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Postdoctoral Fellowships

2019 Awardees Meeting Toronto - poster session

 

Information updated February 14, 2025.


The HFSP fellowship program supports proposals for frontier, potentially transformative research in the life sciences. Applications for high-risk projects are particularly encouraged. The projects should be interdisciplinary in nature and should challenge existing paradigms by using novel approaches and techniques. Scientifically, they should address an important problem or a barrier to progress in the field.

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.

There is only one competition per year for HFSP Fellowships. Applications for the 2026 HFSP Long-Term and Cross-Disciplinary Fellowships (to start in 2026) 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 link to the registration portal of each program will be available in the corresponding application guidelines.

The application guidelines for the 2026 cycle are available:

 Long-Term Fellowships Application Guidelines 2026 (pdf) 

  Cross-Disciplinary Fellowships Application Guidelines 2026 (pdf) 

The HFSP application portal in ProposalCentral will open on March 13, 2025 for Letters of Intent.

For questions about registration in ProposalCentral please use the following contact: https://proposalcentral.com/inforequest.asp

E-mail: Click here to show mail address

Phone:  +1 703 964 5840
 

Deadlines:

  • Initiation of a Letter of Intent by May 7, 2025. Instructions can be found in the Applicant Guidelines (above) and in the ProposalCentral instructions (pdf)
  • Submission of a Letter of Intent by 1 PM (Eastern Time US) by May 15, 2025 via ProposalCentral
    • HFSP will notify fellowship applicants between mid-August and end of August as to whether their 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 25, 2025 via ProposalCentral.

Before submitting an application, applicants should check with their proposed host institution whether it is willing to accept an HFSP award.

The HFSP fellowships are for 3 years, with no possibility for renewal. Fellows may interrupt HFSP support after completing the first year, for up to one year, while continuing their postdoctoral research funded through other sources (deferral period).

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.

Allowances differ depending on the host country. The complete overview of HFSP fellowship allowances are stated in the application guidelines. 

HFSP Fellows cannot concurrently hold an HFSP Fellowship and another paid employment position (i.e., a position supported by a salary) or another paid fellowship from another organization. However, the HFSP Fellowship can be supplemented from other sources (e.g., from a host supervisor’s grant or from institutional funds). HFSP fellows may apply for and hold additional research grants themselves, provided those funds will not be used as a salary for the fellows and are to assist their conduct of the Fellowship research project as presented in the fellow’s successful application. HFSP fellows must devote themselves entirely to their research project in the host institution and may not engage in any other paid activity without prior agreement of HFSPO.

The PhD must have been conferred when the fellowship is activated.

HFSP fellows can either use the third fellowship year to continue to work in the host laboratory, to return to their or their spouse's/partner's home country, or to move to another HFSP member country.

 Long-Term Fellowships Application Guidelines 2026 (pdf)  

 Cross-Disciplinary Fellowships Application Guidelines 2026 (pdf) 

Before applying please read carefully the application guidelines which list the eligibility criteria. Should you have any question as to your eligibility, please contact the fellowship office.

 Long-Term Fellowships Application Guidelines 2026 (pdf)  

 Cross-Disciplinary Fellowships Application Guidelines 2026 (pdf) 

The HFSP application portal in ProposalCentral will open on March 13, 2025 for Letters of Intent.

Information on how to submit a Letter of Intent can be found here: 

HFSP ProposalCentral Instructions (pdf)

General tutorials (not specific to HFSP applicants) on how to open an account and to submit a Letter of Intent via ProposalCentral can be found at:

https://docs.proposalcentral.com/RegUser.pdf

https://docs.proposalcentral.com/CreateApp.pdf

 

Please refer to the application guidelines for the complete information on eligibility.

Important eligibility criteria:

1) Nationality

Applicants may be from any country and  of any nationality. However, candidates cannot apply for a fellowship to work in the country of their nationality, regardless of whether they have obtained their PhD degree in this or another country. Based on the candidate’s nationality, the proposed host country must fulfil one of the following criteria: 

  • Candidates who are nationals of one of the HFSPO Member Countries can apply to work in a research institution in any country that they are not a national of.
  • Candidates who are not nationals of one of the HFSPO Member Countries can only apply to work in a research institute in an HFSPO Member Country.
  • Candidates with dual nationalities may apply to work in a research institution in one of the countries of which they have a nationality, but only if they have never studied nor worked in this country and fulfil one of the first two criteria. In cases of doubt, applicants need to contact the HFSP Fellowship Office.

