Connect with the New Office of Grants & Fellowships

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The Graduate School is pleased to announce the launch of the Office of Grants & Fellowships. The new office, directed by Dr. Heidi Bauer-Clapp, will provide student training in external grant and fellowship application development as well as management of internal Graduate School grant and fellowship programs. The office will also serve as the first point of contact for graduate students who have received an external fellowship to support their work at UMass.  

Training offered by the Office of Grants & Fellowships (OGF) will include workshops on using search tools to find funding, writing funding proposals, communicating research significance to funders, and other aspects of application development. In addition, OGF will host writing groups for students working on common grants or fellowships, including the NSF Graduate Research Fellowships, ACLS Dissertation Innovation Fellowship, and internal Graduate School Research Grants.  

This student-focused training is a continuation of the training Dr. Bauer-Clapp has previously offered through the Graduate School Office of Professional Development. Bauer-Clapp says that OGF will also offer expanded training to include information for faculty members advising graduate student grant or fellowship applicants. “I’m excited to expand support for graduate student applicants to include their faculty advisors. I plan to offer sessions for faculty on how to write strong letters of recommendation for fellowship applicants and other faculty-focused programs that will complement the training I provide directly to graduate students.”  

OGF will also manage the Graduate School’s research grant and fellowship programs, including the Predissertation Grant, Fieldwork Grant, MFA Thesis Grant, Armstrong Graduate Student Research Grant, and the Dissertation Completion Fellowship for students in SBS, HFA, and College of Education.

"The Office of Grants & Fellowships is a direct investment in turning our graduate students' aspirations into reality," Graduate School Dean Katherine Reeves shared. "We want every graduate student to feel supported as they navigate these external funding opportunities and pursue the ambitious work that brought them to graduate school in the first place."

Finally, in collaboration with the Director of the Graduate Assistantship Office, the Office of Grants & Fellowships will also function as a point of contact for graduate students and programs as well as campus partners when a graduate student has received an external fellowship. This will facilitate efficient information-sharing on the pre- and post-award sides of graduate student grants and fellowships.