Graduate Research Innovation (GRIN) Award (One task statement)

The Joint Fire Science Program (JFSP) invites current master and doctoral students enrolled at colleges or universities within the US in the field of wildland fire and related physical, biological, and social sciences to apply for a Graduate Research Innovation (GRIN) award. The purpose of a GRIN award is to enhance student exposure to the management and policy relevance of their research to achieve beneficial outcomes of funded work. 

In order for a student to qualify for this NOFO the student’s advisor must complete and attach the GRIN Eligibility Certification. If both boxes are not checked on this certification the proposal will not be considered. Students must be enrolled in their current master or doctoral program while completing this work. Project timelines should reflect the anticipated JFSP award date of late August to mid-September 2026.

Specific objectives related to management are to enhance student exposure to and interaction with fire and fuels managers, develop appreciation and understanding of fire and fuels managers information and research needs, and augment already planned and funded master or doctoral research to develop information and/or products useful to managers. The JFSP also is interested in understanding the science needs of decision-makers, which provides an opportunity for students to enhance their understanding of how science can be used to inform fire-related policy. As a result, these awards are intended to enable graduate students to conduct research that will supplement and enhance the quality, scope, or applicability of their thesis or dissertation to develop information and products useful to managers and decision-makers. Only proposals that supplement student thesis or dissertations will be considered. Proposals must demonstrate relevance to fire, fuels, or resource management and include means to directly communicate with managers, when applicable, regarding project outcomes.

Proposals must be directly related to the mission and goals of JFSP to be considered. Applicants are encouraged to search the JFSP website (www.firescience.gov) to learn more about the scope of JFSP activities. In addition, proposals must directly address management- or policy-related questions related to one or more of the following topic areas:

• Fuels management and fire behavior

• Changing fire environment

• Emissions and air quality

• Fire effects and post-fire recovery

• Relative impacts of prescribed fire versus wildfire

• Human dimensions of fire

Proposals on topics not listed above will not be reviewed.

Proposals must describe new, unfunded work that extends ongoing or planned research that is the subject of a thesis or dissertation that has been approved by the graduate student’s advisory committee. For example, GRIN funding might allow a graduate student to add an additional related area of inquiry to an already planned thesis project. Proposals that are unconnected to ongoing or planned research, or that appear to describe an entire thesis/doctoral project rather than an add-on, will not be funded. In addition, students that previously received a GRIN award are not eligible for additional GRIN awards. Only one GRIN proposal per student will be accepted.

Proposals must be authored predominately by the student; however, they also must be reviewed and submitted by the student’s advisor, who acts as the formal Principal Investigator (PI) for the project. Student exposure to proposal writing is considered part of the GRIN experience; as such, proposals that are written predominately by the advisor and not the student are discouraged. A letter of recommendation from the student’s advisor also is required. If the student cannot complete the project, the student’s advisor (project PI) must return unspent funds to JFSP. The student must be listed as a Student Investigator on the proposal.

In addition, letters of support from managers, when applicable, are encouraged.

Funds are intended for student use and support. Funds cannot be used for faculty salary. Funding can be used to conduct a significant field or laboratory data collection campaign; to complete a comprehensive synthesis, modeling, or data analysis; to conduct a policy analysis; or to develop an appropriate application or tool for fire and fuels managers. Appropriate budget items include: graduate student stipend, field or laboratory assistance, research equipment or materials, and travel. Funds cannot be used for student tuition. Each award is capped at $25,000, including university indirect costs as described in the proposal instructions.

Proposals will be evaluated on the basis of student qualifications, scientific merit, relevance to managers/decision-makers, extent to which the proposed work extends or enhances an approved thesis or dissertation, and feasibility of the proposed work(see Section E, Application Review Information). 

Recipients of the GRIN award are required to produce at least one management/policy-oriented tool or summary guide based on the funded project. Awardees also are expected to present their work at one regional, national, or international fire conference or workshop. Finally, the awardee is expected to write an acceptable final report for the JFSP prior to the project end date. These are one-time awards, and no supplemental funds will be granted.

All proposals must be submitted by September 18, 2025, 5:00 p.m. MT, using the electronic submission process provided by the JFSP website

(https://www.firescience.gov). Proposals cannot be submitted through Grants.gov. No exceptions are allowed to this closing date or time.