6 – Research & Training Fellowships

Through generous contributions from former WSU faculty, colleagues, students, and their families and friends, over a dozen endowments have been established to support graduate training and research of students in the School of Biological Sciences. These funds provide excellent opportunities for SBS graduate students to complete their degrees and develop professionally. Descriptions of the supporting endowment award sources are provided in Appendix 6: SBS Grad Student Endowment Award Sources.

6.1 – Applications

The most current version of the application will be emailed to students prior to each deadline.

There are two application due dates each year: October 1 for funds starting in January and March 1 for funds starting in May. However, the October 1 deadline is exclusively reserved for unexpected situations or in cases where requesting funding in March is not feasible (e.g., conference application deadlines).

Applications in fall require very strong justification. Applications exceeding $2000 are likely not granted. It is at GPC’s discretion and the amount of available funds in fall whether requests will be supported.

Applications must include a letter from the student’s thesis advisor that states they have seen and approved the student’s justification and the allocation of funds requested.

The application, including the thesis advisor’s support letter, must be submitted in a single pdf to the SBS Graduate Coordinator by 5:00pm on the due date. The name of the combined file must be in the following format:

Lastname.Firstname.Term[F20xx or S20xx].R&TFellowship.pdf

6.2 – Eligibility

SBS thesis-MS or PhD student in good standing.

Although a student may apply for a fellowship before their Program of Study (POS) has been submitted, they cannot receive or expend an award until their POS has been filed formally with the Graduate School.

6.3 – Award Limitations and Adjustments

Awards for a given deadline are limited by endowment funds

available at the time of application.

Adjustments to funding requests will consider cumulative caps (currently up to $12,000 for PhD candidates and $3000 for MS students (but total amounts may be subject to change), requests by different students for the same activity (e.g., costs to attend a specific conference), and possibly other factors (e.g., the necessity of foreign travel for training also available domestically).

Relatively large requests will require more extensive justification and may be subject to greater reductions than smaller requests if reductions are necessary.

6.4 – Stipulations

Awards cannot be used for purposes other than those described in the application. Stipends, once awarded, cannot be re- budgeted as direct research funds.

Unused funds will be reclaimed automatically after the period passed the award was granted for (May 15 (end of the academic year) for October applications; February 28 of the following year for March 1 applications). Extensions may be granted but need to be supported by strong justifications.

Extension requests need to be submitted to GPC at least 2 months before the respective deadline is reached otherwise cannot be considered. Only expended amounts will count against a student’s cumulative cap.