In all cases, the host country criteria must also be fulfilled. 

HFSPO 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, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, the United Kingdom and the United States of America.

2) Host country

All of the following requirements must be fulfilled. Candidates must:

  • propose a change in country,
  • propose a research institution in a host country that they are not a national of (for dual nationalities see above),
  • not propose to move from one laboratory to another in the same country,
  • not have studied nor worked in their proposed host country for more than 12 months by the activation date of their HFSP fellowship.
    • The combined duration of all stays (including research positions, collaborations, internships, Master’s and/or PhD work, postdoctoral research, and time as a visiting scientist or technician, etc.) is taken into account.
       

3) Host Institution

Applicants may not propose a host institution at which they have worked for more than 12 months (consecutively or not) by the activation date* of their HFSP fellowship.

Applicants who are already working at their proposed host institution are eligible only if they have arrived on or after 1 April 2025. In any case, the fellowship must be activated within 12 months after their arrival at the host institution.

For-profit research environments are not eligible host institutions, but collaborations are allowed. 

4) Host Supervisor

Applicants must indicate a primary host supervisor. If scientifically required, applicants may also indicate a secondary host supervisor from the same or a different institution. The rules and requirements for all host supervisors are the same. 

Applicants cannot propose to work with a host supervisor(s) who are:

  • former scientific collaborators,

  • former research supervisors, 

  • or with whom they have worked or published.

Applications will also be ineligible if the applicant has spent more than 12 months (consecutively or not) working with the proposed host supervisor at the activation date* of the fellowship. This is regardless of any change of institution by the host supervisor.

Please note that any host supervisor can endorse only one fellowship application (LOI) per competition year. However, the proposed supervisor may simultaneously mentor HFSP fellows from previous award years, and/or be part of an HFSP Research Grant team.

5) Doctoral degree

The applicant must have completed their PhD or a comparable doctoral degree with equivalent research experience (for instance, an MD or medical PhD) before starting the fellowship and before 31 December 2026 at the latest. A completed doctoral degree is not required at the time of application.

Applicants are not eligible if the doctoral degree has been conferred more than 3 years (36 months) prior to the submission deadline of the Full Proposal (25 September 2025). Thus, applicants whose doctoral degree was conferred prior to 25 September 2022 are not eligible for the HFSP fellowships, with some exceptions (see below). 

Specific post-PhD career interruptions may be exempted and are therefore not counted towards the ‘time since the conferral date’, please contact the fellowships office to obtain an exemption. Eligible interruption periods may include: illness, parental leave (childcare), providing full-time care for an immediate family member, military or civil service. Interruption periods that are not eligible include: unemployment and work outside of science. The remaining duration between the conferral date and the submission date of the Full Proposals (25 September 2025) may not exceed 3 years (36 months). The start and end dates for all post-PhD interruptions must be entered in the “CV” section in the application portal. 

6) Publication Requirements: Lead author publication(s)

Applicants need to have at least one research publication as lead author, meaning a paper as single author, first author or shared first author. For this demand, review articles and patents are not taken into account; HFSP only accepts full-length original research publications in English for which the applicant must either be the single author, first author, or joint first author (in the case of several first authors). 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. 

At the Letter of Intent stage, applicants must have at least one lead author manuscript that is either: (i) already published, (ii) in press, or (iii) accepted for publication in a peer-reviewed journal, and/or (iv) published in a recognized open-access preprint repository.

At the Full Proposal stage, option (iv) is no longer valid, therefore the applicant must register at least one lead author manuscript that is either (i) published, (ii) in press, or (iii) accepted for publication in a peer-reviewed journal.

