ENGIE-Axium Graduate Fellowship and Scholarship Guidelines

Guiding Principles

ENGIE North America and Axium Infrastructure (ENGIE-Axium) are world leaders in energy services and sustainability. The two companies formed a new consortium to provide comprehensive energy management services for Ohio State. This private/public partnership also supports Ohio State’s sustainability and academic mission.

Sustainability refers to the improvement of the well-being of people and communities in ways that protect the earth’s life support systems by reducing environmental impacts, enhancing resource efficiency and ensuring economic prosperity for all. It is motivated by the fundamental dependence of humans on the natural environment and the desire to foster life on Earth now and in the future. Sustainability also depends on the resilience of natural and human systems, such as those providing energy and food, and the ability of communities to recover, adapt and flourish in the face of changing environmental, economic and social conditions. Sustainability includes consideration of human health and well-being in the context of changing environmental conditions and a focus on applied solutions, including innovations in technology, policies and actions.

One of the objectives of the funds generated from the ENGIE-Axium endowment to the Graduate School is to support innovative and contemporary programs and initiatives for graduate and professional students at the Ohio State University. The goal is to spend funds available with the following guiding principles:

• Enhance excellence and augment opportunities for graduate and professional students’ learning and workforce training in Sustainability and/or Energy Management and Advancement. As described by the Sustainability Institute at Ohio State, Sustainability is an inherently interdisciplinary topic that transcends any single academic unit, discipline or sector. Sustainability and resilience research draws from the natural, social, medical and engineering sciences, arts and humanities, as well as from public health, policy, business and law.
• Seek synergies with other ENGIE-Axium Academic Collaboration investments, including the proposed Energy Advancement and Innovation Center.
• Align with the university mission, vision, and strategic plan. In particular for the scholarship, seek to advance diversity and inclusion as a core goal, reflecting diversity of people, ideas and disciplines. 
• Create a “multiplier effect” by leveraging existing scholarship, fellowship and graduate training programs, including those supported by the Graduate School.
• Maintain a balance over time in allocating funds across multiple colleges, departments, professional programs, and disciplines that engage in sustainability advanced studies, including the arts and humanities.
• Maintain flexibility in how the funds are allocated over time. Funds may be allocated for recruitment as well as for current students.

Three programs have been developed to support graduate education through the ENGIE-Axium endowment. These include the Fellowship and Scholarship programs described below.

This definition is from SRE/OEE’s proposal to create a sustainability institute at OSU and reflects ongoing conversations through SELC and other sustainability-oriented networks at OSU.

The EAF is a one-year award designed to recruit academically strong candidates for admission into Ohio State’s graduate programs with a particular focus in the research areas of Sustainability. Funds would target recruitment of high ability students to Ohio State.

The EAF program provides support for Fellowship awards every year.  Each EAF awarded funds one student’s stipend and tuition & fee authorization. The Graduate School strongly encourages colleges and programs to provide matching funds to enhance student funding packages. 

The EAF can be combined with other Graduate School Fellowships to offer multi-year fellowship packages, provided the recipient satisfies the criteria required for each individual fellowship. Multi-year packages through Graduate School Fellowships will be restricted to a total of 3 years, including the ENGIE-Axium. EAF can also be combined with College Allocated Fellowships (CAF), to increase the total support, in accordance with the Graduate School Fellowship guidelines. 

Since EAF awardees are likely receive competitive offers from other institutions, all EAF awardees may not accept their awards. Annually, unaccepted EAFs default to the Graduate School. Nominations for EAFs will not be capped.

Consistent with other Graduate School Fellowships, the EAF program will:

• Provide a monthly stipend 
• Provide the student’s instructional fees, learning technology fees, and most general fees
• Provide applicable resident or nonresident tuition
• Provide 100% of the university subsidy of the Student Health Insurance premium

Individual graduate students cannot apply for the EAF.  EAF awards are based on nominations of admitted graduate students by Ohio State graduate programs to the Graduate School. EAF students should be nominated by programs using the GradAwards system as described in the Graduate School Fellowship guidelines.

There is no limit on the number of nominations a program can submit for the EAF. A student can be nominated for an EAF as well as for other Graduate School Fellowships. However, restrictions on nomination caps (if applicable) will be applied for other fellowship nominations. Nominations for multiple fellowships should be indicated in GradAwards. A student nominated for multiple fellowships must meet the eligibility criteria for each fellowship

Eligibility 

Individuals who will be students entering new graduate programs at Ohio State in autumn semester of the start of their first academic year are eligible for nomination. The committee will also consider students for whom summer is their first term of graduate enrollment at Ohio State.

Students can be applicants to any graduate or professional program at Ohio State University, including doctoral or master’s programs. However, their program of study must align with the theme of Sustainability.

For EAF nomination, the minimum undergraduate cumulative GPA (cGPA) and the minimum cGPA from any subsequent degree earned, if applicable, must be at least 3.5 on a 4.0 scale.

The EAF has no citizenship requirements. Domestic and international students entering new programs are eligible for nomination. 

