AACN is pleased to announce
that nursing has now been designated by the U.S. Secretary
of Education as an "area of national need" under
the Graduate Assistance in Areas of National Need (GAANN)
program within the Higher Education Act. As a result, new
funding is now available to nursing schools offering PhD
programs. GAANN provides funding for fellowships to attract
students into graduate programs in specific disciplines.
Nursing has now been added to the list of national need
areas that also includes biology, chemistry, computer and
information sciences, engineering, geological sciences,
mathematics, and physics. This important addition resulted
from a three-year legislative and regulatory lobbying effort
led by AACN.
AACN is grateful to Representatives Jon Porter
(R-NV), Carolyn McCarthy (D-NY), and their colleagues for
their ongoing efforts in the House to make this important
amendment to the GAANN program. Advocates in the Senate
have also addressed this need with their legislative efforts.
On August 29, the Office of Post Secondary
Education within the U.S. Department of Education issued
a call for applications to schools seeking GAANN funding
in FY 2006. Schools of nursing are invited to apply for
funding to offer fellowships to graduate students with excellent
academic records who demonstrate financial need and plan
to pursue a PhD program. The Secretary is "particularly
interested" in applications from nursing programs that
focus on the preparation of nurse scholars at the PhD level
for educational leadership roles. Graduates of this type
of program will become the teachers preparing students for
careers in nursing and will disseminate to the public new
knowledge gained from disciplined inquiry related to nursing
and nursing education. Fellowship monies will cover the
costs of tuition and fees as well as student expenses. The
Department of Education estimates awarding to schools of
nursing approximately 96 grants averaging $211,000 each.
An application form and guidance information
are available online at http://www.ed.gov/programs/gaann/applicant.html.
For more information about GAANN, including links to the
recent Federal Register announcement, see http://www.ed.gov/programs/gaann/index.html.
We urge qualified schools of nursing to apply for this new
funding opportunity.
