Management of Stewardship Science Graduate Fellowship (SSGF) and Laboratory Residency Graduate Fellowship (LRGF) Programs

The Defense Programs' Office of Research, Development, Test, and Evaluation within the Department of Energy's (DOE) National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), directs research and development activities to maintain the safety, security, and effectiveness of the nation's nuclear weapons stockpile. This nuclear deterrent remains a vital part of our national security infrastructure. It maintains strategic stability, deters potential adversaries, and reassures our allies and partners of our security commitments. Since 1992, the United States has observed the moratorium on underground nuclear testing while significantly decreasing the size of its nuclear arsenal. National Policy required NNSA and its weapons laboratories to institute the science-based Stockpile Stewardship Program (SSP) to ensure the safety, security, and effectiveness of the stockpile, while allowing the country to pursue a variety of nonproliferation and disarmament goals. The SSP combines sophisticated experiments, highly accurate physics modeling, and improved computational power to simulate and predict nuclear weapon performance over a wide range of conditions and scenarios. In part to provide the next generation of professionals in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics to support the SSP, the NNSA has been investing in the education of PhD students in pursuit of PhD's involved in specific scientific fields of importance. In particular, the NNSA has established the Stewardship Science Graduate Fellowship (SSGF) and the Laboratory Residency Graduate Fellowship (LRGF) outlined below. The Office of Research, Development, Test, and Evaluation announces their interest in receiving applications from organizations (as captured in Section III; Eligibility Information) to lead, manage, and administer the two fellowship programs (SSGF & LRGF) for the next five years. This role involves sustaining and enhancing the strengths of the existing programs and the continual development of both programs to support the objectives of the Stewardship Science Academic Alliances (SSAA) Program.