The fellowship program for PhD-level candidates supports dissertation work on natural, technological and human-made hazards, risk and disasters in any relevant field of the natural and physical sciences, social and behavioral sciences, specialties in engineering, and interdisciplinary programs such as environmental studies. Today there is a need to encourage PhD candidate students in many different disciplines to conduct interdisciplinary scholarly work in the hazards field. No other financial resource exists where doctoral students can obtain money for dissertation field research for a wide range of disciplines across all aspects of hazards. The grants are flexible and can be used for data collection, travel for field work or for presentation of findings at meetings, purchase of software, etc. (but not for stipends or tuition).
The fellowship program provides the financial support that facilitates the conduct of dissertations in the disciplines that support hazard research and advances pertinent scientific discovery. The program fosters the development of scholars who have the career-long commitment to research on hazards, risk, and disasters that comes with doing dissertation research and, consequently, contributes to the nation?s future research capacity and infrastructure on these scientific topics and social problems. The program requirement to translate dissertation research results into short, non-technical reports for use by policymakers, governmental officials, and other non-scientific audiences helps transform public understanding of hazards, risk, and disasters. The fellowship program is administered by two nonprofit, hazard and risk focused organizations whose principal missions are to disseminate hazard, risk and disaster information, training and educational material. Their nonprofit stature and low overhead creates a highly efficient benefit ratio.
