NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Program (GRFP): FY2027

Captured cycle: This page is retained for historical guidance. Confirm whether the program has reopened before planning an application.

NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Program (GRFP): FY2027

The U.S. National Science Foundation’s Graduate Research Fellowship Program (GRFP) supports early-career researchers pursuing full-time, research-based master’s and doctoral degrees in eligible science, technology, engineering, and mathematics fields. NSF has published the FY2027 competition in solicitation NSF 26-526. Applications are open, with deadlines assigned by Major Field of Study. This is a live competition, not an archive of the previous round.

The fellowship recognizes the potential of the individual applicant and supports graduate education; it is not a project grant paid directly to a laboratory. A fellowship provides up to three years of financial support that may be used over a five-year fellowship period. For each support year NSF provides a $37,000 stipend and a $16,000 Cost of Education allowance to the institution in lieu of tuition and mandatory fees. The award is administered through the Fellow’s institution, which disburses the stipend. NSF’s current program and solicitation pages control if any detail changes.

FY2027 deadlines and current status

NSF requires an application by 8:00 p.m. Eastern Time on the date assigned to the first Major Field of Study selected in the application. The FY2027 deadlines are:

• October 19, 2026: Life Sciences.
• October 20, 2026: Computer and Information Science and Engineering; Materials Research; Psychology; and Social Sciences.
• October 22, 2026: Engineering.
• October 23, 2026: Chemistry; Geosciences; Mathematical Sciences; and Physics and Astronomy.

All reference letters must be submitted in Research.gov by 8:00 p.m. Eastern Time on October 16, 2026. These cutoffs are fixed in the solicitation, and NSF says the application module will not accept submissions after the applicable deadline. The metadata deadline above uses the last field deadline so that the page has one machine-readable date; it does not replace the earlier deadline for applicants in other fields or the reference-letter cutoff.

The current solicitation is NSF 26-526, covering the FY2027 competition. Before beginning, applicants should read its full eligibility, research-area exclusions, statement formatting rules, and appendix of eligible fields and subfields. NSF revised application preparation and eligibility instructions for this cycle, so materials prepared for a previous competition should be checked against the current rules.

Award and study supported

GRFP offers up to three years of support within a five-year fellowship period. Each year of support consists of a $37,000 stipend for a 12-month tenure period and a $16,000 Cost of Education allowance paid to the institution. The institution receives these funds and handles stipend disbursement. NSF’s solicitation describes the Cost of Education allowance as payment in lieu of tuition and mandatory fees; the institution is responsible for tuition and required fees above that allowance. Fellows may transfer the fellowship to another institution after completing the first fellowship year, subject to program requirements.

The fellowship supports the Fellow, rather than a fixed research project. Applicants describe a graduate education plan and proposed research to show their preparation and potential. An awardee must enroll full-time in an accredited, nonprofit graduate degree-granting institution with a campus in the United States, its territories or possessions, or the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico. The intended degree must be an eligible research-based master’s or doctoral degree in STEM and include a thesis. There is no service or payback requirement described for Fellows.

Who may apply

Applicants must be U.S. citizens, U.S. nationals, or permanent residents by the application deadline and again at fellowship acceptance if offered an award. A pending citizenship application or a visa does not satisfy the citizenship requirement. Applicants also must intend to enroll in, or already be enrolled in, an eligible research-based STEM graduate program by the fall term of the calendar year in which they accept the fellowship. They must meet the listed academic level and all other requirements both when applying and when accepting an award.

The eligible academic categories are:

• A current undergraduate senior in the final year of a bachelor’s program.
• A bachelor’s degree holder who has never enrolled in a graduate degree program.
• A student in a joint bachelor’s-master’s program who is in the final undergraduate year or first graduate year of that joint program.
• A first-year graduate student in the first graduate degree program, with less than one academic year of graduate study completed according to the institution’s academic calendar at the application deadline.

The registrar-issued transcript determines graduate status for this eligibility calculation. Summer research that is part of the graduate degree program counts as graduate activity. Graduate coursework taken without enrollment in a graduate degree-granting program does not count toward the one-year limit. Second-year graduate students are not eligible. Undergraduate seniors and bachelor’s degree holders with no prior graduate degree enrollment may apply in multiple competitions before enrolling in graduate study; joint bachelor’s-master’s students may apply once in the final undergraduate or first graduate year of the joint program; and other graduate students may apply once, in the first year of their first graduate program. Each eligible person may submit only one application in this annual competition.

The solicitation’s eligible Major Fields of Study are Chemistry; Computer and Information Sciences and Engineering; Engineering; Geosciences; Life Sciences; Materials Research; Mathematical Sciences; Physics and Astronomy; Psychology; and Social Sciences. Each has eligible subfields listed in the solicitation appendix. Applicants must select a field and subfield that correspond to the proposed graduate program and research plan. Interdisciplinary research is allowed, but reviewers assess an application under its first selected Major Field of Study, and that field sets the deadline.

