August 2023

Dear Graduate Students,

The fall fellowship season has arrived! 

Most fellowships and grants for graduate students have application deadlines between now and Thanksgiving. To help you find awards and get a head start on this year's competitions, the Graduate College's Office of External Fellowships offers a variety of resources including proposal-writing workshops, one-on-one advising, and our renowned Fellowship Finder database.  

This year, we have added additional services to support potential applicants to the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship (NSF-GRF), one of the premier fellowships available to graduate students in the sciences, social sciences, technology, engineering, mathematics, and STEM education fields. 

Peruse our announcements and services below, and feel free to contact us at ExtFellowships@illinois.edu. 

Ken Vickery, PhD
Director of Fellowships

"NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Fundamentals" is a new self-guided course designed by the Office of External Fellowships. Through concise modules, students will learn how to determine their eligibility and field of study, how to interpret the NSF-specific review criteria of Intellectual Merit and Broader Impacts, how to approach the main application components, and how the review process works. 

Potential applicants to the NSF-GRF should complete the Canvas modules before attending our dedicated workshops on writing the two required statements. Enroll now!

New this year, we are offering workshops dedicated to the two required NSF-GRF statements. Each workshop will be offered twice (via Zoom): 

Writing an Effective NSF-GRF Graduate Research Plan 

• Tuesday, August 29, 2:00 - 4:30. Register.  
• Wednesday, September 6, 10:00 - 12:30. Register.  

Writing an Effective NSF-GRF Personal Statement 

• Thursday, August 31, 2:00 - 3:30. Register. 
• Friday, September 8, 10:00 - 11:30. Register. 

In addition to the NSF-GRF workshops listed above, this fall we will continue to offer our regular slate of proposal-writing workshops appropriate for graduate students interested in applying for any external fellowship. 

For Social Sciences & Humanities: 

• Tuesday, September 12, 10:00-12:00. Register. 
• Wednesday, October 25, 1:00-3:00. Register. 

For STEM: 

• Friday, September 1, 2:00-4:30. Register.
• Monday, September 11, 2:30-5:00. Register.

Writing Personal Statements for Funding Applications
Many funding agencies require a personal statement in addition to an applicant’s research proposal. Participants in this workshop will assess the range of personal statement prompts and distill their shared essence, learn the qualities of a compelling statement, and practice a writing process they can implement to arrive at a complete first draft.  

Upcoming sessions:  

• Friday, August 25, 2:00-3:30.  Register. 
• Tuesday, Sept 19, 10:00-11:30. Register. 
• Friday, Oct 6, 3:00-4:30. Register.

Individualized advising is a standing service of the Office of External Fellowships that we urge all students seeking external fellowships and grants to take advantage of. We envision our services as a three-way partnership between you, your advisor and us. Indeed, our protocol requires that your advisor review your materials first and that you make all the revisions your advisor recommends. Once that is complete and you are ready for an external reader to review the drafts, we can serve in that capacity.

For additional details, visit our Proposal Advising webpage.

Below is a sampling of the many grants and fellowships with upcoming deadlines. For a complete list, visit the Fellowship Finder database.

U.S. Department of Agriculture National Institute of Food and Agriculture (USDA-NIFA) - Agriculture and Food Research Initiative - Dissertation & Postdoctoral Fellowships. Two- to three-year fellowships for doctoral and postdoctoral research in the food and agricultural sciences. Postdoctoral applications due September 7; dissertation (predoctoral) applications due October 26.  

National Academy of Education (NAEd) / Spencer Foundation - Dissertation Fellowship Program. One- to two-year fellowship for doctoral students completing dissertations on the history, theory, or practice of formal or informal education. Applications due October 5. 

Andrew W. Mellon Foundation/American Council of Learned Societies (Mellon/ACLS) - Dissertation Innovation Fellowships in the Humanities and Interpretive Social Sciences. One-year fellowships for students with research at a formative stage and who show promise of leading their fields in important new directions. Applications due October 15. 

Paul & Daisy Soros Fellowships for New Americans. Highly prestigious two-year fellowship for graduate students in any field who are "new Americans" (green card holders, naturalized citizens, DACA recipients, asylees, refugees, or the children of immigrants). Applications due October 26.

Hertz Foundation - Graduate Fellowships. Highly prestigious five-year fellowship for doctoral students at select schools in their first year of study in applied physical, biological and engineering sciences. Applications due October 27. 

Department of Defense - National Defense Science and Engineering Graduate (NDSEG) Fellowship. Three-year fellowships for doctoral students pursuing degrees in one of 18 supported science and engineering disciplines of military importance. Deadline anticipated late October. 

American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) - Science & Technology Policy Postdoctoral Fellowships. One-year postdoctoral fellowships in Washington, D.C. for scientists and engineers interested in policymaking. Applications due November 1. 

Institute for Citizens & Scholars - Charlotte W. Newcombe Dissertation Completion Fellowships. Fellowships support PhD candidates in their final year of writing a dissertation focused on ethical or religious values in all humanities and social science fields. Applications due November 15.

U.S. Department of State - Critical Language Scholarship Program. Overseas language program for U.S. citizens studying one of 15 critical languages. Deadline anticipated mid-November.