U.S. Department of Education · General
ED Graduate Assistance in Areas of National Need (GAANN)
Funds fellowships for graduate students of superior ability who demonstrate financial need and pursue the highest degree available in their academic discipline in designated areas of national need (such as STEM and other priority fields).
Whether your institution should pursue this comes down to designation and research scale — not a keyword match. Run your institution and see where you have standing, checked against the rules below.
Program facts
- Typical award
- $400K – $1.2M
- Non-federal match
- Varies by NOFO
- Eligible entity
- Degree-granting institutions
- Application window
- Periodic discretionary competition.
- Typical prep time
- 8–14 weeks
- Statutory authority
- Higher Education Act Title VII, Part A, Subpart 2 §§711-716 (20 U.S.C. §§1135-1135b)
Who is eligible for ED Graduate Assistance in Areas of National Need (GAANN)?
These are the hard rules we check against. If one fails, the program is ineligible — the AI never overrides a rule.
- Institutions of higher education are eligible applicants.
Institution must have an established graduate program in an area of national need designated by the Secretary. Amounts and timing approximate; verify directly with administering agency.
How Strategic Pursuit scores this program
Run an institution dossier and our AI checks this program against your designations, HERD research scale and federal-share trend, and agency award history — using the same rules, with thresholds tuned to institutional reality. You see where you have defensible standing and where this is a longshot that would burn a limited-submission slot — every designation tied to the law behind it.
The dossier isn't the AI's guesswork — eligibility is decided by the rules, and the numbers come straight from official sources. The answer your reviewer will check line by line.
No credit card. 30-day trial, 3 dossiers, 1 seat.
Related programs
- NSF EPSCoR Research Infrastructure Improvement (RII) Track-1 (NSF)$15M – $24M
- NSF Faculty Early Career Development Program (CAREER) (NSF)$400K – $600K
- NSF Hispanic-Serving Institutions Program (HSI Program) (NSF)$200K – $3M
- NSF Tribal Colleges and Universities Program (TCUP) (NSF)$300K – $2.5M
- NSF Historically Black Colleges and Universities Undergraduate Program (HBCU-UP) (NSF)$300K – $2.5M
- NIH Research Project Grant (R01) (NIH)$250K – $500K
Award ranges, match percentages, and windows are approximate.