NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Program (GRFP) · FY 2027

Eligibility & application

Required eligibility: Be a U.S. citizen, national or permanent resident both when applying and when accepting. A student visa, a pending permanent-residence application or a pending citizenship application does not satisfy this rule. Pursue a full-time, research-based master's or doctoral degree with a thesis in an eligible field at an accredited, nonprofit institution with a campus in the U.S., its territories or possessions, or Puerto Rico. Eligible undergraduate applicants must complete their bachelor's degree and enter eligible graduate study for the fall 2027 cohort; the current applicant presentation specifies enrollment by September 1, 2027. Foreign institutions and professional/practice degrees are ineligible. Academic Level 1: Final-year undergraduates, or bachelor's holders with no previous graduate-degree enrollment. These applicants can apply in more than one annual competition before graduate enrollment, but only once per annual competition. Academic Level 2: Joint bachelor's/master's students in their final undergraduate or first graduate year, or first-year students in their FIRST graduate degree who have completed LESS THAN one academic year as defined by their institution/registrar. Graduate applicants have one application opportunity in total. Summer research credits that count toward the degree count as enrollment; clearly identified non-degree graduate coursework does not. Enrollment in any graduate-degree field counts, including non-STEM or ineligible fields. Second-year or later graduate students, previous graduate-degree holders (including a master's, doctorate or terminal degree in any field), and those who already used their graduate-stage application are ineligible. Prior awards and exclusions: Applicants must never have accepted an NSF GRFP award. An earlier offer declined by its deadline can leave eligibility intact; missing its accept/decline deadline makes reapplication ineligible. Current NSF employees are ineligible. Combined professional/research degrees such as MD/PhD and JD/PhD are ineligible, including requests for just the PhD component or graduate study while on leave from the professional degree. Ineligible degrees include business administration, public health, social work, law, medicine, pharmacy, veterinary medicine, dentistry, clinical/counseling psychology, other practice/patient-oriented degrees, and primarily course-based programs without a thesis. This is not a high-school or postdoctoral award. No universal GPA minimum, age minimum, GRE, contest qualification or publication requirement is stated; GRE scores are not part of the application. Fields: Choose one of the ten first major fields: Chemistry; Computer and Information Sciences & Engineering; Engineering; Geosciences; Life Sciences; Materials Research; Mathematical Sciences; Physics & Astronomy; Psychology; Social Sciences. Only the subfields explicitly listed in the FY 2027 notice's Appendix are eligible; there is no 'Other' category. Select the major and subfield closest to the actual degree and research plan. The FIRST major field determines the review panel and application cutoff; additional interdisciplinary choices do not create a joint panel or change the deadline. Older guides or lists do not reinstate removed fields. The Appendix includes eligible AI, computationally intensive and quantum-information research across majors, along with discipline-specific areas; the notice emphasizes Administration-aligned research priorities without making prior work in a priority area a universal entrance qualification. Read the complete Appendix for the actual subfield choices. Research exclusions: Public/global health; clinical, counseling, patient-oriented, epidemiological, medical-behavioral, outcomes, intervention or health-services research; pharmaceutical/drug development or testing; research directly aimed at human disease etiology, diagnosis, treatment or prevention; animal disease models for such interventions; population medical-intervention trials; and work aimed at changing health policy or standards of care are ineligible. Basic plant-pathology research can qualify; applied agricultural-production or food-safety work does not. Research informing STEM policy can qualify, while express policy advocacy or efforts to influence policy outcomes do not. Conservation implementation/practice, wildlife or natural-resource management and planning/decision-support for restoration, recovery or management interventions are excluded. Limited exceptions cover fundamental engineering, mathematical, physical, computer/information-science or materials advances even when health applications exist. Bio/biomedical engineering applicants must principally advance engineering knowledge and select Engineering with the corresponding Bioengineering/Biomedical Engineering subfield. A convenient field label cannot make an otherwise ineligible research plan eligible. Application package: Apply as an individual in the Research.gov GRFP module. Provide education/enrollment and degree history, work/research experience, proposed major/subfield, honors, awards and publications. Provide official undergraduate transcripts and current graduate enrollment/course records; an unofficial graduate transcript is permitted if the institution cannot provide an official first-year/first-term transcript. Uploaded PDFs must be unencrypted and must omit sensitive identifiers and financial information as instructed. Prepare an original personal/background/future-goals statement of at most three pages and an original graduate-research-plan statement of at most two pages, counting figures, references and headings within those limits. BOTH statements require separate exact headings 'Intellectual Merit' and 'Broader Impacts', with line breaks, rather than a combined heading. Statement formatting: U.S. letter paper; one-inch blank margins; no headers, footers, applicant names or page numbers in those margins. Arial (not Arial Narrow), Courier New or Palatino at least 10 pt, or Times New Roman/Computer Modern at least 11 pt; permitted math/symbol and figure/table-caption exceptions are specified in the notice. Follow its single-spacing/six-lines-per-inch limits. PDFs must remain accessible, machine-readable and legible, with alt text and sufficient contrast. Citations use abbreviated journal/publication titles, not URLs or DOIs. External supplementary material is not reviewed. Check upload compliance and preview the completed application; do not rely solely on a sample template. References: Name and rank three to five writers, with accurate email addresses. At least TWO letters must be received for review; if more than three arrive, only the three highest-ranked received letters are used. Do not use family members. Letters address both merit criteria and the writer's relationship to the applicant, specific academic/research potential and contributions. Writers submit their own signed, nonempty, unencrypted, at-most-two-page PDF with professional title/department/institution, preferably on letterhead, using letter-specific Research.gov email links and one-time passwords; no NSF account is required for reference-letter submission. Follow the reference page's U.S.-letter, one-inch-margin, 11-pt Times New Roman and single-spacing rules. Letters are due October 16, 2026, 8 PM Eastern, BEFORE applicant cutoffs. The July 2025 submission guide and reference page say two received letters are required before application submission, while applicant FAQ language describes incomplete submissions not being reviewed: arrange receipt early and check the live module's completion status. No email or mailed substitute is accepted. Writers can delete/re-upload before their deadline; an upload is immediately submitted and produces confirmation emails. Selection preferences, not additional eligibility requirements: Intellectual Merit and Broader Impacts receive balanced comprehensive consideration. Reviewers assess potential for STEM achievement, academic/research preparation, initiative, creativity, independence and teamwork, communication, problem solving, persistence, leadership, outreach, service and coherent future goals. Broader impacts can include participation, education/mentoring, public scientific literacy, workforce development, collaboration, well-being, economic competitiveness, security or infrastructure. Geographic distribution and academic level also matter. A strong specific letter and a coherent authentic application help; none establishes a separate minimum GPA, publication count or contest credential. GRFP supports people rather than permanently binding a student to one proposed project. Timing and source distinctions: Apply once, by the cutoff for your selected first major. The four displayed field cutoffs are alternatives, not four required applications. The current notice and initiative specify 8 PM Eastern; the funding page's generic 5 PM local-time template and the presentation's 'Eastern Standard Time' label do not override the notice's Eastern Time rule. Applicant FAQ describes withdrawal/restoration and resubmission before the field deadline, whereas a resources page says uploaded files cannot be changed after submission; consult the live module/service desk before relying on revision access. November 15 is the separate last optional withdrawal day for an application not to count against permitted attempts; it does not extend submission or editing deadlines. Request accessibility accommodation at least three weeks before the relevant application/reference deadline. No exact opening day is published. Offer acceptance/admission proof and annual reporting dates are communicated individually; month/season guidance is not an exact calendar appointment.

