GROWing abroad

The first batch of about 60 NSF Graduate Research Opportunities Worldwide (GROW) fellows will head off this summer for international research stints of 3 to 12 months.

The GROW program is open to master’s and PhD science and engineering students who hold three-year NSF graduate research fellowships, of which about 2000 are awarded annually. In announcing the program last December, NSF director Subra Suresh said, “GROW will prepare NSF graduate research fellows to engage successfully in the global research enterprise by connecting them to leading scientists and research infrastructures around the world.” Suresh moved to Carnegie Mellon University in March.

It is still uncommon for US students to do research abroad. According to the American Institute of Physics Statistical Research Center, among physics PhDs from the combined classes of 2009 and 2010, about 10% of US citizens went to another country for a postdoc (see http://www.aip.org/statistics/trends/reports/phd1yrlater0910.pdf ). Across science and engineering, 3.4% of US citizens who received their PhDs in 2001–07 were living abroad in 2008, according to an NSF report from last year (see http://www.nsf.gov/statistics/infbrief/nsf13300 ).

The 10 GROW partner countries so far are Chile, Denmark, Finland, France, Japan, Norway, Singapore, South Korea, Sweden, and Switzerland. GROW awardees will receive a $5000 allowance from NSF for travel and research; host countries cover living expenses. NSF aims to grow GROW to 400 fellowships a year.