Note: Supplemental funding is not available for fellowships supporting students in service-based pricing programs.

Eligibility Criteria

As detailed in Policy 1240, academic programs may request supplemental funding for external individual predoctoral fellowships that meet the following criteria:

• The fellowship stipend is equal to or greater than the campus minimum rate for a 33% research assistantship.

• The fellowship is administered through the university.

Eligible Costs for Supplemental Funding

Programs may request support for the following costs:

• Resident tuition

• Office of the Registrar document fee

• Fringe benefits not covered by the fellowship

Important:

• Segregated fees are not eligible and cannot be included in the funding request.

• Supplemental funding cannot be used for stipend supplementation.

  • Programs, departments, schools/colleges/divisions, or principal investigators are expected to cover any stipend shortfall to meet the graduate program’s standard rate.

Funding Structure

• The Graduate School may contribute up to one-third of the total fringe and tuition shortfall, subject to funding availability.

• The remaining costs are expected to be covered by the school/college and program/department.

• If the department seeks a larger contribution from the Graduate School, a written statement from the department chair must be included explaining:

• • The extenuating circumstances limiting departmental or school/college support

  • The specific amount of additional funding requested

Note: Additional funding is not guaranteed and will be considered case by case, based on available resources.

Submission Guidelines

• Requests must be submitted by the Director of Graduate Studies (DGS) or the graduate program coordinator/manager, with final approval from the DGS.

• Requests must be submitted at least three weeks before the fellowship tenure begins.

• Retroactive requests will not be considered.

• Submissions from individual students or advisors will not be accepted.

• For multi-year fellowships, a separate funding request must be submitted each year. Multi-year funding is not automatically renewed and must follow the same process and timeline annually.

Review Process

Requests will be evaluated based on eligibility, completeness, funding availability, and alignment with policy guidelines.

Programs can generally expect a response within two weeks of submission.

Please note: Response times may vary depending on the volume of requests and the time of year, such as the start of the semester or during major fellowship competitions, when activity is typically higher. We recommend submitting requests as early as possible to avoid delays.

Application Requirements

The online application form must include:

• Copy of the award letter

• Completed budget form within the application form

• Details on financial support provided by the school/college and department/program during the fellowship period

Submit Your Request

All funding requests must be submitted through the following form: Graduate Fellowship Supplement Request Form 

You can preview the full application here: Application Form Preview

Note on NSF GRFP and NIH NRSA (F30 and F31) Fellowships

The supplementation process described on this page does not apply to the NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Program (GRFP) or the NIH National Research Service Award (NRSA) Individual Pre-Doctoral Fellowships (F30 and F31). These awards follow a separate supplementation policy:

• No changes have been made to the existing supplementation policy for the NSF GRFP and NIH NRSA individual (F30 and F31) fellowships.
• The Graduate School provides supplemental funding to cover tuition and fringe benefit shortfalls associated with these fellowships.
• For NSF GRFP, no action is required from the graduate program to receive the supplemental funding. The Graduate School administers these awards and will coordinate supplementation of tuition and fringes accordingly.
• For NIH F30 and F31, programs should refer to the specific supplementation policy (Policy 1251) for these awards for detailed guidance.  

For questions about Policy 1240 or the supplementation request process, please contact the Graduate School at funding@grad.wisc.edu.