guscrea

Thank you, and Blue Gopher! Somehow I read the "Click to Begin" button as referring to the links above or something, and stupidly never clicked it or even really registered that it was there! Are they sure they want to give me this fellowship? You can lead a PhD to water...

Blue Gopher, where did you upload the 5770-2 form? jht asked this ealier, and you indicated that you can upload whatever you need in the FII under the "files" tab, but, as with jht, I don't see a specific place for the 5770-2. I've reached out to Brandon, but he didn't answer this particualr question. Thanks for the help!

I too am confused about the start date. More generally, and as for the lost year of funding, I suggest we politely but firmly push back. Why should the sequester "absorb" a year of funding when we are not starting our fellowships until a year later and after funds have been allocated to the program--indeed, MORE funds than EPA requested (see my earlier post way back in January, 2014; page 16 of this forum)? I am extremely happy to have made it through all this and to have been recommended for the fellowship, but see no reason that we shouldn't all be funded for the full amount we applied for. The money was never allocated or spent in 2013! Now, in 2014, when we're really starting, "fresh" funds have been granted by Congress. So why cut off a year? What am I missing?

Got my notice early this morning on the West Coast, too. Congrats to all the awardees, and thanks all for the collective effort to keep each other in the loop! Keeping my fingers crossed that awards that have to be declined shift to other folks who didn't get an email! texasfight, I am EPA-F2013-STAR-A1 Emerging Environmental Approaches & Challenges: Environmental Innovation (A1)

Totally agree, Blue Gopher. I stopped holding my breath a long time ago. At this point, if we're almost going to be on the orginal funding/notification timeline--only a year late!

@Benthon - Yes--thank you for the tip! Worked for me!

Good news. Thanks for sharing!

@ heat_her_bee and Blue Gopher -- I'm with you--it's RIDICULOUS. The least they could do is send out an email to the remaining applicants to clarify what processes we're waiting for and so on, even if they can't give a timeline, rather than leaving us to a) pester people like Brandon or Bronda and gossip and speculate on this board. Still, have faith!!! If the money comes through, even after all this time, it's going to be great news! They could have just given up for 2013, and picked up cleanly for a 2015 competition. I'm glad that there is still at least a chance we could win the fellowship!

Hi all, I've been lurking this thread for months now; it's time to chime in with what I hope is good news. The relevant part of the bill (H.R. 3547) linked to by sone461 (thanks!) is on page 755, and states: It took some digging, but I eventually found the appropriate "explanatory statement," which is itself almost 300 pages long. Read it here: http://docs.house.gov/billsthisweek/20140113/113-HR3547-JSOM-G-I.pdf The information we're all looking for can be found in the top two lines of page 30: It might be worth taking a look at page 81 of the PDF, too, where the specific allocations are listed relative to the FY2014 requests. On page 82 of the PDF, the Research: Sustainable and Healthy Communities FY2014 request is listed as 147,372 (in thousands). The amount allocated is 154,978--7.6 million more than was requested! So, while the EPA as a whole is taking a hit, it looks like the budget line we're all worried about actually increased! Crossing fingers!