Graduate Research Fellowship, Fiscal Year 2020

The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), Office of Justice Programs (OJP), National Institute of Justice (NIJ) is seeking applications for funding innovative doctoral dissertation research that is relevant to preventing and controlling crime, and ensuring the fair and impartial administration of criminal justice in the United States.

This program furthers the Department’s mission by increasing the pool of researchers who are engaged in providing science-based solutions to problems relevant to criminal and juvenile justice policy and practice in the United States. This integrates into a single solicitation for two previously separate fellowship solicitations in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) and Social and Behavior Sciences (SBS). This solicitation incorporates the OJP Grant Application Resource Guide by reference. The OJP Grant Application Resource Guide provides guidance to applicants on how to prepare and submit applications for funding to OJP. If this solicitation expressly modifies any provision in the OJP Grant Application Resource Guide, the applicant is to follow the guidelines in this solicitation as to that provision.

The Graduate Research Fellowship (GRF) program provides grants to accredited academic institutions to support outstanding doctoral students whose dissertation research is relevant to criminal justice. Applicant academic institutions are eligible to apply if the student is currently enrolled in a PhD program and their proposed dissertation research has demonstrable relevance to preventing and controlling crime and/or ensuring the fair and impartial administration of criminal justice in the United States. Awards are anticipated to be made to successful applicant institutions in the form of grants to cover fellowships for the sponsored doctoral students. Awards are made for up to 3 years of support usable over a 5-year period. For each year of support, NIJ provides the institution with $35,000 for Salary and Fringe, up to $12,000 in Cost of Education Allowance, and up to $3,000 in Research Expenses.

Department of Transportation: Competitive Academic Agreement Program (CAAP)

The US Department of Transportation has published a CAAP grant opportunity under CFDA 20.703 – Interagency Hazardous Materials Public Section Training and Planning Grants associated with the Department’s Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA).

Section 12 of the Pipeline Safety Improvement Act of 2002 (Pub. L. No. 107-355) mandates that DOT and other designated federal agencies must “carry out a program of research, development, demonstration and standardization to ensure the integrity of pipeline facilities.”

Specifically, PHMSA’s Pipeline Safety R&D Program’s mission is to sponsor R&D projects focused on providing near-term solutions that will improve the safety, reduce the environmental impact, and enhance the reliability of the Nation’s pipeline transportation system. The goals and objectives of the CAAP initiative, as discussed below, directly support both this mission and the congressional mandate.

The CAAP initiative is intended to spur innovation by enabling academic research focused on high technical risk and high payoff solutions for many pipeline safety challenges. It will potentially deliver solutions that can be handed off to PHMSA’s core research program for demonstration and deployment. The goal is to validate proof of concept for a thesis or theory along a logical path towards commercialization.

The pipeline industry and federal/state regulators are experiencing low numbers of entry-level applicants for engineering or technically focused positions. Consequently, another goal of the CAAP initiative is to expose undergraduate and graduate research students to subject matter that is common to pipeline safety challenges, encourage them to participate in these subjects, and illustrate how their engineering or technical disciplines are highly needed in the pipeline field. The ultimate benefit would be to cultivate new talent in all aspects of the pipeline industry.

NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Program (GRFP) Application Webinars Announced

The NSF Graduate Research Fellowship 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 United States institutions.

GRFP Application Webinars providing an overview of the program, eligibility, and application requirements will be offered September 16-20 (attachment has a schedule, instructions, and links). Space is limited to 500 participants per session (register early!). A recorded webinar will be posted at nsfgrfp.org.

To register for a webinar, please visit the NSF GRFP page.  Additional information about the webinars can be found in this notice

Eligibility guidelines for the GRFP program can be found in the current Program Solicitation

2020 GRFP Applications are now open.  Please click here to apply.