External fellowships
Graduate students may find additional sources of funding via external sources, such as the opportunities listed below.
American Nuclear Society
The American Nuclear Society (ANS) is offering a maximum of 29 graduate scholarships for full-time graduate students in a program leading to an advanced degree in nuclear science, nuclear engineering, or a nuclear-related field. The ANS also offers a variety of individual graduate scholarships.
American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE) fellowships
The ASEE science and engineering fellowships program offers a variety of opportunities for science and engineering scholarships and fellowships.
ASCO Numatics Industrial Automation engineering scholarships
ASCO Numatics, a division of Emerson, is the world's leading manufacturer of comprehensive fluid automation solutions, flow control, and pneumatics is offering its engineering college scholarship program aimed at rewarding exceptional undergraduate and graduate students pursuing careers in manufacturing and processing engineering. ASCO Numatics will scholarships to U.S. engineering students who are pursuing careers in industrial automation-related disciplines. The scholarships are merit-based and will be awarded on the candidates' potential for leadership and for making a significant contribution to the engineering, instrumentation, systems, and automation professions, particularly as they relate to the application of fluid control and fluid power technologies. Scholarship recipients may be eligible for an ASCO Numatics internship.
Dan David Prize scholarships
The Dan David Prize will award 10 scholarships to outstanding doctoral students and postdoctoral researchers. Advanced doctoral and postdoctoral students of excellent achievement and promise studying history and memory, combating memory loss, or artificial intelligence are invited to apply for the Dan David Prize Scholarships.
Department of Energy National Nuclear Security Administration Stewardship Science Graduate Fellowship (DOE NNSA SSGF)
The DOE NNSA SSGF program provides outstanding benefits and opportunities to students pursuing a Ph.D. in areas of interest to stewardship science, such as properties of materials under extreme conditions and hydrodynamics, nuclear science, or high-energy-density physics. The fellowship includes a 12-week research experience at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Los Alamos National Laboratory, or Sandia National Laboratories.
The benefits include a yearly stipend, payment of full tuition and required fees, yearly academic allowance, annual program review, and 12-week research practicum, and is renewable for up to four years. The DOE NNSA SSGF program is open to senior undergraduates or students in their first or second year of graduate study. Online applications are due in January of each year.
Department of Energy Office of Science Graduate Fellowship
The Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Science (SC) has established the DOE Office of Science Graduate Fellowship (DOE SCGF) program to provide support for outstanding students to pursue graduate degrees and research in areas of physics, biology, chemistry, mathematics, engineering, computational sciences, and environmental sciences relevant to the Office of Science, and to encourage the development of the next generation scientific and technical talent in the U.S.
Fellows will receive a yearly stipend for living expenses, money for tuition and fees, and a research stipend supplement for research materials and travel expenses. Fellows will be required to attend the annual DOE SCGF Research Conference to be held each summer at a DOE national laboratory. Travel expenses and accommodations to the Conference will be provided by the DOE SCGF program.
Dowd Fellowship
The Philip and Marsha Dowd Engineering Seed Fund was established in 2001 through a generous gift to the College of Engineering from Philip and Marsha Dowd. The fund is intended to provide support for Engineering doctoral graduate students proposing work on cutting-edge research projects that currently do not have other sources of funding. The objective of the fund is to help enable future external research funding and possible future entrepreneurial activity by generating initial research results through the seed project. Students receiving fellowships are referred to as Dowd Fellows and are required to present a seminar to the Carnegie Mellon community in the fall semester on the results of their work. Normally, funding for research projects is limited to one year, covering the student’s stipend and tuition. Faculty advisors of Dowd Fellows are required to provide follow-on information semi-annually, which is used to track outcomes stemming from the Fellowships.
Students must be currently in their second or third year of their doctoral studies (students would be fellows during their third or fourth year). Doctoral students holding their master's degree and currently in their first year of their doctoral studies are also eligible (these students would be fellows during their second year). Please note: only one student proposal is allowed to be submitted per adviser. Students must, therefore, coordinate with their advisor prior to submission.
