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Career Development Award

The Career Development Award (CDA) funds HFSP fellows who return to their home country or move to an HFSP member country to establish their independent laboratory. It is the primary funding mechanism offered by HFSP that aims at encouraging repatriation of postdoctoral researchers after the fellowship tenure abroad.

The goal of CDA support is to encourage former HFSP fellows to initiate an original research program in their own laboratories as independent researchers in their home country or in an HFSP member country. Applicants for the CDA are expected to propose an original and innovative frontier research program that holds promise for the development of new approaches to problems in the life sciences with potential to advance the field of research significantly.

The three-year award provides initial support during a critical period of career development. Host institutions are expected to contribute additional resources in support of the awardees and their independent research program.

The CDA is open only for former HFSP Fellows. Candidates are furthermore encouraged to select research institutions that are different from their PhD institutes to facilitate their scientific independence. Eligible HFSP fellows will receive information in good time to apply for the Award.

J Collins

2015 - James Collins

James Collins received the 2015 HFSP Nakasone Award for his innovative work on synthetic gene networks and programmable cells that launched the exciting field of synthetic biology.

 

U Alon

2014 - Uri Alon

Uri Alon received the 2014 HFSP Nakasone Award for his pioneering work in discovering network motifs, which provided the single most important foundation of the field of systems biology, opening up the previously impenetrable complexity of genetic circuits to systematic analysis and understanding.

S Quake

2013 - Stephen Quake

Stephen Quake of Stanford University received the 2013 HFSP Nakasone Award for his prolific inventions that advanced biological measurement techniques. 

G Turrigiano

2012 - Gina Turrigiano

The 2012 HFSP Nakasone Award has been conferred upon Gina Turrigiano at Brandeis University for her pioneering work on homeostatic plasticity in the nervous system.

M Elowitz

2011- Michael Elowitz

The 2011 HFSP Nakasone Award has been conferred upon Michael Elowitz of the California Institute of Technology for his pioneering work on gene expression noise.

K Deisseroth

2010 - Karl Deisseroth

The first HFSP Nakasone Award has been conferred upon Karl Deisseroth of Stanford University for his pioneering work on the development of optogenetic methods for studying the function of neuronal networks underlying behavior.