National Science Foundation Research Traineeship Program (NRT) | Apply Online

Opportunity Summary:

The National Science Foundation Research Traineeship Program (NRT) is a discretionary grant program intended to push graduate STEM education beyond traditional models by supporting bold, potentially transformative, and scalable approaches to training. The core idea is to ensure that graduate students in research-based masters and doctoral programs build the real-world skills, knowledge, and professional competencies needed to thrive across a wide spectrum of STEM careers, not just academic research pathways. NRT emphasizes training that responds to changing workforce demands and evolving research directions, with an expectation that supported models can be adopted or adapted more broadly if they prove effective.

The opportunity is organized into two distinct tracks: the Traineeship Track and the Innovations in Graduate Education (IGE) Track. The Traineeship Track focuses on building and running a comprehensive traineeship model that trains STEM graduate students in high-priority interdisciplinary research areas. In this track, NSF is looking for training programs that are innovative and evidence-based, aligned with workforce and research needs, and designed in a way that can scale. For this solicitation, the highlighted priority interdisciplinary research theme is Data-Enabled Science and Engineering (DESE), meaning proposals that integrate data-intensive approaches, computational methods, and data-driven discovery across STEM fields are especially encouraged. At the same time, NSF indicates it will also consider traineeship proposals built around other interdisciplinary themes, as long as they represent a national priority.

The IGE Track, by contrast, is not primarily about operating a full traineeship program in a specific research theme. Instead, it is designed as a testing ground for new ideas in graduate education. Projects under IGE are expected to pilot, test, and evaluate novel and potentially transformative approaches to graduate training, whether within a single discipline or across disciplines. The emphasis is on generating useful knowledge about what works, under what conditions, and how an approach might be customized and implemented elsewhere. In other words, while the Traineeship Track is oriented toward improving training by building on existing knowledge and best practices, the IGE Track is oriented toward expanding the knowledge base itself through experimentation, evaluation, and evidence that supports broader adoption and transferability.

Across both tracks, NSF encourages strategic collaborations that connect graduate education to real practice settings and diverse career pathways. Partnerships may involve private-sector organizations, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), government agencies, national laboratories, field stations, teaching and learning centers, museums, and other academic partners. These collaborations are positioned as a way to strengthen training relevance, provide experiential learning opportunities, and help students develop competencies that match career realities in multiple sectors.

From an administrative standpoint, this opportunity is offered by the National Science Foundation as a grant under the science and technology and other research and development activity category. The funding opportunity number is 15-542 (NSF Publication 15-542). NSF anticipated making about 30 awards under this solicitation, with an estimated total funding level of $37,880,793. The opportunity is associated with multiple NSF CFDA program numbers spanning major STEM and STEM-education domains, including engineering, mathematical and physical sciences, geosciences, computer and information science and engineering, biological sciences, social, behavioral, and economic sciences, education and human resources, and international science and engineering. The solicitation states there is no cost sharing or matching requirement.

Eligibility depends on the track. For the Traineeship Track, proposals may be submitted by U.S.-accredited universities and colleges with a U.S.-located campus, acting on behalf of their faculty members, and that award a research-based masters and/or doctoral degree in an NSF-supported STEM discipline. The principal investigator (PI) for a Traineeship Track proposal must be a faculty member at the submitting institution. For the IGE Track, proposer eligibility follows the categories identified in the NSF Grant Proposal Guide (Chapter 1, Section E), and the solicitation notes there are no restrictions or limits on who may serve as PI for IGE proposals.

Key dates in the posted record include an original posting date of February 10, 2015, with an original closing date of May 6, 2015, and a later current closing date listed as February 22, 2016, with an archive date of March 23, 2016. For access issues with the full announcement, the listed support contact is NSF grants.gov support at grantsgovsupport@nsf.gov.

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