Fellowships
Applicant due date: February 19, 2025 (5 pm Central)
The University of Wisconsin Sea Grant College Program is accepting applications from graduate students statewide for the National Sea Grant College Program’s John A. Knauss Marine (and Great Lakes) Policy Fellowship Program.
The program, established in 1979, provides a unique educational experience to applicants who have an interest in ocean, coastal and Great Lakes resources and in the national policy decisions affecting those resources. The program matches highly qualified graduate students with “hosts” in the legislative and executive branch of government located in the Washington, D.C. area, for a one year paid internship.
Placement opportunities are numerous and very diverse and have typically included offices within Congress, the Executive Office of the President, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the Environmental Protection Agency, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the U.S. Navy, and the U.S. Departments of State, Treasury, Transportation, and Energy, in addition to others.
Applicants from a variety of backgrounds including natural and social sciences, law, engineering, and communications can be competitive for this fellowship.
Complete information on the fellowship – including eligibility (must be enrolled towards a degree in a graduate program at any point between the onset of the 2024 Fall Term and February 19, 2025), application instructions, evaluation criteria, examples of past fellow placements, and more – are available here. Fellowships begin on February 1, 2026.
Applications are due to the Wisconsin Sea Grant program by February 19, 2025 (5 pm Central), and should be submitted via email to jennifer.hauxwell@aqua.wisc.edu. Applicants are strongly encouraged to reach out to Wisconsin Sea Grant by emailing jennifer.hauxwell@aqua.wisc.edu as soon as possible to notify the program that they intend to apply, receive application support, and to set up a meeting with our Wisconsin Sea Grant director.
Please share this opportunity with colleagues, friends and potential applicants!
Learn more about becoming a Knauss Fellow
Get started on your application with:
Applicant due date: Thursday, January 23, 2025
This NMFS-Sea Grant Joint Fellowship program is aimed at PhD candidates who are United States citizens interested in population and ecosystem dynamics and marine resource economics. For students interested in marine ecosystem and population dynamics:
- The emphasis will be on the research and development of quantitative methods for assessing the status of marine ecosystems; managed fish, invertebrates, and other targeted species; and marine mammals, seabirds, and other protected species.
Similarly for students interested in marine resource economics topics:
- The fellowship supports students who are interested in careers related to the development and implementation of quantitative methods for assessing the economics of the conservation and management of living marine resources.
You can find more information on grants.gov, HERE, and the updated student guide can be found on our webpage HERE.
Interested students should contact jennifer.hauxwell@aqua.wisc.edu for more information about the application process for Wisconsin applicants.
This is not an active opportunity.
The NOAA Office for Coastal Management’s mission is to provide on-the-job education and training opportunities in coastal resource management and policy for postgraduate students and to provide project assistance to state coastal zone management agencies and other key NOAA partners.
Application due date: Friday, January 24, 2025
Coastal Management Fellowship Program. This program’s mission is to provide on-the-job education and training opportunities in coastal resource management and policy for postgraduate students and to provide project assistance to state coastal zone management agencies and other key NOAA partners.
The six fellowship positions, starting in August 2025, are available with the following host organizations:
- Maine Coastal Program/Maine Department of Marine Resources
- Massachusetts Office of Coastal Zone Management
- New Hampshire Coastal Program
- North Carolina Division of Coastal Management
- Oregon Coastal Management Program
- U.S. Virgin Islands Coastal Zone Management Program
Eligibility requirements, project descriptions, and application guidance can be found on this website.
To be eligible for the 2025 Coastal Management Fellowship, applicants must have completed a master’s or other advanced degree at an accredited U.S. university between August 1, 2023, and July 31, 2025. A wide range of degrees are applicable due to the diversity of projects among the host organizations.
This two-year fellowship offers a competitive salary, medical benefits, and reimbursement for travel and relocation expenses.
Application packages must be submitted to the Sea Grant office in the state where you earned your degree by Friday, January 24, 2025. Wisconsin applicants should email their application materials to jennifer.hauxwell@aqua.wisc.edu. Please also have references send signed pdfs of their letters to the same address as well.
Learn more here.
This is not an active opportunity.
Wisconsin Sea Grant and the Wisconsin Coastal Management Program fund this science-policy fellowship for candidates interested in tackling science and policy challenges related to increasing the resilience of coastal communities across the Great Lakes region.
The fellowship is named in honor of longtime Sea Grant coastal engineering expert Phil Keillor, who passed away in 2009, to celebrate his legacy in building resilience in Wisconsin communities. This fellowship provides a unique educational and career opportunity for a recent graduate who is interested both in aquatic resources and in the policy decisions affecting those resources in Wisconsin. It places a recent master’s or doctoral graduate within a state agency full-time for one year, with the Fellow bringing technical skills to benefit water issues and challenges and receiving valuable real-world science-policy experience from the resource professionals who serve as mentors.
This mutually beneficial partnership helps advance science to support policy decisions, and it provides valuable training opportunities for new professionals entering the work force.
This is not an active opportunity.
The Wisconsin Sea Grant College Program (housed at the University of Wisconsin-Madison Aquatic Sciences Center) and the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (WDNR) Office of Great Waters Program seeks postdoctoral and post-master’s candidates interested in tackling science and policy challenges related to climate change and Lake Superior coastal wetlands. Together, these programs fund a state Science-Policy Fellow position, named in honor of a longtime Sea Grant coastal engineering expert J Phillip Keillor, to celebrate his legacy in providing science to help build resilience in Wisconsin. This fellow position provides a unique educational and career opportunity for a recent graduate interested in climate change, coastal wetlands, and the policy decisions affecting those resources in Wisconsin. This program places a recent master’s or doctoral graduate within a state agency full-time for two years, with the fellow bringing technical skills to address coastal wetland and climate change issues while receiving valuable real-world science-policy experience from the resource professionals who will serve as mentors.
