Applications Open: 2026 HFSP Postdoctoral Fellowships for Frontier Life Science Research

Are you a passionate early-career scientist able to push the boundaries of life sciences? The Human Frontier Science Program (HFSP) invites daring, revolutionary researchers to apply for its prestigious 2026 Postdoctoral Fellowship Program. HFSP fellowships are designed to help cutting-edge, interdisciplinary initiatives which have the potential to revolutionize our understanding of the life sciences.

Fellowship Opportunities

HFSP postdoctoral fellowships encourage early profession scientists to broaden their analysis abilities by transferring into new areas of study whereas working in a brand new nation.

Two distinct fellowship tracks can be found:

• Long-Term Fellowships (LTF): For candidates with a PhD in a organic self-discipline aiming to undertake novel, frontier analysis within the life sciences.

• Cross-Disciplinary Fellowships (CDF): For candidates holding a PhD in non-biological fields (similar to physics, chemistry, engineering, arithmetic, or pc science) who’re able to transition into life science analysis for the primary time.

Both packages emphasize transferring into new analysis areas and dealing in a distinct nation to broaden scientific views.

Application Process

Before making use of, please learn fastidiously the application tips, which checklist the eligibility standards. Should you’ve got any query as to your eligibility, please contact the fellowship workplace.

[Application Guidelines for Long-Term Fellowships (PDF)]
[Application Guidelines for Cross-Disciplinary Fellowships (PDF)]

There is just one competitors per 12 months for HFSP Fellowships. Applications for the 2026 HFSP Long-Term and Cross-Disciplinary Fellowships (to begin in 2026) will comply with a two-step submission course of through the net submission platform ProposalCentral.

1. Letter of Intent:

   • Initiate LOI by May 7, 2025

   • Submit LOI by May 15, 2025, at 1 PM (Eastern Time, US).

Successful candidates might be notified between mid-August and the tip of August 2025.

2. Full Proposal:

   • Invited candidates should submit their full proposals by September 25, 2025, at 1 PM (Eastern Time, US).

The HFSP application portal opens on March 13, 2025.

Note: BEFORE the applicant can submit their Full Proposal:

• The host supervisor(s) and referees will need to have submitted their sections, AND
• The host supervisor(s) and the host establishment official will need to have signed the proposal (digital signature).

Information on tips on how to submit a Letter of Intent might be discovered right here: HFSP ProposalCentral Instructions (pdf)

General tutorials (not particular to HFSP candidates) on tips on how to open an account and to submit a Letter of Intent through ProposalCentral might be discovered at:

Award Details

HFSP Fellowships are awarded for a three-year interval (non-renewable) and supply:

• A aggressive dwelling allowance tailor-made to the host nation.

• Research and journey allowances.

• Additional advantages similar to childcare help, parental go away allowances, and relocation allowance.

Allowances differ relying on the host nation. The full overview of HFSP fellowship allowances is said within the application tips.

Please seek the advice of the fellowship tips for an in depth overview of allowances and advantages.

Successful fellows should dedicate themselves absolutely to their analysis mission and usually are not permitted to carry one other salaried place concurrently. However, fellows could apply for supplementary analysis grants to help their mission bills (excluding private wage). HFSP fellows should dedicate themselves totally to their analysis mission within the host establishment and should not have interaction in some other paid exercise with out prior settlement of HFSPO.

The PhD will need to have been conferred when the fellowship is activated.

HFSP fellows can both use the third fellowship 12 months to proceed to work within the host laboratory, to return to their or their partner’s/companion’s home nation, or to maneuver to a different HFSP member nation.

Eligibility Criteria

Applicants should meet the next key necessities:

• Nationality & Host Country Change:
  Applicants could also be from any nation and of any nationality. However, candidates can not apply for a fellowship to work within the nation of their nationality, no matter whether or not they have obtained their PhD diploma on this or one other nation. Based on the candidate’s nationality, the proposed host nation should fulfil one of the next standards:

  • Candidates who are nationals of one of many HFSPO Member Countries can apply to work in a analysis establishment in any nation that they’re not a nationwide of.
  • Candidates who’re not nationals of one of many HFSPO Member Countries can solely apply to work in a analysis institute in an HFSPO Member Country.
  • Candidates with twin nationalities could apply to work in a analysis establishment in one of many international locations of which they’ve a nationality, however solely if they’ve by no means studied nor labored on this nation and fulfil one of many first two standards. In circumstances of doubt, candidates must contact the HFSP Fellowship Office.

  In all circumstances, the host nation standards should even be fulfilled.

