Integrative Graduate Education and Research Traineeship Program | Apply Online

Opportunity Summary:

The Integrative Graduate Education and Research Traineeship Program (IGERT) was a National Science Foundation (NSF) grant opportunity designed to reshape how Ph.D. scientists and engineers are trained in the United States. Its central goal was to build new, replicable models of graduate education that go beyond traditional department boundaries and prepare doctoral students to work comfortably in interdisciplinary teams. IGERT emphasized producing graduates who not only have deep expertise in a core discipline, but who also develop the technical breadth, professional skills, and personal leadership abilities needed to tackle complex problems that do not fit neatly into a single field. A major thread running through the program was the expectation that trainees would be educated in a collaborative research environment where cross-disciplinary interaction is routine rather than exceptional.

A defining feature of this particular IGERT solicitation was its added focus on innovation and societal benefit. Building on the broader IGERT platform, the solicitation aimed to support training environments where students learn through hands-on experience how their research can contribute to society in new ways. In practice, that meant encouraging programs that teach students not just to produce new knowledge, but also to understand pathways for implementation, translation, and real-world impact. The solicitation sought models that help students learn the processes behind successful contributions, which can include working with external partners, understanding how discoveries move into use, and developing the communication and project skills that make those outcomes more likely.

The opportunity sat within NSF's broad Science and Technology and other Research and Development funding activity category and was offered as a discretionary grant program. It covered a wide range of disciplinary areas represented by multiple NSF CFDA listings, including engineering, mathematical and physical sciences, geosciences, computer and information science and engineering, biological sciences, social, behavioral, and economic sciences, education and human resources, polar programs, international science and engineering, cyberinfrastructure, and EPSCoR. That broad listing reflected IGERT's intent to be inherently cross-cutting and to support training programs that could draw on strengths across many parts of NSF's portfolio rather than being confined to a single directorate.

From a funding and competition standpoint, the solicitation anticipated 18 awards with an estimated total funding amount of $13.5 million. It also included a cost sharing or matching requirement, meaning proposing institutions were expected to contribute resources alongside NSF funds. Key dates included a required letter of intent deadline (by 5 p.m. local time) and full proposal deadlines in 2011 and 2012. The opportunity was originally posted March 10, 2011, with an original closing date of July 1, 2011, later including a 2012 cycle, and it was ultimately archived on July 31, 2014.

Eligibility was primarily limited to U.S. Ph.D.-granting academic institutions located in the United States or its territories and possessions. The submitting (lead) institution needed to grant the Ph.D. in at least one NSF-supported STEM field, and at least one Ph.D.-granting unit was expected to participate in the IGERT. While multi-institution projects were allowed and even encouraged when they strengthened the training environment, a single institution had to take overall management responsibility. Non-Ph.D.-granting institutions, nonacademic organizations, and international organizations could participate as collaborators, which aligned with the program's emphasis on broader professional preparation and exposure to diverse research and implementation settings. The principal investigator had to be a faculty member at the submitting institution, reinforcing the expectation that the training program would be embedded in the institution's graduate education structure and supported by accountable academic leadership.

Overall, this IGERT opportunity was about institutional-level innovation in doctoral training: creating structured, interdisciplinary traineeship environments that combine rigorous research with intentional professional development, active collaboration across fields, and a strong commitment to broadening participation. The solicitation also made clear that NSF was looking for programs that help trainees connect research to societal outcomes, not as an afterthought, but as a learned skill set developed through experience within the training model itself.

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