About NDSEG

The DoD, through the Office of the Under Secretary for Research and Engineering and the military services, promotes education in science and engineering disciplines relevant to the Defense mission. One means of promoting science and engineering education is through awarding fellowships to encourage promising U.S. scientists to pursue doctoral degrees in designated research disciplines.

The DoD National Defense Science and Engineering Graduate (NDSEG) Fellowship Program is a competitive fellowship that is awarded to U.S. citizens, U.S. nationals, and U.S. dual citizens who intend to pursue a Doctoral degree aligned to the DoD services Broad Agency Announcements (BAAs) in research and development at a U.S. institution of their choice.

Since the program's inception, over 4,400 fellowships have been awarded from over 70,000 applications received. The three-year Fellowship program, described herein, will award between 150-350 fellowships annually, and is designed to encourage baccalaureate, masters, and current PhD candidates early in their course of study recipients to enter graduate school and ultimately gain doctorates that align to the DoD services Broad Agency Announcements (BAAs) and other strategy documents in research and development.

The DoD NDSEG Fellowship Program, was established in 1989 by direction of Congress and sponsored by the U.S. Army, U.S. Navy and U.S. Air Force.

The broad research area disciplines include, but are not limited to:

The Government may revise the aforementioned disciplines annually to ensure relevancy to the Defense mission is maintained. For the most relevant research areas please review the tri-services BAAs.

The NDSEG fellowship will pay the fellows’ full tuition and required fees (excluding room and board). The monthly stipend is $3,600 ($43,200 annually) for fellowship tenure. The NDSEG fellowship will pay for the minimum health insurance coverage offered through the institution or if the institution requires health insurance coverage but does not offer it the fellow may purchase private insurance, up to a total value of $1,600.