September 29, 2025

Note: This petition is related to a previous open letter about lack of clarity on the GRFP this year. In this current petition, we focus more narrowly on and request reversal of the changes in eligilibity.


To: Brian Stone, Micah Cheatham, and Simon Malcomber, National Science Foundation; Victor R. McCrary and Joan Ferrini-Mundy, National Science Board

We in the scientific community have been blindsided by the changes to eligibility for this year’s NSF’s Graduate Research Fellowship Program competition, announced on September 26 (in NSF solicitation 25-547). For the past months, U.S. early-career STEM students have been preparing their applications in anticipation of competing for a GRFP fellowship within their limited window of eligibility. At the same time, they have been awaiting guidance from a GRFP solicitation that was extraordinarily late. The changes to eligibility for this year’s competition, announced on September 26 (in NSF solicitation 25-547), are unfair to members of the applicant community:

  • Second-year graduate students who did not apply last year trusted GRFP’s guidance that they would be eligible to apply once during their first or second year — a policy that has been in place for the last decade.
  • First-year graduate students in 2024 who followed the guidance in NSF 24-591: “Applications withdrawn by November 15 of the application year do not count toward the one-time graduate application limit.” Students who withdrew their applications did so with the expectation of being eligible this year.
  • First-year graduate students who planned to apply next year. Now that they will be ineligible next year, they have a limited window of time to prepare applications, especially given the late publication of the Solicitation.
  • Returning graduate students not currently enrolled (i.e., Level 4) are no longer eligible.

When changes to eligibility were last made in March 2016, allowing students only one chance (rather than two) to apply after enrolling in graduate school, the change was implemented carefully; a Dear Colleague Letter by Assistant EHR Director Joan Ferrini-Mundy (DCL 16-050) was issued with over 7 months’ notice to the community. The students impacted by the change (first year students who had applied in Fall 2015 before the eligibility change) were grandfathered and allowed to apply in Fall 2016. This year’s sudden shift in policy risks losing a two-year cohort of scientific talent and discourages the very students NSF purports to recruit into STEM. It runs counter to the spirit of the NSF Act of 1950 and the 2010 America Competes Act which direct NSF to emphasize graduate preparation for diverse careers.

We urge NSF to reverse the changes and make the process for this year’s applicants fair to those who were eligible based on last year’s rules. We also urge NSF to implement future changes with appropriate notice.

Authors: Daniel I. Bolnick. President, The American Society of Naturalists. Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Connecticut; Jeremy B. Yoder, Associate Professor, Department of Biology at California State University Northridge; Jason Williams, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory; Lauren Kuehne, Omfishient Consulting; Susan E. Brennan, Distinguished Professor of Cognitive Science, Stony Brook University; Joshua S. Weitz, Professor of Biology and Clark Leadership Chair in Data Analytics, University of Maryland, College Park; Gisèle Muller-Parker, Retired NSF GRFP Lead Program Officer (2008-2018).


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Take action

Sign the letter and comment

For maximum impact, we suggest you sign (and share a comment if you are willing) only if you are directly impacted by this year’s changes e.g., student or mentor who intended to apply this year but can’t, or planned to defer the next cycle. Note: if you signed the previous letter, please re-sign here - there is a field to indicate we should include your comments from the prior letter. Including your zip code will also help us summarize and strategically contact Congresspersons in your district.

Share your story

2025 Applicants and advisors Call or email your congressional representatives to share your story and the personal impacts to yourself. You can look up your House Representative and Senators; phone calls are usually best, especially for time-sensitive issues, but emails/web forms are good too.

Past GRFP fellows and applicants Share with social media—how would the current situation have impacted your career? Why does funding graduate research students matter?

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Since we anticipate updates and further actions regarding the 2025 GRFP, please add your name and email if you wish to be informed about additional community responses for the 2025 program. Your email will not be shared. Note: Updates do not communicate official NSF news about GRFP, continue to rely on NSF updates for official news on the program.

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