Dear Colleagues,
The University-Industry Demonstration Partnership (UIDP) hosted a webinar on a new NSF Funding Opportunity Graduate Student Support in July. This program provides an opportunity for graduate students who are currently supported on an NSF research award to spend time outside of an academic lab and expand their skill set and competencies. Key takeaways include:
- Graduate students are afforded an opportunity to spend six (and possibly twelve) months working outside of their academic home lab.
- NSF principal investigators can request supplements to their existing research award.
- Students can spend their term in industry – large and small, non-profits, university offices such as technology transfer, and if justified, international settings.
- No funds are required of hosts although resources may be devoted to support the students’ experiences.
NSF will provide support for supplements to current NSF grants awarded by the Directorate for Education and Human Resources (EHR), Directorate for Engineering (ENG), and Office of Advanced Cyberinfrastructure (OAC) within the Directorate for Computer and Information Science and Engineering (CISE), to enhance professional development opportunities for graduate students as described below. Supplements to existing NSF awards will enable the PIs of grants to request up to six months of additional support for graduate students to pursue new activities aimed at acquiring professional development experience that will enhance their preparation for multiple career pathways after graduation.
These supplements could provide graduate students with the opportunity to augment their research assistantships with additional non-academic research intern activities and training opportunities that will complement their academic research training. PIs are encouraged to involve graduate students from groups that have traditionally been underrepresented and underserved in the STEM enterprise: women, persons with disabilities, African Americans/Blacks, Hispanic Americans, American Indians, Alaska Natives, Native Hawaiians, Native Pacific Islanders, and persons from economically disadvantaged backgrounds. Grantees are also encouraged to include NSF Graduate Research Fellows and Honorable Mentions in their proposals.
This supplemental funding opportunity is open to PIs supporting graduate students with an active NSF award; note, however, that OAC will only support graduate students who are doctoral candidates. Graduate students must have completed at least one year in their graduate programs and be making satisfactory progress towards the completion of their degrees.
To support the goals of this program, the UIDP has created a web-based, publicly available portal to capture information from organizations interested in partnering with a university on a supplement application. If you have an opportunity for a graduate student intern, please complete the following webform, including a description of the project and contact information for your organization. For more information regarding this funding opportunity, please visit this website.
Best,
Anthony Boccanfuso, Ph.D.
