Important Announcements from the National Science Foundation

In the last two weeks, the National Science Foundation issued programmatic and award announcements of importance to the graduate education community.

• Dear Colleague Letter: Computer and Information Science and Engineering Graduate Fellowships
  • The Dear Colleague Letter invites applications for individuals who intend to apply to doctoral degree-granting programs in Computer and Information Science and Engineering disciplines for matriculation in Fall 2024 or Fall 2025. NSF expects that 70 individuals will be selected with three years of financial support. For each of the three years of support, a $37,000 stipend and $16,000 cost-of-education allowance will be awarded to the graduate degree-granting institution of higher education for each Fellow who will use the support in a fellowship year.

• Dear Colleague Letter: Catalyzing Institutional Change to Support Greater Equity, Inclusion, and Access in STEM Academic Careers and Advanced Degree Attainment
  • The Dear Colleague Letter seeks to advance the racial, ethnic, and gender diversity of the student graduating with STEM doctoral degrees through two institutional change programs at NSF such as the Alliances for Graduate Education and the Professoriate (AGEP) program and the Organizational Change for Gender Equity in STEM Academic Professions (ADVANCE) program. The AGEP program supports alliances among institutions of higher education to design and implement strategies that increase the number of historically underrepresented STEM faculty and promote systemic change, and the ADVANCE program supports systemic change projects to enhance gender equity and inclusion for STEM faculty. A webinar on this Dear Colleague Letter will be held on April 27, 2023, 3:00-4:30pm EDT. Register for the webinar here.

• National Science Foundation Virtual Grants Conference
  • NSF will be hosting a virtual grants conference, to be held during the week of June 5, 2023. Registration will open on Wednesday, May 10 at 12PM EDT. The NSF Grants Conference is designed to give new faculty, researchers, and administrators key insights into a wide range of current issues at NSF. NSF staff will provide up-to-date information about policies and procedures, specific funding opportunities and answer attendee questions. Highlights of the conference will include:
    • New programs and initiatives
    • Proposal preparation
    • NSF’s merit review process
    • NSF directorate sessions
    • Award management topics
    • Conflict of interest policies
    • NSF systems updates