If the standard publication practice in the applicant’s laboratory or research field makes first authorship impossible (e.g. alphabetical listing of authors), these circumstances have to be explained in the “Additional Comments” field under Section 2 (Applicant) of the application. HFSPO recognizes that publication practices differ across scientific fields and those cases should also be explained in “Additional Comments”.  For cases in which a research article cannot be registered in ProposalCentral (e.g. if it does not have a DOI) please also explain this in the “Additional Comments” section. 

 

*Activation date: Successful applicants must begin (activate) their fellowship between 1 April 2026 and 1 January 2027.

 

 Long-Term Fellowships Application Guidelines 2026 (pdf)   Cross-Disciplinary Fellowships Application Guidelines 2026 (pdf) 

Eligibility Assessments

All Letters of Intent and invited Full Proposals will be assessed for eligibility, and all eligible applications undergo peer review. Please note that we cannot provide feedback to unsuccessful applicants at the Letter of Intent stage due to the volume of applications that we receive. However, unsuccessful applicants that were invited to submit a Full Proposal will receive feedback.

The application and selection processes are confidential. Fellowship Review Committee members and external scientific reviewers are also bound by confidentiality. A list of the Fellowship Review Committee members from the previous cycle (2025) can be found HERE.

Assessment criteria and the scoring guide for reviewers can be found HERE.

All Letters of Intent (LOIs) are checked for compliance with formal eligibility criteria by HFSP in accord with the criteria described above. Formally ineligible LOIs will not be further considered. 

The remaining LOIs are screened for alignment with the objectives of HFSP and scientific scope (see the application guidelines). A small review committee decides which LOIs will be removed at this stage. Applicants whose LOIs do not align with the scientific scope of HFSP will be notified. All remaining LOIs will go through full peer-review.

Eligible LOIs will then be peer-reviewed by the HFSP Fellowship Review Committee. 
 

Scientific Review

Review of Letters of Intent

Each eligible LOI that is in scope with the HFSP objectives and scope will be assessed by two Fellowship Review Committee members who will use an alphabetical score (from A [highest] to D [lowest]) to rate the application. In cases in which the two reviewers’ scores are significantly different, applications will be assessed by a third reviewer. The scores from all reviewers will be used to establish a ranking of all LOIs. HFSP will then invite the top LOI applicants (usually the top 15–20% of all eligible LOIs) to submit a Full Proposal. 

LOI applicants will be notified between mid-August and end of August as to whether their Letter of Intent was selected or not to submit a Full Proposal.

Review of Full Proposals

All Full Proposals will first be checked against the eligibility criteria, importantly with regards to the publication requirements. Eligible Full Proposals will then be sent to external scientific reviewers who have expertise in the topics of the proposed research. Each proposal is expected to receive 2–3 evaluations from these external reviewers. Then, two Review Committee members will evaluate each Full Proposal, taking into account the evaluations from the external scientific reviewers.

The Fellowship Review Committee will meet in early February. At the meeting, each Full Proposal will be discussed, and each of the original Review Committee members defends or revises their initial rating. The numerical scores of the original Review Committee members are then used to suggest an overall score for each proposal. Based on the discussions during the committee meeting, all Review Committee members will provide their scores for all Full Proposals. Then, the average score for each proposal is used to generate a ranked list of proposals recommended for funding.

For details on the review process and the assessment criteria and scoring guidelines please refer to this document:

Assessment Criteria & Scoring Guide (pdf)

Note: Applicants must also meet all formal eligibility requirements outlined in the Application Guidelines.

Applicants are notified of the outcome of their applications once internal HFSP formalities are complete (usually towards the end of March).

No. The supervisor you plan to return to in the 3rd year of the fellowship should not be indicated in the application. Only indicate the supervisor at the proposed host institution. Administrative details for the final year of the fellowship will be arranged at a later stage.

Applications were mostly ineligible for formal reasons. Others were ineligible because the proposed projects were outside the scientific scope of HFSPO:

  • clinically oriented research,
  • projects with the sole emphasis on searching for new compounds with a potential impact for drug development,
  • environmental projects such as monitoring ecosystem/species diversity,
  • projects related to disease and/or drug development and projects in agriculture.

