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)
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