Applicants must keep the host supervisor(s) and host institution aware of their application. It is also important to make sure that the host institution is willing to accept a postdoctoral fellow under the HFSPO rules, e.g. with regards to receiving external funding for its postdoctoral researchers. Applicants must also check the institution’s policies for postdoctoral fellows and visa requirements for the proposed host country.

If offered a fellowship by HFSP, applicants will be sent the Agreement (detailed conditions of award), which they, their host supervisor(s), and an official administrator at the host institution will be required to sign before the activation of the award. 

General Information

• The HFSP Fellowship is awarded for 3 years (36 months). It cannot be renewed. 

• Fellows must begin their fellowship between 1 April 2027 and 1 January 2028.

• The PhD must have been conferred (completed) by the date of Fellowship activation.

• Fellowship allowances are all administered through the host institution and the appointment must be 100% FTE.

• Fellows should investigate their tax liabilities and other costs such as for visa applications.

Allowances

Fellows are granted a Living Allowance as well as a Research & 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. Please see the Application Guidelines for further details and amounts of allowances.

Fellowship Interruptions/Deferrals

Under specific circumstances, Fellows may interrupt (‘defer’) HFSPO support for up to two years (24 months). Deferrals can be made after having completed at least one year of the HFSP Fellowship in the proposed host laboratory. All requests for deferral require prior approval by HFSPO.

Concurrent Fellowships/Grants or Other Employment
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 living allowance can be supplemented from other sources (e.g., from a host supervisor’s grant or from institutional funds), for instance to reach the salary requirements of the host institution.

HFSP Fellows may apply for and hold additional research grants to assist their conduct of the fellowship research project as presented in their successful HFSP application. However, those funds must not be used as the fellows’ salary. 

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 by HFSPO.

Third Year of the Fellowship
In the third year of the fellowship, fellows may choose to continue to work in the same host laboratory, to return to their or their spouse’s/partner’s home country, or to move to another HFSPO member country. Fellows wishing to move must obtain prior approval from HFSPO. Applicants do NOT need to describe or discuss their proposed activities for the third year of the Fellowship in their application. 

The new application guidelines for the next call for HFSP Fellowships (2027) will be available in the coming months. The previous guidelines (2026) are still available, but are subject to change.

 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.

The new application guidelines for the next call for HFSP Fellowships (2027) will be available in the coming months. The previous guidelines (2026) are still available, but are subject to change.

 Long-Term Fellowships Application Guidelines 2026 (pdf)  

 Cross-Disciplinary Fellowships Application Guidelines 2026 (pdf) 

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

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

The new application guidelines for the next call for HFSP Fellowships (2027) will be available in the coming months. The previous guidelines (2026) are still available, but are subject to change.

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

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 lived in this country and fulfil one of the first two criteria. In case of doubt, applicants should contact the HFSP Fellowship Office (Click here to show mail address).

In all cases, the host country and host institution 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, the Republic of Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, the Republic of Korea, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, the Republic of South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, and the United States of America.

2) Host Country and Host Institution

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 take up the HFSP postdoctoral fellowship in the country in which they obtained their PhD, even if they are not a national of that country,

• not have studied or worked in their proposed host country for more than 12 months (consecutively or not) by the activation date of their HFSP fellowship. 

  • The combined duration of all stays (including research positions, collaborations, internships, high school, Bachelor’s, Master’s and/or PhD work, postdoctoral research, and time as a visiting scientist or technician, etc.) is taken into account.

Applicants who are already working at their proposed host institution are eligible ONLY if they have arrived on or after 1 April 2026. In any case, the fellowship must be activated within 12 months after their arrival at the host institution and/or host country.

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 necessary, applicants may also indicate a secondary host supervisor from the same or a different institution. The rules and requirements are the same for all host supervisors, their institution, and country of location. 

Applicants cannot propose to work with host supervisors 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.

**Activation date: Successful applicants in the 2026 award cycle must begin (activate) their fellowship between 1 April 2027 and 1 January 2028. 

5) Doctoral degree

The applicant must have completed their PhD or a comparable doctoral degree with equivalent research experience (for instance, an MD, medical PhD, or DEng) before starting the fellowship, and before 31 December 2027 at the latest. A completed doctoral degree is not required at the time of application. Should an applicant have more than one relevant doctoral degree, the date of completion of the most recent will be used to determine eligibility.

