Competitive Graduate Research Fellowship Grant

Competitive Graduate Research Fellowship Grant

Status: ACTIVE
Funder: Maryland Sea Grant
Last Updated: February 15, 2026

Summary

The Competitive Graduate Research Fellowship, offered by Maryland Sea Grant, supports graduate students conducting research on critical issues affecting the Chesapeake Bay and coastal waters. This fellowship emphasizes social relevance and community engagement, particularly focusing on underserved populations. Awarded fellows receive a stipend of $34,000, tuition remission, and travel allowance. A professional mentor is required to ensure research aligns with the needs of resource managers and policy makers. Applications are encouraged from a diverse pool of candidates.

Overview

Maryland Sea Grant (MDSG) supports research, education, and outreach on current and future issues affecting the Chesapeake Bay and Maryland’s coastal waters. One component of our overarching mission is to support graduate education that connects academic research to informing coastal and marine policy and decision making. Toward that goal, we offer this competitive graduate fellowship RFA to support students conducting research within Maryland’s coasts and watersheds. We look to support student research that is socially relevant, particularly for groups traditionally underserved, and is at the intersection of science and applied outcomes. An applicant’s research must be consistent with the Maryland Sea Grant Strategic Plan and address one of the MDSG focus areas: Healthy Coastal EcosystemsSustainable Fisheries and AquacultureResilient Communities and Economies. Our current strategic plan especially emphasizes our commitment to work on issues relevant to coastal resilience and the local impacts of climate change, particularly work that may support underserved and under-resourced communities. As part of this fellowship experience, successful candidates should be committed to expanding their engagement with groups beyond academia and have an interest in applying their research to informing management or policy. As a requirement of the fellowship, fellows must choose and work with a professional mentor (i.e., extension staff, educator, resource manager, or other enduser) to ensure that their project design and research results are responsive to the needs of resource managers, policy makers, educators, industry, NGOs, or other stakeholders. Professional mentors should not be academic scientists. Award Information The two-year fellowship will provide a stipend ($35,000), fringe benefits, tuition remission, and a $2,000 travel allowance for the fellow. Fellows will be paid as graduate research assistants by Maryland Sea Grant, a University System of Maryland institution, following the same model and terms as our Maryland Sea Grant Research Fellowships program. Continued support after the first year will be contingent upon satisfactory performance by the Fellow and the availability of federal funds. The anticipated start date is the fall semester. If your institution requires paying graduate students through its own payroll system, Maryland Sea Grant can provide an institutional award to cover only the $35,000 stipend, fringe benefits, partial tuition remission, and travel allowance up to a total of $55,000 per year. However, additional matching funds contribution may need to be negotiated with the institution to meet the 50% matching requirement above the first $25,000 of the subaward. Typically, these awards would need to be made to the faculty advisor of the student. We will negotiate this arrangement with the institution of the selected students. We anticipate there will be funding available for up to three fellowships. If additional funding becomes available, Maryland Sea Grant reserves the ability to issue additional fellowship awards from the applicant pool.

Eligibility

You can learn more about this opportunity by visiting the funder's website. Students must be enrolled in or admitted to a full-time graduate or professional degree program at a Maryland or Washington, DC academic institution.Students who have not yet enrolled should submit a letter of acceptance from the dean of the graduate program at their new institution with their application package. Students may be working toward any masters or Ph.D. degree, as long as their research is relevant to the mission and strategic plan of MDSG and has an emphasis on Chesapeake or coastal bays and their watersheds.Fellows will be selected based on their demonstrated and potential impact on science and society, their demonstrated interest in connecting research with user communities, the scientific and technical merit of their proposed research project, the relevance of the proposed research to this request for applications, and to MDSG’s mission.