Grand Challenge Fellowships

The Grand Challenge Fellowship programs created under SIF145 comprise a suite of funding opportunities that advance recruiting, inclusion, research, collaboration, and professional development at all stages of the graduate-student career.  These programs also build upon the foundational work of SIF32 to advance the national standing of UVA’s Graduate School of Arts & Sciences in four interrelated areas: doctoral student support, inclusion, opportunities for interdisciplinary training and collaboration, and broadened professional pathways.

There are three major aims of the SIF145 award:

1. We sought to establish a pool of one hundred research-accelerating “Grand Challenge Fellowships” that would support robust intellectual and professional development for our most ambitious doctoral students.  These fellowships were grouped into two categories:
   • The Interdisciplinary Doctoral Fellowship Program (IDF)
   • The Dean’s Doctoral Fellowship Program (DDF)
2. We aimed to cultivate an authentically accessible pathway toward greater diversity in doctoral education, by developing a bridge program (Bridge to the Doctorate, B2D) that provides two pre-doctoral years of living support, remission of tuition and University fees, and subsidy of student health insurance to thirty students per year.
3. The primary mechanism envisioned for broadened professional pathways was PhD Plus, an initiative that is delivered by the University’s Office of Graduate & Postdoctoral Affairs.  This component of SIF145 is addressed in a separate report.

Using funds from the SIF145 we also continued to support two awards that had been created under SIF32: The Teaching Relief Awards and Dissertation Completion Awards.  Both of these awards aimed to help students to complete their dissertations, thus improving graduation rates and time to degree. 

Since its inception in January 2019, the PhD Plus program has touched more than 1800 unique doctoral students and postdocs through a wide range of training that is improving educational experiences and leading to positive transitions to careers both within and beyond academia.  To date, students participating in the program’s core training modules have earned 476 non-credit credentials; our team has provided more than 400 individual career advising sessions to 275 students; and our doctoral students have engaged in 129 unique internships of a semester (or summer) or more in duration, with many leading to post-graduation employment within the same career sector as the intern host (some with the internship host).

We have worked with faculty and staff in all disciplines, across schools, and with our many centers and institutes to build opportunities that we have organized into an innovative and intentional professional development curriculum for doctoral students that offers more than just the “bucket of workshops” approach provided by many of our peers.  Some departments and training programs (e.g. Biology’s NSF NRT program) have worked with us to integrate aspects of the PhD+ curriculum into their credit-bearing curricula—an outcome that we encourage.  As we have developed this curriculum we have organized and honed the roles of our own team with positions now filled in experiential learning (1) and research communication (2).  Currently, we are seeking a new Director for the program who will foster its continued evolution and lead our efforts in programmatic assessment. A no-cost extension will enable us to generate and collect the data required for an informative assessment of program impact and efficacy. 

The PhD Plus program passed the 5-year mark in January of 2024. Since its inception, the program has served nearly 4,000 unique graduate students and postdocs through a wide range of training that is improving educational experiences and leading to positive transitions to careers both within and beyond academia. To date, 744 non-credit credentials have been provided to graduate students participating in the program’s core training modules. The PhD Plus team has provided almost 1,000 individual career advising sessions to just under 600 unique students and postdocs, and has facilitated 129 unique internships of a semester (or summer) or more in duration that have been provided to our Master’s and doctoral students.

In August of 2023, the PhD Plus program team was joined by a Director of Career and Professional Development, Melanie Sinche. Under the leadership of the new Director, the program has capitalized on staff expertise and collaborated with committed campus partners to produce innovative, multi-modal instruction on career and professional development topics for the graduate student and postdoctoral scholar populations. One example of progress made in the past year is in the identification and evaluation of several tools to enhance alumni & employer engagement. The program has partnered the UVA Career Center, to assess three software platforms designed to connect current students and postdocs with University alumni. This collaboration has fostered greater understanding of the career needs of students and postdocs and uncovered the most suitable options available to the University for facilitating employer & alumni connections.

Following a successful pilot phase supported through this SIF award, PhD Plus has been sustained through a new allocation of support from the provost’s Graduate Education Initiative. Related support in the area of fostering graduate student writing has also been provided through the Strategic Research Infrastructure Initiative. These investments will enable us to maintain the steady progress that the program has made in supporting the career development of all PhD students and Postdoctoral Scholars.

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The Grand Challenge Fellowship programs, developed under Strategic Investment Fund (SIF) #145, offer a comprehensive suite of funding options designed to support graduate students at every stage of their academic journey. These fellowships are helping to improve recruitment, inclusion, research, collaboration, and professional development across UVA’s Graduate School of Arts & Sciences. Building on the foundational work of SIF #32, they focus on four main goals: enhancing doctoral student support, increasing inclusion, expanding interdisciplinary training opportunities, and broadening professional career paths. Since these programs began, doctoral applications to Arts & Sciences have increased by 43.1%, including steady year- over-year increases in applications from women and underrepresented minorities.

Program-Specific Outcomes

The Dean’s Doctoral Fellowship (DDF) program is focused on recruiting a diverse pool of students who are committed to advancing UVA’s research and scholarship. Importantly, 91% of DDF fellows identify as members of underrepresented racial or ethnic groups, compared to 28% of graduate students in general admissions. Furthermore, the DDF program maintains a high retention rate of 87%, slightly above the 83% seen among other admitted students.

The Interdisciplinary Doctoral Fellowship (IDF) program supports students with a strong interest in interdisciplinary research by facilitating collaboration between faculty groups across departments. Among IDF participants, 59% identify as underrepresented minorities, and the program has achieved an impressive retention rate of 91%. This fellowship is helping to create unique research communities that address both academic and diversity goals.

The Bridge to the Doctorate Fellowship provides a pathway into doctoral programs for students from diverse backgrounds who may need additional preparation. Although the COVID-19 pandemic led to higher-than- expected withdrawals in the first cohort, the program continues to attract a broad range of students across different in races, ages, income, gender, sexuality, and parenting status, with an 83% retention rate.

Additional Fellowship Support

The Teaching Relief Fellowship is an award that allows students to dedicate more time to research by relieving them of teaching responsibilities. This time-saving measure helps accelerate degree completion. Since 2019, the fellowship has supported 41 students, with an exceptional retention rate of 97%.

The Dissertation Completion Fellowship (DCF) provides crucial final-year support for students as they complete their dissertations, present research, and prepare for the job market. Of the 92 students supported, 82% have graduated and the program has a retention rate of 96%.

These fellowship programs collectively underscore UVA’s commitment to fostering a diverse, high-achieving doctoral community and strengthening its academic reputation nationwide.