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EPA STAR Fellowships Restored in FY 2003 but at Risk of 50 Percent Cut in FY 2004
 NCSE Campaign to Increase Funding for the STAR Fellowship Program
The only federally-funded graduate fellowships dedicated to environmental research are being awarded again after a year and a half's disruption of funding. After the President's FY 2003 budget request proposed eliminating funding for the Environmental Protection Agency's popular Science To Achieve Results (STAR) graduate fellowship program in February 2002, the National Council for Science and the Environment (NCSE) helped organize a campaign to continue funding for the program. More than 1,000 letters, emails, faxes and phone calls flooded Congressional offices, urging them to maintain the program's funding. Congress responded. The FY 2003 Omnibus Appropriations Act, signed February 2003, appropriated $9.75 million for STAR fellowships. NCSE thanks all those who helped save the STAR fellowship program.
The EPA is currently determining which of the applicants rated "excellent" in the suspended 2002 competition will be offered funding for the 2003/2004 school year. Due to the disruption of funding to the program, the EPA does not expect to be able to fund all "excellent" candidates, and has retroactively restricted this round of awards to doctoral students only. According to the EPA, the list of "excellent" candidates will be narrowed further based upon geographic distribution across states, distribution among universities, projected environmental workforce needs, relevance of the research proposal to EPA's mission, and availability of funds.
The next STAR graduate fellowship competition is expected to be announced in mid-summer 2003, and will provide funds for the 2004/2005 school year.
The President's FY 2004 budget request, released February 3, 2003, includes $4.875 million in funding for STAR fellowships - half the current budget for the program. Unless funding for the program is once again increased by Congress in its annual appropriations, the EPA expects to fund only 50 fellowships in its next competition. If the program receives its average number of applications (over 1400 were received in 2001) less than 4 percent would receive funding.
NCSE will continue its campaign to increase funding for the STAR fellowship program. With Congress now educated on the importance of this unique program, NCSE is confident that the FY 2004 budget of the program can be increased beyond even its previous level of funding.
Past, present, and potential STAR fellows, faculty members, administrators and other concerned parties are encouraged to contact the Congressional appropriations committees with oversight of the EPA budget, to thank them for restoring FY 2003 STAR fellowship funding and urge them to support STAR fellowships again in FY 2004. Copies of these letters should also be sent to your own Representatives and Senators. For a list of Congressional members to contact visit http://www.NCSEonline.org/SciencePolicy/?FID=1682. For more on the EPA's policies regarding distribution of restored FY 2003 STAR fellowship funding, visit http://es.epa.gov/ncer/fellow/.
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