Fellowship Review Procedure
This section describes the peer review procedure for the selection of HFSP postdoctoral fellowships.
The selection of HFSP fellows is in the hands of an international review panel.
There is a single annual competition for Long-Term Fellowship and Cross-Disciplinary awards. The applications are first examined for eligibility by the HFSP Fellowship office. Each eligible application is then sent to two Review Committee members who are asked to classify the applications according to the track record and future promise of the candidate, the scientific merit and originality of the proposed project and the training potential of the host laboratory. The committee is particularly asked to consider whether the candidate will obtain training in a new field.
The Review Committee members submit their evaluations to the HFSP Secretariat before the committee meets. In cases where the opinions of the two Review Committee members assigned to an application differ significantly the application is sent to a third member. The most promising applications are then submitted to the committee meeting for discussion. Approximately twice as many applications are discussed as can be funded. The committee ranks the applications in order of priority and the cut-off point for awards is defined according to the funds available and the quality of the applications. Because of the high number of applications our reviewers have to deal with, we regret that we cannot provide any written feedback to fellowship applicants.
The recommendations of the Review Committee must be approved by the Council of Scientists and Board of Trustees before the awards are announced at the end of March.