United States and eligible U.S. territories · institution chosen by Fellow · national · open

Education level: undergraduate, postbaccalaureate, graduate

Fellowship funding, not a salaried NSF job: $37,000 stipend to the Fellow plus $16,000 Cost of Education (COE) to the institution for each of three supported years within five years, subject to available funds. The $53,000 annual total includes COE, which is NOT extra student cash; the advertised maximum is $159,000 over three funded years. On funded Tenure the institution covers tuition and mandatory fees, including amounts above COE, and cannot require teaching/research service to recover a COE shortfall. The award has no ordinary post-graduation service or payback requirement, although ineligibility or violated award terms can lead to termination/repayment. The notice says there is no cost to the Fellow; that does not establish a universal zero fee for separate graduate-school admissions. Optional/refundable deposits, pre-award admissions fees, living expenses, dependents, research and travel costs are not a separate GRFP allowance. Two Reserve years carry no GRFP stipend or COE and need other support. Payments go through the institution, may be taxable, and can be prorated; there is no stipend during enrollment gaps or the master's-to-doctoral transition. Tax treatment and institutional disbursement arrangements must be checked individually. Funding combinations: Do not accept GRFP concurrently with another individual federal fellowship, including examples NDSEG, SMART, DOE CSGF, Fulbright or NIH F31. On Tenure a second federal stipend generally requires forfeiting the GRFP stipend; Reserve treatment differs but does not allow simultaneous individual federal fellowships. Non-federal supplements, other research/travel aid and approved teaching pay may be allowed with institutional approval; veterans' educational benefits are allowed. Institutional and NSF rules control the actual combination.

Full-time eligible graduate enrollment and satisfactory research/degree progress throughout the fellowship, with approved medical/military exceptions. Three Tenure funding years (maximum 36 supported months in 12-month allocations) are usable within the five-year period, with two Reserve years. Fellowships can transfer institutions after the first year with required approvals; the first-year major must match the application. Later major changes require NSF/institution approval and subfield changes institution approval. An eligible master's-to-doctorate transition needs an accepted eligible doctoral placement and required approval; up to three transition months carry no stipend. A second master's and postdoctoral work are not supported. Reasonable teaching for educational development can be permitted, rather than mandated to repay education costs. Every year complete the Annual Activities Report with advisor certification of satisfactory progress, update/certify an Individual Development Plan, and declare next-year Tenure/Reserve/Forfeit or approved leave status in the GRFP module. These tasks apply across statuses; individual module/email dates control and are not the application deadline. Keep contact information current, comply with research ethics/training and applicable human-subject/animal/foreign-research approvals, acknowledge NSF support with its prescribed disclaimer, and cooperate with program evaluation. Status/transfer/leave and completion requirements need coordinating-official/NSF approval as applicable; no personal completion day or institution-only grant report is invented as a student event. Medical/dependent-care leave can pause the fellowship clock for up to 24 whole months. Up to three paid medical-leave months use existing Tenure months rather than adding funding. Military active-duty deferment pauses the clock without a GRFP stipend and needs documentation/renewal. July 2026 NSF 26-021 updates supersede older guidance: approved retroactive medical leave can cover the current or immediately preceding fellowship year, and GRFP no longer participates in NSF INTERN (another active NSF award may provide access). Do not use the old guide's contrary rules. Career-Life Balance supplements are institution-requested research support, distinct from retroactive stipend permission; FASED support may be available case by case. New awards do not use Summer Start; campus enrollment/disbursement can follow a different semester calendar from the September 1 administrative fellowship-year start.

Published dates

Unannounced dates are kept pending. Dated history is included when you add a program; reminders apply to future dates. Date-only events do not have an invented cutoff time. The organizer confirms final eligibility and availability.

Official evidence