Elsevier Foundation New Scholars Program
The Elsevier Foundation New Scholars Program will give priority to the efforts of the academic and research community to address the fundamental challenge of balancing childcare and family responsibilities with the demanding academic careers in science, health, and technology. The program is focused on doctoral candidates and scholars in the first five years of their post-doctoral careers.
The Elsevier Foundation provides one-, two-, and three-year grants to non-profit academic and research institutions, learned societies, professional associations, and governmental and non-governmental organizations. Grant proposals are welcome for:
- Programs that enable scientists to attend conferences, meetings, workshops, and symposia that are critical to the development of a career in science by helping them with childcare and other family responsibilities when attending scientific gatherings.
- Programs that, as part of an institutional commitment to advancing women in science, provide support to promising new scientists to attend scientific gatherings.
- Programs to encourage networking and mentorship within the institutions and disciplines in ways that support the challenges of faculty and staff with family responsibilities.
- Research, advocacy, and policy development to advance knowledge, awareness, and application of programs to retain, recruit, and develop women in science.
Facebook Fellowship
The Facebook Fellowship Program is open to full-time Ph.D. students (domestic and international) enrolled during the current academic year and studying computer science, computer engineering, electrical engineering, system architecture, or a related area. Students can apply directly, with no internal CMU process. The fellowship covers full tuition and provides a stipend.
FOCUS Fellowship
Georgia Tech College of Engineering's FOCUS Fellows program is open to full-time Ph.D. students, as well as postdoctoral candidates with engineering doctoral degrees. The program allows minority doctoral students to train for careers in academia and be role models for high school and undergraduate students in the FOCUS program. During the FOCUS weekend, Fellows will learn the importance of being minority leaders in academia, learn the qualifications required for positions at research institutions, visit research laboratories, and learn how current faculty members progressed through their careers. Accommodations, meals, and travel (coach fares only) are provided. Those interested in participating in the FOCUS Fellows program should forward a CV to focusfellows@coe.gatech.edu.
Google Fellowship
Google will award two-year fellowships consisting of tuition and fees, a yearly stipend (paid over nine months of the academic year), a Google Research Mentor, and a possible third-year extension at Google's discretion.
Jonas Salk Health Activist Fellowship
The Jewish Healthcare Foundation and Health Careers Futures’ Jonas Salk Health Activist Fellowship is designed as an incubator for emerging health activists. Undergraduate students, graduate students, or employees in health-related disciplines are encouraged to apply by completing the online application. The Fellows form an action group and develop skills to build a case for action, shape winning strategies, and advocate effectively around a health issue that they are passionate about. In addition to learning how to change policies, practices, and perspectives, the Fellows will also take action during the Fellowship with some microfunding and experienced community activists as they start to implement their strategy.
Hertz Foundation Graduate Fellowships
The Fannie and John Hertz Foundation Graduate Fellowship Award is based on merit (not need) and consists of a cost-of-education allowance and a personal support stipend. The cost-of-education allowance is accepted by all of the tenable schools in lieu of all fees and tuition. Hertz Fellows, therefore, have no liability for any ordinary educational costs, regardless of their choice among tenable schools.
IBM Ph.D. Fellowship Program
The IBM Ph.D. Fellowship Awards is an intensely competitive program that honors exceptional Ph.D. students in many academic disciplines and areas of study, for example: computer science and engineering, electrical and mechanical engineering, physical sciences (including chemistry, material sciences, and physics), mathematical sciences (including optimization), business sciences (including financial services, communication, and learning/knowledge), and service sciences, management, and engineering. Additionally, IBM pays special attention to an array of focus areas of interest to IBM and fundamental to innovation, including but not limited to:
- Technology that creates new business value:
Optimization, risk and compliance, business intelligence, information-based medicine, services and software to improve business performance, social networking, information-based medicine and health care management, modeling, and data analysis, workforce-based supply chains, Service Science, Management and Engineering (SSME), tools for globalization - Innovative software:
HCI, new expressive ways of manipulating computers, programming models and tools, language understanding, ontologies, real-time systems, real-world-aware systems, intelligent embedded systems, event-driven computing, Web 2.0, 3D Internet - New types of computers:
Use of massive parallelism for non-scientific/engineering applications (including those applications), cell/multi-core, power management, 3D systems and integration, nanotechnology and post-CMOS devices for digital logic, memory, and communications - Interdisciplinary projects:
Water and energy modeling and management, management of computer centers virtualization, autonomic computing, hybrid systems, cloud computing, Internet data centers, green systems/data centers, green computing
L’Oréal USA For Women In Science Fellowship
The L’Oréal For Women in Science program recognizes and rewards the contributions women make in STEM fields and identifies exceptional women researchers committed to serving as role models for younger generations. More than 2,000 women scientists in over 100 countries have been recognized since the program began in 1998. The L’Oréal USA For Women In Science fellowship program awards post‐doctoral women scientists in the United States with grants. Applicants are welcome from a variety of fields, including the life and physical/material sciences, technology (including computer science), engineering, and mathematics.
