One of GSG’s primary responsibilities is collaborating with UD’s administration to ensure that the minimum stipend is both livable and competitive. As of September 2025, the current minimum stipend is:

• $27,000 for 9-month contracts (going to $29,000 in fall of 2026).
• $36,000 for 12-month contracts.

The Graduate Student Government continues to push for a university policy to tie the minimum stipend to inflation levels, ensuring it rises with the cost of living. Most recently, in SR-2425-16, the Senate approved a resolution proposing a policy to fix the ratio of the minimum stipend to the CPI at 85.

There are several funding opportunities available at UD. A complete and up-to-date list can be found here. The Graduate College offers several award options to fund a Graduate Student including. You can apply for the following:

• Summer funding
• Climate Hub grants
• George W. Laird Merit Fellowship for First Year Engineering Graduate Students
• DENIN Environmental Fellows
• Unidel Louise Roselle Graduate Assistantship at Winterthur
• Library, Museum, and Collection awards

The graduate college also offers award funding, where students are nominated for the award. Talk to your advisor about being nominated for an award. The awards include:

• Outstanding Doctoral Dissertation Award
• Interdisciplinary Frontier Graduate and Postdoctoral Fellows Program
• Unidel Distinguished Graduate Scholars Award
• Unidel Recruiting Grants
• University Graduate Scholar Award
• Doctoral Fellowship for Excellence

Along with funding from your advisor and department, there are several travel funding grants at the University. They include:

• Graduate Student Travel Award Application Form – Stay tuned as GSG’s travel award ad-hoc committee concludes its work to overhaul this policy.
• UD Collection-Based Research Grant Program
• Unidel Louise Roselle Collections-Based Research Travel Award

There are many external funding grants that students can apply for. Below are some of those opportunities:

• AAUW’s International Fellowship Program – for women-identifying non-U.S. citizens or permanent residents.
• Delaware Space Grant Graduate Fellowship