About HFSP Postdoctoral Fellowships

The Human Frontier Science Program (HFSP) supports innovative basic research that applies novel and interdisciplinary approaches to understand fundamental biological problems and promotes scientific exchanges across national and disciplinary boundaries. 

HFSP postdoctoral fellowships encourage early career scientists to broaden their research skills by moving into new areas of study while working in a new country.

Two different fellowships are available:

  • Long-Term Fellowships (LTF) are for applicants with a PhD on a biological topic who want to embark on a novel and frontier project focussing on the life sciences.
  • Cross-Disciplinary Fellowships (CDF) are for applicants who hold a doctoral degree from a non-biological discipline (e.g. physics, chemistry, mathematics, engineering or computer sciences) and who have not worked in the life sciences before

Eligibility

1) Nationality

A candidate who is not a national from one of the HFSP members (see list below) may apply to work only in a research institution in one of the member countries. A candidate who is a national of one of the member countries can apply to work in a research institution in any country.

HFSP member countries: Australia, Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Canada, Croatia, Cyprus (EU part only), Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, India, Republic of Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Republic of Korea, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, The Netherlands, New Zealand, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, the United Kingdom and the United States of America.

Applicants must propose to work in a country different to the one where they did their previous PhD work or first post-doctoral studies. For those institutions that are not classified as national, i.e. international or extraterritorial institutions such as EMBL, ICPT or ICGEB, the country in which the laboratory is located will be considered the host country.

2) Doctoral degree

A research doctorate (PhD) or a doctoral-level degree comparable to a PhD with equivalent experience in basic research (e.g. a research based MD or medical PhD) must be conferred by the start of the fellowship. It is not required at the time of submission. By “conferred degree” we mean you have received your diploma for the degree. The “conferral date” is the date on the official PhD document. Refer to the application guidelines for information in case you were not yet awarded the PhD.

3) Research publications

  • Applicants must have at least one lead author publication by the submission deadline of the Letter of Intent which can be a manuscript (i) published in a recognized OA preprint repository, or, (ii) accepted for publication, (iii) in press or (iv) already published by a peer reviewed journal.
  • Submission of a fellowship proposal at the Full Application stage however is only possible with a published research article according to points (ii) to (iv) above. HFSP only accepts full-length original research publications in English that were peer reviewed and for which the applicant must either be the single author, first author or joint first author. In a joint first author paper the applicant does not need to be listed in the first position, but the equal contribution of the authors must be clearly stated in all cases.
  • In some cases the standard publication practice makes first authorship impossible (e.g. alphabetical listing of authors); these circumstances must be explained in the the application.

Fellowship Support

  • Fellows are granted a living allowance as well as a research and travel allowance.
  • Depending on their specific situation fellows may also qualify to receive a child allowance, a parental leave allowance and a relocation allowance.

How to Apply?

  • Applications for the 2023 HFSP Long-Term and Cross-Disciplinary Fellowships (to start in 2023) will follow a two-step submission process via the online submission platform ProposalCentral.
  • Firstly, applicants will be asked to submit a Letter of Intent from which the review committee will select the best proposals. In a second step, successful applicants will be invited to submit a Full Proposal.

The application guidelines for the 2023 HFSP
          – Long-Term Fellowships can be downloaded here,
          – Cross-Disciplinary Fellowships can be downloaded here.

Important Dates

  • Initiation of a Letter of Intent by 1 PM (Eastern Time US) by May 18, 2022 
    The registration portal is open.
  • Submission of a Letter of Intent by 1 PM (Eastern Time US) by May 19, 2022
  • The fellowship applicant will be notified between mid-August and end of August as to whether his/her Letter of Intent was selected or not for submitting a Full Proposal.
  • Submission of Full Proposals for invited applicants by 1 PM (Eastern Time US) by September 29, 2022 via ProposalCentral.

Contact

Click here to view the official notification for the HFSP Postdoctoral Fellowships 2023.

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