GRFP excludes professional degrees and graduate programs that are primarily course-based without a thesis. The solicitation lists ineligible degree programs and areas including business administration, public health, social work, law, medicine, pharmacy, veterinary medicine, dentistry, clinical and counseling psychology, and practice-oriented clinical or patient-care programs. It also excludes specified research areas, including research directed at human disease diagnosis or treatment, drug development and testing, population-based medical intervention trials, and certain applied policy, agricultural, or resource-management goals. The solicitation has carefully limited exceptions for some engineering and fundamental materials, mathematical, physical, computer, or information science research. Borderline topics should be compared with the precise language and subfields in NSF 26-526; a department name alone does not establish eligibility.

Applicants must never have previously accepted a GRFP fellowship. Anyone previously offered a fellowship must have declined by the applicable declination deadline. Current NSF employees are ineligible. Because eligibility depends on degree enrollment, research topic, field, citizenship, and institutional status, applicants should resolve uncertainties with their registrar or academic advisor and then confirm against the solicitation.

Application materials and submission

Applications must be prepared and submitted through the NSF GRFP Application Module in Research.gov. NSF does not accept applications sent by email or physical mail. The application includes personal information; education, work, and other experience; transcript PDFs; the proposed field of study; proposed graduate study and graduate-school information; two statement PDFs; and the names and email addresses of at least three reference writers. Use the module’s Application Completion Status feature to make sure all required materials have arrived before the relevant cutoff.

The two statements are the Personal, Relevant Background, and Future Goals Statement, limited to three pages, and the Graduate Research Plan Statement, limited to two pages. The page limit includes references, citations, figures, images, and publication or presentation lists. Both statements must contain separate, individually headed sections for Intellectual Merit and Broader Impacts. Follow the solicitation’s formatting requirements for page size, margins, typeface, font size, line spacing, accessibility descriptions for visuals, and PDF submission. Applicants certify that both statements are their own original work and must follow NSF scholarship and attribution rules.

Official undergraduate transcripts are required and must show the applicant’s most recent academic status. Graduate transcripts may be unofficial only when an institution does not provide official transcripts for first-year, first-academic-term graduate students. Upload unencrypted PDFs and redact personal information identified by NSF, including birth dates, Social Security numbers, financial details, home addresses, and personal email addresses. Check that the transcript documents the enrollment status needed to establish eligibility.

Applicants enter at least three reference writers and may list up to five. Writers cannot be family members, and the names cannot be changed after the application is submitted. Reference writers submit letters separately through the NSF Reference Letter System. At least two letters must arrive by the October 16 cutoff for the application to be reviewed. Letters have a two-page limit, must be signed, and should address Intellectual Merit, Broader Impacts, the writer’s relationship to the applicant, academic potential, prior research, proposed research, and other relevant evidence. Confirm email addresses before submitting the application and check that each requested letter shows as received.

Choose the first field of study carefully: it determines both the deadline and the disciplinary reviewers. NSF returns applications without review when the chosen field does not align with the research plan and degree program. For an interdisciplinary proposal, identify the eligible primary field and subfield that best match the research and intended graduate study. Applicants may revise an application before their field deadline, but the module does not accept a late application.

A practical preparation sequence

1. Read NSF 26-526 and verify citizenship, academic level, prior application history, proposed degree, institution, field, subfield, and research eligibility before investing in final materials.
2. Ask the registrar how the institution records graduate enrollment and summer activity. Confirm that transcript records clearly establish the applicant’s status at the deadline.
3. Develop a coherent account of preparation, goals, and research potential. The plan should identify a meaningful question, a plausible approach, and the training context without presenting a first-year student as if a dissertation were already complete.
4. Draft both statements to the current page limits. Address Intellectual Merit and Broader Impacts under separate headings in each. Keep the research direction, field choice, graduate plans, and reference-letter evidence aligned.
5. Request transcripts early, prepare compliant PDFs, and approach reference writers with enough time for them to submit through the portal. Share the criteria and a concise account of your work so letters can provide concrete evidence.
6. Use the portal to check document acceptance, reference receipt, field selection, and completion status. the captured-cycle instructions asked applicants to submit before 8:00 p.m. Eastern Time on the applicable date, then retain the confirmation.

The steps above reflect this cycle’s published requirements. The application module and solicitation are authoritative for any detail not covered here or changed by NSF.

Review and selection

GRFP applications are reviewed by disciplinary and interdisciplinary scientists, engineers, and graduate-education experts. Reviewers use NSF’s two merit-review criteria: Intellectual Merit and Broader Impacts. Intellectual Merit concerns the potential to advance knowledge and the applicant’s preparation and promise. Broader Impacts concerns potential benefits to society, education, participation in STEM, communication, and the scientific and engineering workforce.

A strong application makes the relationship among experience, research direction, graduate training, and impact easy to follow. It provides specific evidence rather than relying on broad claims. A focused research plan should make clear what will be investigated, why the question matters, what approach is feasible, and how the work could contribute. Broader Impacts are more persuasive when they identify an audience and a concrete activity or outcome. References can add independent evidence about the applicant’s readiness and potential. The fellowship is awarded to people, so the proposal demonstrates the applicant’s capacity and plans rather than binding them to carry out one exact project unchanged.

Official links

• NSF GRFP program page
• FY2027 solicitation NSF 26-526
• Research.gov GRFP Application Module
• NSF applicant FAQ

For system-access problems, the solicitation directs applicants to the NSF Service Desk. Program-specific requirements and eligibility are explained in NSF 26-526. Review that notice directly before submitting, especially for eligible subfields, research exclusions, and document formatting.