Pat Roberts Intelligence Scholars Program (PRISP)
Sen. Pat Roberts (Ret.)
PRISP is an Intelligence Community (IC) program that provides funds for previous education and/or continued academic training to retool or reskill the IC workforce in a STEM discipline; a mission critical foreign language as determined by the applicant’s IC element; or for obtaining core mission skills based on current and future needs, as identified by the Director of National Intelligence and heads of the IC elements. The program’s purpose is to recruit or retain a skilled workforce ready to meet current and future intelligence and national security priorities.
PRISP ELIGIBILITY:
- PRISP recipients must be assigned to a civilian cadre billet supported by the National Intelligence Program or Military Intelligence Program budget at the time of award acceptance.
- Uniformed service members assigned to an IC element are not eligible to receive PRISP funds.
- Nominees must have a minimum overall performance rating of “meets standards” on their most recent Performance Evaluation Report. For newly hired employees who have less than 90 days ODNI service as of the date of the annual call, written certification from the supervisor that the employee is satisfactorily meeting their established performance objectives is required.
- If foreign language is deemed a qualifying critical skill, nominees must have a minimum Interagency Language Roundtable (ILR) Level 3 proficiency in any modality (listening, reading, or speaking) in one of the mission-critical foreign languages identified by their IC element for which the recipient is employed.
- PRISP funds may be used to reimburse previous educational expenses incurred no more than six years from the date the PRISP application is submitted to the IC element.
- Nominees must provide evidence of mission-critical related training completed (undergraduate, graduate study, and/or specialized training) and proof of paid training expenses. Funding is based on actual out-of-pocket educational expenses (generally any cost not covered by grant, scholarship, or employer funding).
- PRISP recipients must meet the academic standard of obtaining at least an average of a 3.0 GPA or equivalent, for academic training courses considered for reimbursement.
- For on-going education, PRISP recipients must submit proof of their satisfactory completion of each course no later than 10 business days after the completion of the course/semester or as soon as the academic institution provides grades, whichever occurs first.
- All PRISP participants will incur a continued service agreement regardless of the amount of the PRISP award. The service obligation must be fulfilled through employment at an IC element.
- The institution of study must be accredited by a nationally recognized accrediting agency.
PRISP FUNDING:
- Individuals can be awarded up to $25,000 per fiscal year with a lifetime limit of $100,000 over a career in the IC.
- Funding received by the employee must not exceed the actual cost of academic training reimbursed through PRISP.
- PRISP funds may be used for tuition, fees, books, and associated course materials.
- PRISP funds are not to be used for housing, subsistence, to purchase internet access, computers or other electronic items or routine school supplies such as pens, pencils, paper, etc.
- PRISP approvals are subject to the availability of funds.
PRISP MILESTONES:
- IC elements release their annual call for PRISP nominations in April.
- IC elements aggregate and submit their nominations for processing to the ODNI, no later than 30 September of each year.
- Approved PRISP awards released to the IC elements for distribution to their awardees, based on established fiscal year operating guidance.
Questions regarding this program can be sent to IC Human Capital via email to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..