Now Open: Coastal and Marine Fellowships for Incoming and Outgoing Graduate Students

By Julianna White, Research Coordinator
December 13, 2022

Finishing graduate school and interested in national coastal and marine policy? Want to provide technical assistance to programs while receiving on-the-job training? Beginning a graduate program and ready to dive into fisheries research, or know someone who is?

One of three prestigious opportunities currently open through Lake Champlain Sea Grant and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) partners may be right for you or someone you know.  

Sea Grant Knauss Marine Policy Fellowships

Sea Grant Knauss Fellows are matched with executive or legislative offices in Washington, DC to research, develop, and administer policy. These one-year, paid fellowships for graduate students interested in ocean, coastal, and Great Lakes resources and national policy decisions open the door to policy work in the US. Lake Champlain Sea Grant has supported three successful candidates in recent years.

• Eligibility: U.S. citizens who will complete a master’s or other advanced degree at an accredited U.S. university between August 1, 2021, and July 31, 2023.  

• Applications are due January 27, 2023.

“I engage in ocean policy at various levels, including helping to create a national ocean climate action plan for draft release in early 2023. Soon! Also this year, I participated in trainings regarding facilitation, budget, communications, and on specialized topics such as offshore wind,” said Caitlin Feehery, current Sea Grant Knauss Marine Policy Fellow in the Policy and Constituent Affairs Division of NOAA’s National Ocean Service and graduate of Vermont Law School. “During this Fellowship, I have developed skills that help me find solutions for different problems and issues, and I participate in longer-term strategic planning and policy creation. As a Fellow, I have been able lead initiatives and provide meaningful input into high-level discussions and decisions.”

Coastal Management and Digital Coast Fellowships

Coastal Management and Digital Coast Fellowships match postgraduate students to work on projects proposed by state coastal zone management programs and selected by NOAA. There are five coastal management and three digital coast project placements up for competition this year. Examples of projects include helping Maine’s vulnerable coastal communities implement Maine’s Climate Action Plan, increasing equity and environmental justice while supporting the use, preservation, and expansion of shoreline public access in Washington state, and developing technical guidance resources to support local communities in planning for and managing residential coastal properties acquired or vacated due to erosion, inundation, and flooding worsened by climate change in Washington, DC. As projects range widely, applicants from a wide variety of programs will be considered.

• Eligibility: U.S. citizens who will complete a master’s or other advanced degree at an accredited U.S. university between August 1, 2021, and July 31, 2023.  

• Applications are due January 27, 2023.

National Marine Fisheries Service—Sea Grant Joint Fellowships

NOAA Fisheries and Sea Grant collaborate to offer three-years of support to five incoming PhD students in the NMFS—Sea Grant Fellowship. This year, four fellowships will be awarded in population and ecosystem dynamics and one in marine resource economics. Students will work with both their PhD advisors and a scientist at a NOAA Fisheries Science Center. 

• Eligibility: U.S. citizens who are graduate students enrolled in or provisionally accepted to Ph.D. degree programs in academic institutions in the United States and its territories. 

• Applications are due January 25, 2023.

For all of these fellowships, Sea Grant champions diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI). We aim to recruit, retain, and prepare a diverse workforce in coastal sciences.

Read more on our Fellowship Opportunities webpage and please email Julianna.m.white [at] uvm.edu (Julianna White )if you have questions.