Academic year 2021-2022

Description: The Dean of the SPHHS will offer up to seven Ph.D. fellowships to nationally-competitive new doctoral student applicants. The intent of this program is to facilitate the recruitment of top-quality doctoral students to the SPHHS.  We especially encourage nominations of students who will contribute to promoting equity and inclusion within our graduate programs.

Term of appointment: Each fellowship is for one year but may be renewed for a second year (see instructions below to apply for a 2nd year of funding).

Stipend: Each fellow will receive up to $15,000 per year from the Dean’s office.

All funds received from the Dean’s office must be matched by either Departmental funds or faculty funds (minimum $10,000 per year). Dean’s funding will begin in September and end in May. Additional funding beyond the combined $25,000 is encouraged, such as grant funding during the summer.

Requirements:

1. Each fellow will be recruited by a specific faculty member who will commit to funding two years of the fellow’s program for a minimum of $10,000/year. This commitment can be from departmental funds (including funding as TA), the specific faculty’s grants, RTF, or start-up.
2. During year one of the fellowship, the recipient must maintain excellent academic standing, and either present a poster and/or submit a scientific abstract to a national meeting, or be a coauthor on a manuscript.  Presentations at the SPHHS Research Day do not meet this requirement.
3. If a fellowship is awarded for a second year, during that year, the fellow must apply for an external pre-doctoral fellowship.  Examples of appropriate grant applications include a National Science Foundation (NSF) Graduate Research Fellowship, the Ford Pre-doctoral Diversity Fellowship or other fellowship appropriate to the student’s discipline. More information is provided below.
4. Preference will be given to potential applicants who are residing in the US at the time of application.
5. Preference will be given to applicants who already have a master’s level degree or equivalent.  Students currently enrolled in a UMASS master’s degree program are eligible to apply. 

Application and Evaluation Process:

1. Applications should be sent electronically to Karen Lovely. Applications will be reviewed in two rounds. Initial fellowship requests are due no later than January 29th, and the second round is due no later than February 19th. After that date, applications will be accepted on a rolling basis and funded only if monies are available.
2. A full application to include the following:
   • The full Graduate school application packet.
   • A statement from the nominating faculty member of how this applicant will complement the faculty’s research with a plan as to what the student will be contributing.
   • A statement from the chair/faculty committing the funds for the department/faculty share over the course of the fellow’s tenure including specific source.
3. Applications will be reviewed by the the Associate Deans for Research and Graduate Studies with a final decision made by the Dean.  If possible, final decisions will be made in time to offer the potential student funding along with his or her acceptance into the specific department’s Ph.D. program.
4. To be considered for a continuation of the fellowship into a second year, faculty must electronically submit evidence of excellent academic standing, a copy of the abstract, poster, or manuscript submitted in year 1, and the name of the fellowship program(s) which the applicant intends to apply to in year 2.  Email materials to Karen Lovely.

Potential indicators of nationally-competitive students:

• Presentations at national meetings and/or peer-reviewed publications.
• Experience in writing for and/or receiving extramural funds.

Potential nationally-competitive fellowship programs:

1. The Fogarty Institute has potential sources for pre-doctoral funding on their website.
2. NIH has funding for diversity in Health related research, including the Ruth L. Kirschstein National Research Service Awards for Individual Predoctoral Fellowships to Promote Diversity in Health-Related Research. 
3. National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship Program.
4. Additional fellowship opportunities can be found using the following search engine: https://app.grad.illinois.edu/fellowship-finder/

For information on additional opportunities and guidance, graduate students are encouraged to contact the Graduate Student Grant Services Office.

We will not be offering this award in 2020-2021. 

Please see below for INFORMATIONAL PURPOSES only.

Faculty in the School of Public Health and Health Sciences (SPHHS) may apply to the Dean’s office for funding to enhance an existing or new research program.  The goal of this award program is to assist the faculty member in generating preliminary data needed to strengthen larger extramural grant applications. We anticipate that the average size of these awards will be $10,000.  With strong justification, proposals requesting up to $20,000 will be considered for funding. A maximum of five Research Enhancement Opportunities will be awarded per year.

All full-time faculty at the SPHHS are eligible to apply.  Faculty members are eligible to receive only one Research Enhancement Opportunity award every two years.

Funds will be available for the semester and/or summer following the award unless extenuating circumstances require funds more quickly, and may not be used for faculty salary. Faculty receiving this award are required to submit a 1-page final report within 3 months of project completion that describes project outcomes and submitted/planned grant applications related to the award. 

To apply for funds a faculty member must submit the following:

1. A description of the proposed project (up to 2 pages, single spaced).  Describe what you are proposing to do and why.  Address both significance of the research area, and how this award will provide preliminary data for a larger extramural grant application.   
2. A current CV.
3. An itemized budget, timeline and scope of work for the project. Awardees will be required to keep an itemized budget of expenditures.
4. The dollar amount of RTF and/or start-up funds currently available to the applicant.
5. A copy of the RFP including due dates for the grant application to which the faculty member intends to submit.
6. An email from the Department Chair indicating support of the application.

All materials should be emailed with the header “Dean’s Research Enhancement Opportunity 2019-2020” with one pdf document attached. The email should be sent to Karen Lovely in the Associate Dean’s office with a copy to Dean Anna Maria Siega-Riz (asiegariz@umass.edu ) and Associate Dean for Research & Administration Sue Hankinson sueh@umass.edu) by Friday, October 25, 2019.