the fall term of the second year of graduate school.
 

Applicants must have completed no more than 12 months of full-time graduate study or its equivalent as
of Aug. 1, 2012. Full-time graduate study is as defined by the universities attended. 

Applicants who have completed part-time graduate study (or a combination of part-time and full-time
graduate study) must have completed no more than 24 semester hours or 36 quarter hours or their
equivalent as of Aug. 1, 2012.

All post-baccalaureate, graduate-level study is counted toward the allowed 12 months of completed
graduate study. This includes all master’s and doctoral programs.
 

3. Field of Study

Fellowships are awarded for graduate study leading to research-based master’s and doctoral degrees in the fields of science and engineering supported by the National Science Foundation.
 

The following programs and areas of graduate study and research are ineligible:

-Practice-oriented professional degree programs, joint professional degree-science programs (MD/PhD
and JD/PhD), or medical, dental, law, and public health programs are not eligible. Examples of typical
ineligible degree programs include MBA, MPH, MSW, and ED.

-Clinical (see below), counseling, business administration or management, social work, education (except in science and engineering education in an NSF-supported discipline), or history (except in history of science) areas of graduate study are not supported.

-Clinical study that is ineligible includes patient-oriented research, epidemiological and behavioral
studies, outcomes research and health services research. For example, clinical study that is
ineligible includes investigations to provide evidence leading to a scientific basis for consideration
of a change in health policy or standard of care, and includes pharmacologic, non-pharmacologic,
and behavioral interventions for disease prevention, prophylaxis, diagnosis, or therapy. Community and other population-based intervention trials are also ineligible.

-Research with disease-related goals, including work on the etiology, diagnosis or treatment of physical or mental disease, abnormality, or malfunction in human beings is normally not supported. Animal models of such conditions or the development or testing of drugs or other procedures for their treatment are also not eligible for support. However, research in bioengineering, with diagnosis or treatment-related goals, that applies engineering principles to problems in biology and medicine while advancing engineering knowledge is eligible for support. Bioengineering research to aid persons with disabilities is also eligible.

Please contact Michele Galati in the Career and Scholarship Center for more information.