National Defense Science and Engineering Graduate Fellowship Program (NDSEG)
The National Defense Science and Engineering Graduate Fellowship Program (NDSEG) is sponsored by the Army Research Office, Office of Naval Research, Air Force Office of Scientific Research, and the DoD High-Performance Computing Modernization Program. This program is intended for U.S. citizens at or near the beginning of their doctoral studies in science or engineering programs. The fellowships are for three-year tenures and include full tuition and fees, a competitive stipend, and a health insurance allowance.
National Research Council of the National Academies
The National Research Council of the National Academies sponsors a number of awards for graduate, postdoctoral, and senior researchers at federal laboratories and affiliated institutions. These awards provide generous stipends and the opportunity to do independent research in some of the best-equipped and staffed laboratories in the U.S. Research opportunities are open to U.S. citizens, permanent residents, and, for some of the laboratories, foreign nationals. Direct questions to the NRC at 202.334.2760 or rap@nas.edu. There are four review cycles annually. Deadline dates are Feb. 1, May 1, Aug. 1, and Nov. 1. Applicants should begin a dialogue with prospective advisers at the lab as early as possible, before their anticipated application deadline.
National Science Foundation Fellowships
The National Science Foundation's Graduate Research Fellowship (NSF-GRFP) provides three years of support for graduate study leading to research-based master’s or doctoral degrees and is intended for students who are in the early stages of their graduate study. The Graduate Research Fellowship Program (GRFP) invests in graduate education for a cadre of diverse individuals who demonstrate their potential to successfully complete graduate degree programs in disciplines relevant to the mission of the National Science Foundation.
The National Science Foundation East Asia and Pacific Summer Institutes (NSF-EAPSI) Program provides U.S. graduate students in science and engineering with first-hand research experience in Australia, China, Japan, Korea, New Zealand, Singapore, or Taiwan. Students receive a stipend and international roundtrip airfare. The primary goals of EAPSI are to introduce students to East Asia and Pacific science and engineering in the context of a research setting and to help students initiate scientific relationships that will better enable future collaboration with foreign counterparts.
The National Science Foundation Teacher Education Fellowship with Claremont Graduate University allows STEM students to pursue a career in high-school science/math teaching. This program specifically targets science and math, and after successfully completing this program students would emerge with a Master in Education and a California teaching credential.
National Water Research Institute
The National Water Research Institute (NWRI)'s Fellowship program is underwritten by the Joan Irvine Smith & Athalie R. Clarke Foundation, NWRI Corporate Associates, and community partners. Under the Fellowship program, NWRI awards fellowships to graduate students in the U.S. in the areas of water resources and treatment. Students must be currently enrolled in a graduate program at a U.S. university to receive the NWRI Fellowship. Students who have not yet been accepted into a graduate program at a U.S. university are not eligible to receive fellowship funding. Women and members of minority groups underrepresented in academia are strongly encouraged to apply. The application is due by June 1, 2014. Award winners will be announced in July 2014.
Northrop Grumman Fellowship
The Northrop Grumman Fellowship was established through an endowment gift given to the university in 1988 by Litton Industries, now part of the Northrop Grumman Corporation. The fellowship provides merit-based awards to doctoral students in the College of Engineering who are conducting multidisciplinary research associated with strategic directions within the Engineering Research Accelerator. The award must be used to cover tuition.