These mutually beneficial partnerships advance science to support policy decisions and provide valuable training opportunities for new professionals entering the work force.
More detail on the fellowship is here.
This is not an active opportunity.
The Wisconsin Sea Grant College Program (housed at the University of Wisconsin-Madison Aquatic Sciences Center), in partnership with the Wisconsin Department of Health Services (WDHS), seeks postdoctoral and post-master’s candidates interested in tackling science and policy challenges related to climate change, water resources, flooding adaptation, social science, urban planning, or preparedness and mitigation in Wisconsin and the Great Lakes region. Together, these programs will place a recent master’s or doctoral graduate at the Department of Health Services, with the Fellow bringing technical skills to address Wisconsin flood resilience issues while receiving valuable real-world science-policy experience from the resource professionals who will serve as mentors.
This is not an active opportunity.
The University of Wisconsin Sea Grant Institute, in partnership with the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point (UWSP), seeks postdoctoral candidates interested in addressing scientific challenges to advance aquaculture in Wisconsin. Together, these programs fund a Keillor Fellowship in Aquaculture, named in honor of a longtime Sea Grant coastal engineering expert J. Philip Keillor, to celebrate his legacy in providing science to help support informed decisions for the sustainable use of Great Lakes resources. This Fellowship provides a unique educational and career opportunity for a postdoctoral fellow by placing them at the UWSP-Northern Aquaculture Demonstration Facility (UWSP-NADF) for two years, with the fellow bringing technical skills to address aquaculture issues and challenges and receiving valuable real-world applied science experience from aquaculture professionals serving as mentors.
This mutually beneficial partnership advances the science to support aquaculture in Wisconsin as well as provides a valuable training opportunity for a new aquaculture professional. This position offers a unique opportunity for analyzing data and publishing manuscripts on a variety of species and systems from past projects as well as future research to be conducted at this internationally recognized, state-of-the-art research facility for applied aquaculture research.
This is not an active opportunity.
The University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Aquatic Sciences Center (UW), home to the University of Wisconsin Water Resources and Sea Grant Institutes, and in partnership with the Wisconsin Department of Health Services (WDHS) seek postdoctoral and post-master’s candidates interested in tackling timely science and policy challenges related to water resources management and human health in Wisconsin. Together, these programs will fund a Wisconsin Water Resources Science-Policy Fellow position. This program places a recent master’s or doctoral graduate within a state program full-time for one to two years, with the Fellow bringing technical skills to address water issues and tackle related public health challenges and receiving valuable real-world science-policy experience from the resource professionals who will serve as mentors. This mutually beneficial partnership will result in advancing science to support public health policy decisions as well as valuable training opportunities for new professionals entering the work force.
This fellowship offers a placement within the Harmful Algal Bloom (HAB) Program at the WDHS in downtown Madison to learn about and help address the important public health challenges of cyanobacterial HABs in Wisconsin. This unique position entails working with both people and data on an emerging One Health issue, focusing on protecting and promoting the health of people, animals, and the environment through bloom-related illness investigation and public health response and outreach efforts.
We seek applicants from a variety of backgrounds including public health/epidemiology, water resources, climate sciences, social sciences, communications, etc. to conduct ongoing surveillance, detection, investigation, and reporting of human and animal illnesses resulting from exposure to cyanobacterial blooms in Wisconsin and related outreach and education efforts.
This is not an active opportunity.
The University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Aquatic Sciences Center, home to the Wisconsin Sea Grant and Water Resources Institutes, in partnership with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Great Lakes Toxicology and Ecology Division seek post Master’s candidates interested in tackling scientific challenges related to water resources management and human health. Together, these programs will support a Fellow to provide technical expertise to advance ecological research while receiving valuable support from EPA scientists who will serve as mentors. This Fellow will be placed at the US EPA Office of Research and Development lab in Duluth, MN, and will be working directly with Dr. Matthew Etterson in addition to researchers from across Wisconsin and the region.
Assistantships
Researchers who are funded through a competitive grants process often support graduate students as part of their projects. Students do not apply directly for these awards. To find Wisconsin researchers who are current funded by Wisconsin Sea Grant, visit our most recent Directory of Projects and People in our publications store.
More than 700 graduate students have received this type of support.
Scholarships
Look for details on the next opportunity soon.
Established in 1995, the Carl J. Weston Memorial Scholarship fund provides support for deserving undergraduate students working on Wisconsin Sea Grant-supported projects. Funding source: Dr. and Mrs. Carl B. Weston.
Undergraduate students who are conducting research, under the guidance of a principal investigator (PI) on a Sea Grant-supported project, are eligible to apply to this scholarship. Scholarship recipients will be awarded $750. The scholarship application must include:
• A copy of the student’s academic record (transcripts)
• A personal statement from the student explaining their career goals and how the research that they are conducting contributes to their personal and academic growth, and future career goals
• A letter of support from the PI
The section will be updated when the Weston Scholarship is offered again. View a list of past scholarship winners.
Periodically, Wisconsin Sea Grant offers funds to support conference travel for graduate students who are affiliated with Sea Grant projects. This section will be updated when this type of funding is again available.
Tips on applying for fellowships
Our three-part podcast series offers useful advice on applying for fellowships. Save time and worry by listening before you apply for a fellowship. Listen to the “On Fellowship” podcasts.
Curious to learn about the fellowship experiences of past fellows? Wisconsin Sea Grant hosts webinar series especially for graduate students in water-related fields. These webinars are geared towards helping graduate students apply for and learn about fellowships, learn to become more impactful aquatic researchers, and to optimize their graduate experiences to prepare them for the next steps along their career paths. Read more for details and links to recordings!
