Graduate Student Competitive Grant Program

The College of Agricultural Sciences Graduate Student Competitive Grant Program is sponsored by the College of Agricultural Science’s Office for Research and Graduate Education. This program is a unique opportunity available to graduate students advised by College of Agricultural Sciences (CAS) faculty. The program serves as professional development for all CAS graduate students by providing real-life grant writing and budget building experience to seek funds to support master's and doctoral research. It is anticipated that up to $40,000 will be awarded during this funding cycle.

Download the RFA (available soon)

Eligibility

  • All applicants must be full-time resident students enrolled in a college or intercollege graduate degree program, and have a primary adviser who is a CAS faculty member.
  • All applicants submitting proposals for the 2025/2026 fiscal year are highly encouraged to attend the Competitive Grants Program Workshop scheduled on Thursday, September 4 from 1:30-3 pm in 106 AVBS Building or see links below under Related Information for the recording after September 4th.
  • Master's students can be in their first or second semester (or later) of their graduate degree program and may not have received a previous CAS Graduate Student Competitive Grant.
  • Doctoral students must have successfully completed their qualifying exam by the time of the funding announcement in earIy December 2025 and may not have received a previous CAS Graduate Student Competitive Grant as a doctoral student.  Students are eligible to receive funding once per degree program so students may apply for a grant as a doctoral student, even if they received one as a master's student.  Change of degree program students are only eligible to receive funding once during their degree program.

Due Dates and Funding Decisions

To start the process of scheduling a meeting, creating your cover page, and developing your budget with the Office of Grants and Contracts, please complete a NOTICE OF INTENT (NOI)online form no later than Thursday, September 18. Instructions and details to assist in completing this important step will be addressed during the workshop and subsequent recording.

Initial budget meeting with the Office of Grants and Contracts by Thursday, October 2, 2025. 

Budget/budget justification completed and signed-off by the Office of Grants and Contracts by Thursday, October 9, 2025.

Applications will be submitted via Penn State’s InfoReady system. The complete application must be submitted by Thursday, October 16, 2025 at 11:59 pm, to be considered. Only complete applications that are received by the deadline date will be considered and evaluated. Please plan accordingly as the submission system will go offline after the deadline has passed.

Applications will be reviewed by a panel of CAS faculty and postdocs. Decisions will be made in late November and announced in early December.

Submission Process through InfoReady

Complete application packages will consist of the following required fields in InfoReady:

Personal Details: Including information for both the applicant, program, and advisor.

Proposal Details: Including Title and Abstract. The abstract is limited to approximately 200 words. This will be used for outreach purposes and should be written clearly so that it is understandable to a layperson. If selected for funding, this abstract will be uploaded to the CAS Research and Graduate Education website.

Uploaded Files: All files must be uploaded as a pdf.

  • Cover Page: This page will be developed by the Office of Grants and Contracts, and will require signatures. Once completed, review the document to be certain that all certifications are complete and all required signatures have been obtained. 
  • Proposal: Limit the body of the proposal to four (4) pages (excluding references) and number your proposal pages. Use a typeface at a font size of 11 point or larger, line spacing of single or 1.5 lines, and one or 0.5 inch margins for ease in online readability. All graphs and images will be considered part of the four-page proposal.

    The following headings must be included, in order, in the proposal:
    Project Rationale: Introduce the research problem.
    Background Information: Selective review of literature of the research problem.
    Description of Proposed Research: Include research questions and methodology.
    Impact of Research: Discuss the contribution that the research will make to societal issues.
  • Budget and Budget Justification: Must be developed in consultation with the Office of Grants and Contracts after the Notice of Intent (NOI) is submitted (see Due Date section above). The maximum budget for a Master's award is $2,000 and a Doctoral award is $3,000. Expenditures can include, but are not limited to lab supplies, wage payroll, animal care costs, DNA sequencing, analysis of soil samples, travel to research sites, and software for data analysis. Graduate student stipend including summer stipend, tuition, and travel to attend scientific meetings are unallowable expenses.

    Justification should include a narrative paragraph(s) explaining briefly the rationale for each budget item requested.               
    Awarded funds will be effective starting on January 1, 2026 and must be expended by December 31, 2026.
  • Curriculum Vita (CV): A two-page maximum CV of applicant.

Review Criteria

Proposals will be reviewed and evaluated based on the following criteria:

  • Background information that frames the context of the proposal. Does the background information including the referred literature and/or preliminary research provide a context and/or justification for the research being proposed? How does this research fill a gap in knowledge?
  • Clarity of the statement of problem and hypothesis. Does the project address an important problem or a critical barrier to progress in the field? If the aims/objectives of the project are achieved, how will scientific knowledge be improved?
  • Procedures/methodology address the hypothesis and objectives of the proposal. Is the overall strategy, methodology, and analyses well-reasoned and appropriate to accomplish the specific aims of the project? Are potential problems and alternative strategies presented, if applicable?
  • Clarity of expression – writing style and proposal organization. Does the writing and organization of the proposal facilitate understanding of the project? If figures are used, do they contribute to understanding of the project?
  • Budget and budget justification. Is the proposed budget reasonable and appropriate?  Is it clear how the grant funding will be used and fits in the context of other project funding, if needed?

Questions

If you have questions about the application process, please contact graded@psu.edu.

Related Information

A recording of the Graduate Student Competitive Grants Workshop will be made available after September 4, 2025.