This page is crowd-sourced from faculty, students, and staff within the UMASS Amherst Nursing PhD Program. We know there are far more funding opportunities out there than are catalogued on this page alone, if you have an update or resource you'd like to share, we encourage you to reach out to Dr. Rae Walker (r.walker@umass.edu) who can add it and/or provide you with editing privileges.
We strongly encourage current and accepted PhD students to review these opportunities, in consultation with your advisors and other mentors. In addition to the funding opportunities listed on this page, many Nursing PhD students cover costs of full-time tuition and curriculum fees for each semester through work as a Graduate Teaching Assistant.
The College of Nursing participates in the Nurse Faculty Loan Repayment Program (NFLP). For more information about applying for these loans, and associated deadlines, please contact the CON Business Office (conbiz@nursing.umass.edu).
The UMASS Graduate School maintains a number of internal funding opportunities including dissertation-related grants, travel grants, and other scholarship opportunities through both the Graduate School and other centers and institutes on-campus. Their website also provides links to external funding opportunities, such as grants from the U.S. Federal government (NIH, NSF) and private foundations.
You can also access an exhaustive list of predoctoral external funding opportunities that are continuously updated and maintained by staff at Johns Hopkins University, here:
Predoctoral Funding Opportunities: https://research.jhu.edu/rdt/funding-opportunities/graduate/
Postdoctoral & Early Career Faculty Funding Opportunities: https://research.jhu.edu/rdt/funding-opportunities/early-career/
The College of Nursing's Office of Nursing Research is another resource where PhD students can seek consultation on possible funding to support specific types of research or dissertation projects. Staff member Monika Valecic (mvalecic@umass.edu) and Associate Dean for Research Michael Lepore (mlepore@umass.edu) are available for one-on-one meetings to discuss research ideas and possible grant opportunities.
And here are additional funding opportunities associated with Sigma Nursing International Nursing Honor Society. Chapter-level research grants in the amount of ~$1000 are also awarded from STTI Chapter-at-Large Beta Zeta, this call for applications usually goes out in mid-spring each year and usually due by the end of April. Please contact Chapter award chair Joan Khunly (jkhunly@westfield.ma.edu) with questions.
Funding Opportunities Specific to New PhD Applicants:
EMCON faculty with access to funding via large external grants and centers sponsor predoctoral trainees via graduate research assistantships, awarded on a case-by-case basis. Decisions about these assistantships are made at the time of admission and when new funds become available.
As such: Applicants to the PhD Program are STRONGLY ENCOURAGED to identify potential faculty advisors in their applications for admission. In order to write the strongest application possible, we also recommend connecting with prospective faculty advisors prior to the Admissions Priority Deadline, in order to craft the most responsive application possible.
This is especially true for situations where faculty funds through grants or centers may be used to provide financial sponsorship of a students' predoctoral studies. Decisions about funding commitments for PhD study are made AT THE TIME OF ADMISSION and included in the offer of admission.
PhD Applicants interested in pursuing predoctoral fellowship opportunities through the Elaine Marieb Center for Nursing and Engineering Innovation are strongly encouraged to connect with the center when crafting their applications. You can contact the center via email to Genevieve Sawyer (GGSawyer@umass.edu)
UMass has predoctoral fellowship opportunities that may be of interest to prospective students. These include the following opportunity available to applicants from groups under-represented within the college of nursing or the discipline as a whole:
Research Enhancement And Leadership (REAL) Fellows: Application for these fellowships is part of the Graduate School application process and the decision for awarding of a fellowship is made prior to matriculation into the PhD program.
Consideration for other forms of Predoctoral Training sponsorship available through the EMCON, such as graduate teaching assistantships (TAships), is made at the time of application to the program.
Funding Opportunities specific to International Students are also noted below.
Additional funding opportunities for International Students
American Association for University Women: International Fellowships – AAUW: Empowering Women Since 1881
Peace International Scholarship: About the P.E.O. International Peace Scholarship (IPS) | P.E.O. International
Heilbrunn Nurse Scholar: https://heilbrunnfamilyrfp.rucares.org/