Materials Used for Evaluation (Section 4.1)

Transcripts reflecting courses taken and grades received in the undergraduate and graduate (if applicable) program of study of the nominee.

Nominee’s curriculum vitae summarizing major scholarly pursuits and activities and other experiences including, but not limited to, publications, presentations, performances, awards, internships, etc.

Statement of Purpose to be evaluated according to factors including, but not limited to, clarity and quality of writing, non-academic experience, motivation for graduate study and research interest, career goals, and interest in the specific graduate program at The Ohio State University.

Letters of Recommendation. The quality of letters will be assessed from factors such as reputation and/or relevance of recommenders, the intellectual ability of the nominee, the quality and quantity of scholarly work and other attributes of the nominee such as experiences, leadership activities, motivation, work ethic, overcoming hardship(s), and promise for success in graduate school.

Program Justification Statement. The program must provide a narrative describing specific interpretation of the nominee’s credentials, including previous graduate work, if relevant. The statement should describe why the nominee represents the highest quality for their program and is an appropriate candidate for the EAF. The narrative should include how the nominee’s research interests and predicted program of study align with the theme of Sustainability as broadly defined in Section 1. 

Review (Section 4.2)

EAF nominations will be reviewed by the Graduate School University Fellowship Review Committee and subject to the Scoring Criteria for UF Competition (as described in the Graduate School Fellowship Guidelines). Consistent with the Graduate School Fellowship nominations, each EAF nomination will be evaluated by three readers who are selected through a randomized process. Reviewers do not review nominees from their own programs and recuse themselves for conflict of interest. Each nomination’s final score is an average of the three scores. EAF awards will be made by the Graduate School based on the recommendations of the review committees.

The notification of fellowship winners, information and conditions for fellowship, and benefits for EA-F fellows will align with the guidelines specified for Graduate School Fellowships.

The EA-IRS is a financial incentive allocated to the professional and graduate colleges in a manner similar to College Allocated Fellowships (CAFs). Each year, the EA-IRS program will provide $5,000 each to selected prospective graduate or professional students seeking to study or work in Sustainability. Students do not need to be nominated or have been awarded an EAF to be offered the EA-IRS, although programs are encouraged to nominate EA-IRS selectees for the EAF. 

The EA-IRS can be used to augment current recruitment packages to attract the most sought-after students requiring stronger financial incentives to attract them to Ohio State. This incentive can be used at the college’s discretion to supplement the stipend or to provide research and professional development funds specifically for that student. 

The EA-IRS is decentralized to the colleges to give graduate programs flexibility when they may want to make offers to recruit top students. The Graduate School determines the number of EA-IRS awards that each college will receive based on available funds each year. 

Nomination and Eligibility

EA-IRS awards are based on nominations of admitted graduate students by Ohio State graduate programs to their respective colleges.

Students must be new recruits who meet all the eligibility criteria described for the EAF.

These students would be selected by the colleges and approved by the Graduate School as is currently done for the CAF.

All admitted new graduate students are eligible to be considered for the EA-IRS award provided they meet the eligibility criteria. These include students who are considered for fellowship nominations, graduate research associate or graduate teaching associate positions, or are self-funded students.   

For EA-IRS, each college determines how these awards are allocated to its graduate programs and sets its own internal review process. The review process within the colleges for selection of applicants should follow a holistic review process that includes consideration of how the student’s proposed research interests intersect with Sustainability initiatives.  Procedures established to distribute the EA-IRS awards to programs or to individual students at the college level are subject to the discretion of the college’s dean.

 Students must be enrolled for the semester of the award and making progress toward the degree.

The EA-CPT program provides every year up to $5,000 (capped) to graduate or professional students seeking to study or work in Sustainability as part of their graduate curriculum. Individual graduate students cannot apply for the EA-CPT awards. EA-CPT awards are based on nominations of current graduate students by Ohio State graduate programs to their respective colleges.

The Graduate School encourages the colleges to disburse the EA-CPT scholarships using a model similar to the AGGRS award offered by the Graduate School. The EA-CPT scholarships should be made on the merit of the proposal, quality of the graduate student, and likelihood of completion of the experience.   Scholarships allocated to colleges that are not used in a given academic year will default back to the Graduate School.

Eligibility

Students can be in any year of their program of study and must be in need of bridge funding for a specific academic term (Summer or Autumn term following awarding).  The student must have less than the minimum stipend of funding for the semester. For instance, students may be under-funded (below the minimum monthly stipend) for the semester in which the EA-CPT is requested or request funding for work that is essential to their dissertation or thesis but for which they have no financial support. Total support, including the EA-CPT, cannot exceed the minimum stipend level.

Students receiving partial stipends from associateship or scholarships may be eligible for EA-CPT funding. As an example, EA-CPT nominations can be received to support graduate students who may be attending an under-funded, off-campus experience for a semester or, due to a 9-month Graduate Associate appointment, be without funding for a summer semester.  Other examples may include a student who has external fellowship support that does not meet the university minimum stipend level for Graduate Associates or a student who does not have summer funding. 

Students must be enrolled for the semester of the award and making progress toward the degree.

Previous EA-CPT awardees are not eligible for a second award.