Applications will be by invitation only. First, we will identify the pool of PhD students who are eligible on the basis of financial need and dissertation plans, as described in the FOA. That’s Phase 1, involving discussions between DIBS leadership and DGSs, Chairs, and other leaders of doctoral training programs across Duke. The eligible pool of candidates will then be invited to submit applications (Phase 2), using links specific to them.
We will try to be comprehensive in talking with leaders of all doctoral programs that include interdisciplinary brain research. However, if you are concerned about being left out of consideration, we encourage you to self-nominate as described in the FOA. If you are a PI, we similarly encourage you to nominate your student(s). We do not want to overlook anyone and we recognize that interdisciplinary brain projects may occur in nearly any department or training program at Duke.
No. All PhD students are guaranteed 5 years of support by the Graduate School. In practice, that support comes from various sources. During the first 1-2 years of training, support is often provided by the doctoral program. When the initial support ends, the PI of the student’s research group typically becomes responsible for supporting the student’s stipend and fringe. If the PI cannot do that, e.g. due to lack of external grant funding, the training program covers or “backstops” the funding. For full policies and details, see here. Backstopping can present unexpected, challenging costs to doctoral programs. One goal of the Fellowships is to help relieve some of the backstopping burden on doctoral programs, so that they can focus their funding on their primary missions of managing student curriculum, culture, and milestones.
Yes. If a student does not currently have a PI, they will still be considered in Phase 1. If they are invited to submit an application in Phase 2, but there is no current or planned PI to write the required letter of support, we will solicit the letter from the DGS of the student’s doctoral program. In addition to supporting students who have already settled into a lab, we also want the Fellowships to facilitate matches between a student and lab by lowering the financial barrier.
It is strongly encouraged and will make the application review process more efficient. During evaluation of the applications, DIBS may move some candidates in or out of the Wrenn category depending on the description of research goals. If you work on Alzheimer’s research, selecting the Wrenn Fellowship application will provide you with a separate section to describe that in detail. This is important because the Wrenn Fellowships are made possible by the generosity of the Wrenn Trust, which aims to promote Alzheimer’s disease training and research.