About Graduate Education (DGE)

The Division of Graduate Education (DGE) leads the National Science Foundation’s efforts to attract the most talented US students into graduate studies, and to support them in their quest to become the leading scientists and engineers of the future. In the past year, DGE supported approximately 4500 students in graduate programs in the various STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) fields.

DGE manages three major programs that support graduate studies directly or indirectly.  These include the largest (and oldest) graduate fellowship program that directly supports graduate students in STEM fields, and two innovative programs that pilot and implement new approaches to graduate education designed to serve large numbers of universities across the US. The Division is interested in augmenting and intensifying its efforts to increase the impact of its three programs, and to broaden participation among underrepresented groups of students. 

The Graduate Research Fellowship (GRF) program is the country’s pre-eminent graduate fellowship program in STEM fields.  The GRF provides three years of support within a five-year period, which may be used at any appropriate institution in the US or abroad. NSF Graduate Research fellows have become leaders in their fields, including Nobel Laureates and business giants (such as, one of the co-founders of Google).

The Integrative Graduate Education and Research Traineeship program (IGERT) prepares students to do interdisciplinary and collaborative research in academia, industry, or entrepreneurial ventures.  Created in 1998 to respond to the major graduate reform reports of the last decade, it is succeeding in creating new patterns in graduate education that are gaining in popularity across the nation. 

The Graduate Teaching Fellowships in K-12 Education (GK-12) program prepares its fellows to convey their cutting-edge research to K-12 students and teachers, thereby preparing graduate students with superior communications skills as well as providing a vertical integration of science teaching in the schools.  Through interactions with teachers and students in K-12 schools, graduate students serve as role models while enriching STEM instruction.