Funding Opportunities for Incoming Graduate Students

The College of the Environment Top-off Award is an opportunity for units to nominate truly superior prospective students for funding, to amplify efforts to recruit highly desired students.

Fund Use and Matching Requirements

Graduate Research Opportunity Enhancement Program (GROE) Award

The GROE Awards are specifically meant to incentivize faculty to write grants for their scholarly work that include graduate student support. They provide up to two years of bridge funding for a graduate student to begin research prior to receipt of grant or contract funding. While GROE Awards are continuously available, they are tied to the annual cycle of graduate recruitment because the intent is for faculty receiving GROE awards to accept new Ph.D. students (or Master’s students when that is the terminal degree in the unit). GROE Awards, including unit match, could be used as match for a GOP or College of the Environment Award.

There is no deadline for GROE nominations. Prioritized lists may be submitted at any time to the Associate Dean of Research, up to a maximum of 4 students per annual cycle. For the full rationale and details, including nomination requirements and procedure, see the GROE Program Policy.

2024 PCC Graduate Fellowship

The UW Program on Climate Change will offer a graduate fellowship to incoming graduate students in Ph.D.-granting units in the College of the Environment. Faculty apply for this funding with the expectation of receiving funding that will support the student into the future. No matching funds from the units are required.

To promote PCC’s aim of advancing interdisciplinary fundamental climate science education and research at the UW, and enhance the ability of the college to recruit graduate students who can contribute to this goal, PCC will distribute these fellowships to highly ranked graduate students interested in climate science who will work with at least one PI from the College of the Environment.

This PCC graduate fellowship will cover 9-12 months of support during the academic year. Preference will be given to recruitment of new Ph.D. students to participate in interdisciplinary climate science projects, though any climate related project will be considered. PCC fellowships will begin at the start of the 2024 academic year (September 16, 2024). PCC fellowships cannot be deferred a start date later than September 16, 2024.

Faculty interested in applying for PCC fellowships must submit the following to their Graduate Program Coordinators (GPCs) in their respective units:
• Student name and resume/CV
• Faculty PI and co-PI names (co-PIs optional but may demonstrate interdisciplinarity)
• Brief summary of project
• Source of awarded or pending funding (e.g., NSF), or timeline for proposal submission
• Estimated award notification date (if not yet received)
• Brief statement describing how this student’s interests and the research project advances
climate science

GPCs should submit all applications from their unit to uwpcc@uw.edu by February 1, 2024. GPCs can prioritize applications if they wish based on factors such as availability of other funding for specific applicants, or other criteria important for that unit. PCC will take this prioritization into account when deciding on fellowship awards.

One year following the award, the PI(s) must submit the following information:
• Student name and current status
• Faculty PI and co-PI names
• Outcome of pending grant proposal
• Plan for continued support for the graduate student

Within two years of the start of the award or funded research project, the student fellow will present their work at a PCC event such as the winter welcome. Questions? Contact Miriam Bertram at uwpcc@uw.edu.