The CSGrad4US Fellowship Program

The Computing Research Association (CRA) will manage the Computer and Information Science and Engineering (CISE) Graduate Fellowship (CSGrad4US) Program with the aim of increasing the number and diversity of domestic graduate students pursuing research and innovation careers in the CISE fields. Many undergraduate degree recipients have outstanding job opportunities in industry and at other organizations, and only a small fraction of these individuals considers pursuing a computing-related doctoral degree program.

The CSGrad4US Fellowship provides an opportunity for bachelor’s degree holders who may be working in industry or other sectors to return to academia and pursue research-based doctoral degrees in a CISE field. This program has the potential to impact the domestic CISE PhD pipeline and production by providing the monetary incentives and the supports for people to successfully apply and persist in a doctoral program.

The program strongly encourages people from groups that are underrepresented in computing to apply. The evaluation will provide insight into the characteristics of pathways into and through PhD programs for individuals returning from the workforce, including a model of mentoring and professional development that can be used to support a more diverse, domestic student population.

Building upon past experience with the CSGrad4US Mentoring Program and Computing Innovation Fellows, CRA will administer all phases of the CSGrad4US Fellowship including: outreach and recruitment of potential applicants; facilitating the fellowship application process; identifying reviewers and conducting panel reviews; selecting applicants according to program goals, running a mentoring program for participants starting with the application process and going throughout the PhD program; making awards to CSGrad4US institutions of higher education; conducting ongoing evaluation to assess outcomes and track participants, and disseminating the findings. CSGrad4US includes providing up to 70 selected individuals each year mentored preparation, followed by three years of fellowship support for graduate study that leads to a research-based doctoral degree in a CISE discipline at an accredited doctoral degree-granting institution of higher education having a campus located in the United States, its territories or possessions, or the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico.

This project builds upon the lessons learned from the CSGrad4US Mentoring Program developed by CRA’s Committees on Education (CRA-E) and Widening Participation (CRA-WP).

This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.