Yes, if the project entails collaboration between two laboratories, you may register two host supervisors. Note that only one host institution can be registered in the application form. We recommend that the collaborating laboratories be relatively close together to enable regular visits during the tenure of the fellowship.

We will take into account your latest degree.

The review committee members rely on these publications to assess the quality of your past research. In addition, the publication of at least one first author/co-author paper is required and the fellowship office looks at your publication(s) to confirm your eligibility.

You should apply for a Cross-Disciplinary Fellowship (CDF). CDFs are for applicants with a PhD from outside the life sciences (e.g. in physics, chemistry, mathematics, engineering or computer sciences), while Long-Term Fellowships (LTFs) are for applicants with a PhD in a biological discipline.

Abstracts of funded fellowship projects from previous years are available on the HFSPO website at  https://www.hfsp.org/awardees/awards.

No, this does not count as a first author publication. You must have at least one lead author paper in an international, peer-reviewed journal or published on a pre-print server such as bioRxiv to be eligible to apply. However, if the scholarly tradition in your discipline puts more emphasis on publishing in conference proceedings, you may apply and explain this in the “additional comments” section of your application. If you are not sure whether your publication record fits HFSP requirements, please contact the HFSP Fellowship Office at fellow@hfsp.org

You can increase your chances of success if your proposal has a clear and concise research plan, contains sufficient detail for peer review purposes and demonstrates an obvious fit with the mandate of HFSP. We support innovative, even high-risk research that provides an opportunity for the candidate to branch out in a new research direction. A misalignment with the objectives of the HFSP fellowship program or a poorly written proposal are among the most common reasons why a proposal is not successful. Every year HFSP receives more excellent fellowship applications than the number that can be funded.

Unfortunately, it is not possible to submit material after the deadline. You will have to select another referee.

You are eligible because you received your most recent doctoral degree last year.

The ORCID number is invaluable in distinguishing between applicants with the same name, which is a frequent issue at HFSPO. At this point the ORCID number is only used by HFSPO for this purpose, however other functions may be explored when the use of the ORCID number becomes more established with the scientific community (www.orcid.org).

A candidate can apply for the HFSP fellowship even if he/she has another financial support. If awarded the HFSP fellowship, the other financial support will have to be terminated by the start of the HFSP fellowship.

Yes. It is very important to explain any breaks in the CV section of the application so that the reviewers can take this into consideration when assessing productivity. The review committee will not be biased against applicants who have taken breaks to have and care for children.

All eligible applications are evaluated by members of the HFSP fellowship review committee.

By the submission deadline of the Letter of Intent, applicants must have at least one lead author publication, which can be published in a recognized OA preprint repository. Submission of a fellowship proposal at the Full Proposal stage, however, is only possible with the lead author research article being either accepted for publication / in press / published in a peer reviewed journal. 

Given budget limitations, only applications that clearly reflect the scientific objectives of the HFSP fellowship program and that receive excellent to outstanding marks by the reviewers are funded. Consideration is not given to other factors such as country of origin, gender, etc.

The online system allows applicants to change a referee or the host supervisor up to the submission deadline.

If it is a research-based MD obtained within the three years prior to the submission deadline and if you have the equivalent research experience as a PhD holder (i.e. you have a publication record in international peer reviewed journals), you are eligible to apply. However, depending on your research experience, your publication record and your change in research direction, the review committee may consider your application less competitive than those of PhD holders. In case of doubt, contact the Secretariat to make sure your application is competitive.

There is only one competition per year. Should your application be unsuccessful, you may submit an application in another competition year provided you still meet all the eligibility criteria listed in the guidelines. A candidate can only submit one fellowship application per year.

A degree is conferred when you receive your diploma for the degree. The “conferral date” is the date on the official PhD document.

First verify that the email addresses entered in the “Host Supervisor 1” (plus “Host Supervisor 2”, if applicable) and “Referees” sections are correct in your online application form. If this information is correct, the email from the HFSP application server may have been sent to a spam filter on the receiving end. Inform your host and referees to check their spam filter for messages with “HFSP” in the subject line.

Yes, but the PhD must have been conferred by the time the fellowship is activated.