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 (24 September 2026). Therefore, applicants whose doctoral degree was conferred prior to 24 September 2023 are not eligible for the HFSP fellowships. 

However, some specific post-PhD career interruptions may be exempted and are therefore not counted towards the ‘time since the PhD conferral date’, such as: illness, parental leave (childcare), providing full-time care for an immediate family member, military or civil service. The remaining duration between the conferral date and the submission date of the Full Proposals (24 September 2026) may not exceed 3 years (36 months). Applicants wishing to obtain an exemption must contact (Click here to show mail address) with details of their interruption periods (dates, reasons) to discuss the possibility of an exemption BEFORE initiating their Letter of Intent. The start and end dates for all post-PhD interruptions must be entered in the “CV” section in the application portal.

Interruption periods that are NOT eligible for exemption include: unemployment, volunteer work, paid/unpaid internships, or any form of employment (scientific or otherwise). 

6) Publication Requirements: Lead author publication(s)

Applicants must have AT LEAST ONE full-length original research publication, in English, for which the applicant is a lead author (e.g. applicant is either 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. Review articles and patents do not qualify for this publication requirement. However, please note that ALL publications, including review articles and preprints, must be listed in the “Additional Information on Publications” form.

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

Manuscripts that fit the following description do NOT QUALIFY for the publication requirements AT ANY APPLICATION STAGE:
(v) have not been submitted to a peer-reviewed journal, or 
(vi) are in review at a peer-reviewed journal, but are not available in an OA preprint repository.

At the Full Proposal stage, option (iv) is no longer valid. Therefore, the applicant must have at least one lead author manuscript that is either:
(i) published in a peer-reviewed journal, 
(ii) accepted and in press at a peer-reviewed journal, 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 must be explained in the “Additional Comments” field under Section 2 (Applicant) of the application. 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. 

HFSP recognizes that publication practices differ across disciplines. Applicants with queries regarding the eligibility of their publication record should contact (Click here to show mail address) to check. 

Scientific Scope of the HFSP Postdoctoral Program:

1) The proposed research

HFSP supports projects in basic research studying fundamental problems in the life sciences. Research topics may include biological functions at all levels of analysis, for example, studies on genes and individual molecules, biophysical properties and structures of living material, intracellular networks, intercellular associations in tissues and organs, and networks underlying the complex functions of entire organisms (including cognitive functions) as well as populations and ecosystems. 

Prospective fellowship applicants are encouraged to read about previous HFSP Fellows for examples of the broad scope of projects that have been funded by HFSP in the past. In cases of doubt, applicants can contact the HFSP Fellowship Office (fellow@hfsp.org) to request general feedback about the alignment of their proposed project with the objectives and scope of HFSP-funded research.

The proposed research topic must be: 

• within the field of life sciences, 

• distinctly different from the applicant’s PhD or previous postdoctoral work, and

• basic, fundamental research (applications of purely applied nature will not be considered).

HFSP postdoctoral fellowships aim to expose fellows to new theories and methods to complement or build on their previous experience and expertise. The applicant may consult with the host supervisor in the development and writing of the proposal, but the project should be primarily the idea of the applicant.

For more information, please see the assessment criteria and the scoring guide for reviewers.

2) What HFSP does not support

With respect to research topics, HFSP does not fund:

• Projects of a purely applied nature, for example:

  • Projects with a primarily clinical and/or pharmaceutical focus

  • Projects aimed at developing or improving diagnosis or treatment of diseases, identifying drug targets, as well as drug design and development

  • Applied projects in engineering, biotechnology, or nanotechnology 

  • Development of novel methods that do not aim to answer a basic biological question

  • Projects directly focused on solving agricultural, forestry, environmental, or conservational problems

• Purely observational or descriptive projects, including systematic screening approaches and data collection studies, for instance on genomes, transcriptomes, connectomes, populations or ecosystems

• Proposals that are an obvious next step in the field, use standard approaches or promise only an incremental advancement in the field.

Additionally, HFSP Postdoctoral Fellowships (LTF and CDF) do not fund:

• Projects that are an obvious next step in the ongoing research of the host laboratory

• Projects that are a close continuation—the next logical step—of the applicant’s work in their PhD or previous postdoctoral projects

• Research in for-profit environments (however, collaborations with for-profit entities are allowed).