If you’re considering pursuing a PhD in biomedical and biological sciences or in astronomy and astrophysics, then you should take a serious look at Yale’s Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. Yale wants to admit more top notch scientists and researchers, especially international applicants, and now thanks to a gift from the Gruber Foundation, Yale has established a new science fellowship to make it happen.

The new Gruber Science Fellowships provide $2.5 million USD in annual funding, and cover both tuition and a stipend for recipients. These “name” fellowships are prestigious, and pay a higher stipend than standard fellowship and scholarship offerings at Yale.

International students should be especially excited about this fellowship because it isn’t bound by the same restrictions as traditional federal training grants, which can only be used to fund U.S. citizens. Experts at Yale believe the Gruber Fellowships will boost the number of international doctoral students accepted into the program.

“Two directors of graduate programs in the biological sciences interviewed said they think the Gruber Fellowships will help them admit more international students. Federal training grants, which fund many science Ph.D. students in their first years of study, can only be used to support U.S. citizens, so Gruber funding will make it easier for Yale to support qualified students from abroad, said Charles Greer, director of the graduate program in neuroscience”. Read more.

In its inaugural year the Gruber Science fellowships were awarded to 49 recipients. Moving forward, it is expected that 20-25 fellowships will be awarded annually. Click here to learn more about the Gruber Science fellowships at Yale.

The NASA Earth and Space Science Fellowship is currently accepting applications for the 2012 fellowship program. Master’s and PhD students will receive up to $30,000 a year to help NASA study earth from space, understand the sun, consider the evolution of the solar system and discover the destiny of the universe. The purpose of the fellowship is to ensure NASA has a highly qualified workforce needed to achieve NASA’s scientific goals.

The fellowship call for proposals and submission instructions are located at the NESSF 12 solicitation index page at http://nspires.nasaprs.com/. Click on “Solicitations” then click on “Open Solicitations” then select the “NESSF 12″ announcement. Applications are due February 1, 2012.