- 14 - Congress each year prior to making scholarship or fellowship disbursements. The NIGMS official also indicated that the agency has never discontinued a fellowship award due to a lack of funding. We find that the listing of approved or recommended stipend amounts for three budget periods in the notification of award received by petitioner is indicative of NIGMS's single fiscal year spending authority and that petitioner's fellowship support after the initial award period had little, if any, chance of being discontinued for lack of funding. We also note that the MARC faculty fellowship program is designed to provide an opportunity for eligible faculty who lack the Ph.D. degree to obtain the research doctorate. At the time he submitted his MARC application, petitioner anticipated that it would take 2 years and 9 months to complete his Ph.D. degree, and he requested a fellowship award period commensurate with achieving that goal. We find that the MARC award petitioner received was intended to provide sufficient fellowship support to allow him to obtain his Ph.D. degree, in line with the objectives of the MARC program. Indeed, we would not expect a prospective Ph.D. candidate to enroll in a multiyear degree program if his requested and seemingly approved source of funding was not reasonably secure for the duration of the program. In sum, we find that the award notice received by petitioner contained a firm commitment to provide support for more than 1 academic year,Page: Previous 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 Next
Last modified: May 25, 2011