Purpose
To provide clarification on stipend support beyond the standard funding package for Ph.D. students who receive the NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Program (GRFP).
Each GRFP Fellow is expected to devote full time to scientific study and/or related professional development opportunities during the five-year fellowship period. It is generally accepted by the NSF that assistantships, internships, and traineeships, or similar activity, constitute a valuable part of the education and training of many graduate students. Because such opportunities may arise during a tenure year, a Fellow on tenure may choose to undertake a reasonable amount of such activities with the approval of The Graduate School’s GRFP Coordinating Official, in alignment with the most recently published GRFP Administrative Guide. It is expected that furtherance of the Fellow's educational objectives and the gain of substantive teaching or other experience will govern these activities.
Stipend support for teaching is determined by Duke University. Fellows are permitted to teach 1–2 courses per academic year. During this time a Fellow cannot be supported by their advisor’s research grants for the teaching the course.
For further information, please refer to The Graduate School's Ph.D. stipend supplementation policy.
Further Information
Further information can be found on The Graduate School's Ph.D. stipend supplementation policy page. Please direct further questions to grad-fellowships@duke.edu.
Internships and traineeships may be accepted, provided they are not funded by federal sources and are reviewed by the University’s GRFP Coordinating Official (CO) to ensure compliance, before any funding is disbursed.
Fellows are permitted to solicit and accept, from the NSF or other federal and private sources, support for research expenses, such as laboratory supplies, instrumentation usage fees, field‐station usage fees, travel expenses, conference/registration fees, workshop expenses, or subscription fees. Fellows are not permitted to accept COE or stipend funding from other NSF programs or other federal sources during the five-year GRFP period. For Fellows on tenure, support for living expenses associated with off‐site research activities will require approval by the GRFP’s CO. Fellows are required to check with their GRFP Institution about specific policies pertaining to acceptance of any non‐federal fellowships.
GRFP Fellowships cannot be concurrently accepted or combined with support from another individually awarded federally funded fellowship. GRFP fellows on tenure who are offered additional stipend support, whether it be from your program for a TA/RA supplement, from other Duke offices, or external to Duke entirely, must submit a written request for supplemental stipend review to grad‐fellowships@duke.edu before accepting any funding. While the NSF GRFP allows students to accept certain types of supplemental stipend without NSF review, it is The Graduate School’s requirement that additional support must be reviewed in advance, in a consistent and transparent manner, to meet NSF compliance reporting requirements.
If an NSF GRFP fellow on tenure is offered supplemental stipend the fellow must email grad-fellowships@duke.edu the following information to request review/approval:
- Proposed start and end dates of supplement
- Fund code that will pay the stipend, if the funding is internal to Duke
- Proposed monthly rate
- Brief description of the activity involved it entails instruction, research, internship, or other effort
- The faculty advisor or DGS must provide a written documentation attesting support of the assignment for training and/or professional development purposes.
i. Primary Contact: grad-fellowships@duke.edu
ii. Last reviewed: July 2026