Any College of Engineering doctoral student who is currently working on Accelerator-related research is eligible. Doctoral students are NOT eligible if they have received a Dean's Fellowship or a Dowd Fellowship for the same year of the award, or if they will have their tuition for the year covered completely by other fellowship funding.
Nuclear Energy Institute
The Nuclear Energy Institute (NEI) website offers links to a variety of opportunities. Nuclear energy scholarships and fellowships are available through an educational assistance program, a professional organization, and the federal government. Leading nuclear energy companies offer summer and year-round internships at their facilities.
Office of Naval Research
The Office of Naval Research offers the following graduate and postdoctoral opportunities:
- Naval Research Enterprise Intern Program (NREIP):
This ten-week intern program is designed to provide opportunities for undergraduate and graduate students to participate in research under the guidance of an appropriate research mentor at a participating Navy laboratory. - DoD National Defense Science and Engineering Graduate (NDSEG) Fellowship Program:
The NDSEG Fellowship Program is a joint program of the United States Army, Navy, and Air Force within the University Research Initiative (URI), designed to increase the number of U.S. citizens trained in disciplines of science and engineering important to defense goals. Submissions are due in January of each year. - Summer Faculty Research Program:
The Summer Faculty Research Program provides science and engineering faculty members from institutions of higher education the opportunity to participate in research at Navy laboratories for a 10-week period during the summer. Participants work with professional peers in the Navy laboratories on research tasks of mutual interest. Information about the research interests of the participating laboratories is available via the ASEE website. The research for the summer is defined in advance through correspondence and an optional pre-program visit to the research site, for which funds are provided.
Presidential Management Fellows Program
The Presidential Management Fellows (PMF) Program attracts to federal service outstanding men and women from a variety of academic disciplines and career paths who have a clear interest in, and commitment to, excellence in the leadership and management of public policies and programs. The PMF Program, administered by the U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM), is the Federal Government's cornerstone succession planning program to help agencies meet their critical need for leadership continuity. Students can use this two-year fellowship as a stepping stone to highly visible and respected leadership positions in the federal government. Students who will complete a graduate degree (master's or doctoral-level degree) during the current academic year are eligible to apply to the program.
Sandia National Labs Masters Fellowship Program
The Master's Fellowship Program (MFP) is a limited external, hiring program. The MFP Program is designed to help Sandia meet its affirmative action goals while at the same time building Sandia's capabilities with exceptional employees who have earned advanced degrees in science, engineering, and technology. Hiring into MFP will be based on a pre-determined maximum number of hires as budget permits each fiscal year. Candidates will apply to one job posting for consideration. A combination of a matrix system and line organization interest will determine which "top" candidates are invited to attend an on-site, strategic recruiting event to interview with all interested organizations. Each candidate's research interest and preference in position will determine the organizational placement of the candidate.
Sandia National Laboratories' President Harry S. Truman Fellowship in National Security Science and Engineering
The Harry S. Truman Fellowship provides the opportunity for new Ph.D. scientists and engineers to pursue independent research of their own choosing that supports Sandia's national security mission. Sandia's research focus areas are bioscience, computing and information science, engineering science, materials science, nanodevices and microsystems, radiation effects and high energy physics, and geosciences.
Candidates are expected to have solved a major scientific or engineering problem in their thesis work or have provided a new approach or insight to a major problem, as evidenced by a recognized impact in their field.
The Truman Fellowship is a three-year appointment normally beginning on October 1. The deadline for nominations is November 1 of each year.
SMART Scholarship
The Science, Mathematics, and Research for Transformation (SMART) Scholarship for Service Program has been established by the Department of Defense (DoD) to support undergraduate and graduate students pursuing degrees in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) disciplines. The program aims to increase the number of civilian scientists and engineers working at DoD laboratories.
UNCF Merck Science Initiative Scholarships and Fellowships
The UNCF Merck Science Initiative supports the training of world-class African American biological, chemical, and engineering students toward achieving the complementary goals of national economic competitiveness and social diversity. This initiative provides scholarships and fellowships to at least 37 outstanding African American students per year – 15 at the undergraduate level, 12 at the graduate level, and 10 at the postdoctoral level. In addition, the UNCF Merck Science Initiative may provide grants to the departments of the recipient's home institution.