The proposed fellowship project will be evaluated based on the criteria set out for the program. The research project should contain an original and innovative idea that holds promise to advance knowledge in the field. Successful HFSP awardees are outstanding researchers with a demonstrated record of excellent research and a commitment to exploring new approaches to basic research questions.

While there are many ways to put together a highly competitive application, in the past, successful applications have demonstrated that the candidates have made significant intellectual contributions to the published work (the reference letters should elaborate on this aspect) as well as to the proposed research (the host supervisor letter should mention this).

The most competitive applications propose unique research projects that mark a departure from the applicant’s previous research. Projects that expose the applicant to new theory and methodology, that propose a new approach to a research problem and that can potentially make a major contribution to the research field are favored. High risk research is supported.

Degrees are awarded by one university, even if the training was done in a multi-institutional or even international context. Indicate the degree-awarding institution in the degrees section. You can add further details about the other training institutions and training periods in the CV section.

Candidates who have more research experience and publications are not privileged over recent PhDs. The selection process takes career stage into account when evaluating productivity and the scientific merit of the candidate’s accomplishments. In the evaluation process, the fellowship review committee may favor proposals that better meet the objective of providing international opportunities to top-notch candidates who are recent doctoral graduates with minimal research experience.

No, you must choose the program that best suits your research background and proposed research project. In case of doubt, please contact the Fellowship Office for guidance. A candidate can only submit one fellowship application per year.

No, we only take into account career interruptions such as illness, parental leave, providing full time care for an immediate family member, military or civil service when calculating eligibility to apply. You cannot be more than 3 years post-PhD by the submission deadline.

The HFSP online interface ensures consistency between applications by automatically formatting information (e.g., bold titles, page breaks). You can download a PDF copy of your application from the HFSP extranet (in the preview section of the online application) to see the formatted version of your application.

Maybe. Applicants who were conferred a degree in Europe should consult the online database of EURYDICE at https://eacea.ec.europa.eu/national-policies/eurydice/ to confirm degree equivalency. This is the official database of European Higher Education Degrees, and is used by HFSPO. All other applicants should consult the Fellowship Office.

No. Journal impact factors do not play a role in the evaluation or selection process.

Yes. In cases where PhD students do their research in one country and get the degree in another country, they can apply to go to this country provided they have never worked or lived there.

HFSP believes that broad training is excellent preparation for postdoctoral researchers to establish novel, interdisciplinary research programs. Therefore preference is given to applicants who add new ideas or unique approaches to their research. This may involve learning new methods, changing study system, or exposure to new theory or literature.

No, your host supervisor can only endorse one application each year, either for a LTF or for a CDF.

No. The fact that you worked as a university lecturer did not prevent you from submitting an application to HFSP at the time when you were still eligible to do so. Exemptions can only be claimed because of personal circumstances such as illness, parental leave, providing full time care for an immediate family member, military or civil service, etc.

Figures or tables rarely add significant insight to the proposed project. Outstanding fellowship applications are carefully crafted research proposals in which applicants put their innovative ideas and vision in writing.

Applicants with doctoral degrees in the medical sciences (clinical context) must have an equivalent level of research experience as expected from a research based PhD prior to applying. This should be stated clearly in the online application by listing years of experience in basic research and/or publications in international peer reviewed journals.

Reviewers do not rely solely on the publication venue to determine the quality or impact of a paper. The quality of the research is assessed, independent of where it was published. Increasingly, researchers are obliged or choose to publish in open access journals. You can find HFSP’s Open Access policy here.

If you have never worked in the host country before and started working in the host laboratory on or after April 1 this year, you can submit a letter of intent.

HFSPO does not support scientists who wish to return to work with someone they have done research with before. HFSPO’s goal is to support scientists to work with someone new, on a project that will broaden their expertise. There are cases where an applicant may have visited the host lab for a short period (i.e. to learn a technique), and in these types of cases HFSPO may accept your application depending on the reason of your initial stay. Please contact the HFSPO Office prior to submitting an application to make sure you are eligible and to request an exception.

Yes, you may apply however you must hold the fellowship in one of the HFSPO member countries.