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Graduate Research Fellowship
III. Eligibility Information
A. Eligible Applicants
Awards are normally made to the fellow's graduate institution through the use of a grant. However, institutions eligible to receive awards include institutions of higher education, other non-profits, commercial organizations, international organizations, state, local and Indian tribal governments. All reserve staff are ineligible to submit an application for a fellowship under this announcement. Funds are expected to be available on a competitive basis to qualified graduate students for research within a reserve(s) leading to a graduate degree. Applicants must be admitted to or enrolled in a full-time master's or doctoral program at a U.S. accredited university in order to be eligible to apply. Applicants should have completed a majority of their graduate course work at the beginning of their fellowship and have an approved thesis research program. Minority students are encouraged to apply.
B. Cost Sharing or Matching Requirement
Requested federal funds must be matched by at least 30 percent of the TOTAL cost, not the federal share, of the project (ie. $8,572 match for $20,000 in federal funds for a total project cost of $28,572). Requested overhead costs under fellowship awards are limited to 10% of the federal amount and institutional fees that do not qualify as direct costs under fellowship awards are limited to 10% of the federal amount. Waived overhead costs may be used as match.
C. Other
No more than two fellowships at any one reserve will be funded at one time. Based upon fellowships awarded in the 2008 funding cycle, we anticipate 30 openings for fellowships in 2009. The amount of each fellowship award is expected to be $20,000, which will be available to all current and prospective fellows and is intended to provide any combination of research support, salary, tuition, supplies, or other costs as needed, including overhead. Awards are issued as grants to the recipient institution.
Graduate student fellows who are selected for funding will be required to: 1) work with the research coordinator or manager at the host reserve to develop a plan, relevant to the student’s research, to participate in the reserve’s research and/or monitoring, stewardship, education, or coastal training programs for up to 15 hours per week (Fellows conducting multi-site projects may fulfill this requirement at one or a combination of sites); 2) submit semi-annual progress reports to the Estuarine Reserves Division through https://grantsonline.rdc.noaa.gov with the assistance of the applicant’s Office of Sponsored Programs and send a copy of the reports to the host reserve via electronic copy at the end of each 6 month period on the research accomplishments to date; and 3) acknowledge NERRS support in all relevant scientific presentations and publications. In addition, fellows are strongly encouraged to publish their results in peer-reviewed literature and make presentations at local, national and international scientific meetings.
Fellowships are expected to be available at the following sites:
| NERR Site |
Openings |
| ACE Basin, SC |
2 |
| Chesapeake Bay, MD |
2 |
| Chesapeake Bay, VA |
1 |
| Elkhorn Slough, CA |
1 |
| Grand Bay, MS |
2 |
| Great Bay, NH |
1 |
| Guana Tolomato Matanzas, FL |
1 |
| Hudson River, NY |
1 |
| Jacques Cousteau, NJ |
1 |
| Jobos Bay, PR |
1 |
| Kachemak Bay, AK |
1 |
| Mission-Aransas TX |
2 |
| Narragansett, RI |
1 |
| North Inlet-Winyah Bay, SC |
1 |
| North Carolina, NC |
1 |
| Old Woman Creek, OH |
2 |
| Padilla Bay, WA |
1 |
| Rookery Bay, FL |
2 |
| San Francisco Bay, CA |
1 |
| Sapelo, GA |
2 |
| Tijuana River, CA |
1 |
| Weeks Bay, AL |
1 |
| Wells, ME |
1 |
The Estuarine Reserves Division, Office of Ocean and Coastal Resource Management, reserves the right to immediately halt activity under the award if it becomes obvious that award activities are not fulfilling the mission of the National Estuarine Research Reserve System. Non-compliance with a federally approved project may result in immediate halting of the award. For applicants awarded more than one year of funding, the Estuarine Reserves Division will review and approve each stage of work annually before the next begins to assure that studies will produce viable information on which to form valid coastal management decisions.
For more information contact Alison Krepp.
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