NVIDIA Graduate Fellowship Program

NVIDIA Graduate Fellowship

Supports doctoral students in computing, robotics, and intelligent systems by pairing university awards with industry mentorship.

Eligibility · Global — open worldwide

⚠ This may reflect a past cycle — verify the current call on the funder's site.

The NVIDIA Graduate Fellowship Program is a cash fellowship of up to $60,000 per award paid to the student's university for disbursement to support PhD students conducting research in accelerated computing and its applications. The program is in its twenty-fifth year. Fellows gain access to NVIDIA products and technology and must complete a mandatory in-person summer internship at an NVIDIA research office before the fellowship year begins; eligible internship locations include sites in the United States, Canada, Germany, Sweden, Finland, Switzerland, Israel, and Taiwan. The award is an unrestricted gift; no overhead or indirect costs may be charged, and the amount may vary by country or region.

Applicants must have completed at least one year of PhD studies and be enrolled full-time as active PhD students throughout the 2027–2028 academic year (nine months), meaning they should not graduate before May or June 2028. Eligible majors include Computer Science, Computer Engineering, System Architecture, Electrical Engineering, and related fields. The award is administered through the student's university; payment is made to the university, not directly to the student. International students are eligible. The most recent cycle (2026–2027 cohort) closed on September 15, 2025; the 2027–2028 cycle is expected to open in mid-2026 with a similar September 2026 deadline based on historical pattern.

Applications are evaluated by a committee of more than 80 senior technical staff chaired by NVIDIA Chief Scientist Bill Dally. The committee reviews student quality (letters of recommendation, GPA, achievements), research quality (prior results, thesis proposal up to two pages plus bibliography, publication record), and relevance to NVIDIA (connection to NVIDIA's research domains and potential influence on future GPU design). Two to three recommendation letters are required, including one from the thesis advisor. The entire review process takes approximately eight weeks, with notifications sent by end of November.