  HFSPO member international locations: Australia, Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Canada, Croatia, Cyprus (EU part solely), 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.

• Doctoral Degree:
  Applicants will need to have accomplished a PhD (or equal, similar to an MD) by the fellowship activation date (between April 1, 2026, and January 1, 2027) however no later than December 31, 2026.

  Applicants usually are not eligible if the doctoral diploma has been conferred extra than 3 years (36 months) previous to the submission deadline of the Full Proposal (25 September 2025). Thus, candidates whose doctoral diploma was conferred previous to 25 September 2022 usually are not eligible for the HFSP fellowships, with some exceptions.

  Specific post-PhD profession interruptions could also be exempted and are subsequently not counted in direction of the ‘time since the conferral date’, please contact the fellowships workplace to acquire an exemption. Eligible interruption intervals could embody: sickness, parental go away (childcare), offering full-time care for an instantaneous member of the family, army or civil service. Interruption intervals which might be not eligible embody: unemployment and work outdoors of science. The remaining period between the conferral date and the submission date of the Full Proposals (25 September 2025) could not exceed 3 years (36 months). The begin and finish dates for all post-PhD interruptions have to be entered within the “CV” part within the application portal.

• Publications:

  Applicants must have not less than one analysis publication as lead writer, which means a paper as single writer, first writer or shared first writer. For this demand, evaluate articles and patents usually are not taken into consideration; HFSP solely accepts full-length authentic analysis publications in English for which the applicant should both be the only writer, first writer, or joint first writer (within the case of a number of first authors). In a joint first writer paper, the applicant does not should be listed within the first place, however the equal contribution of the authors have to be clearly said.

  At the Letter of Intent stage, candidates will need to have not less than one lead writer manuscript that’s both: (i) already printed, (ii) in press, or (iii) accepted for publication in a peer-reviewed journal, and/or (iv) printed in a acknowledged open-access preprint repository.

  At the Full Proposal stage, possibility (iv) is not legitimate, subsequently, the applicant should register not less than one lead writer manuscript that’s both (i) printed, (ii) in press, or (iii) accepted for publication in a peer-reviewed journal.

  If the usual publication apply within the applicant’s laboratory or analysis discipline makes first authorship not possible (e.g. alphabetical itemizing of authors), these circumstances need to be defined within the “Additional Comments” discipline beneath Section 2 (Applicant) of the application. HFSPO acknowledges that publication practices differ throughout scientific fields and people circumstances must also be defined in “Additional Comments”.  For circumstances wherein a analysis article can’t be registered in ProposalCentral (e.g., if it doesn’t have a DOI) please additionally clarify this within the “Additional Comments” part.

• Host Country

  All of the next necessities have to be fulfilled. Candidates should:

  • suggest a change in nation,
  • suggest a analysis establishment in a number nation that they’re not a nationwide of,
  • not suggest to maneuver from one laboratory to a different in the identical nation,
  • not have studied nor labored of their proposed host nation for greater than 12 months by the activation date of their HFSP fellowship.
    • The mixed period of all stays (together with analysis positions, collaborations, internships, Master’s and/or PhD work, postdoctoral analysis, and time as a visiting scientist or technician, and many others.) is taken into consideration.

• Host Institution and Supervisor:

  Applicants could not suggest a number establishment at which they’ve labored for greater than 12 months (consecutively or not) by the activation date* of their HFSP fellowship.

  Applicants who’re already working at their proposed host establishment are eligible provided that they’ve arrived on or after 1 April 2025. In any case, the fellowship have to be activated inside 12 months after their arrival on the host establishment.

  For-profit analysis environments are not eligible host establishments, however collaborations are allowed.

  Applicants should point out a major host supervisor. If scientifically required, candidates may point out a secondary host supervisor from the identical or a distinct establishment. The guidelines and necessities for all host supervisors are the identical.

  Applicants can not suggest to work with a number supervisor(s) who’re:

  • former scientific collaborators,
  • former analysis supervisors,
  • or with whom they’ve labored or printed.

  Applications may even be ineligible if the applicant has spent greater than 12 months (consecutively or not) working with the proposed host supervisor on the activation date* of the fellowship. This is no matter any change of establishment by the host supervisor.

  Please be aware that any host supervisor can endorse just one fellowship application (LOI) per competitors 12 months. However, the proposed supervisor could concurrently mentor HFSP fellows from earlier award years, and/or be part of an HFSP Research Grant group.

Note: For-profit analysis establishments usually are not eligible host organizations.

Please confer with the application tips for the whole info on eligibility.

Activation date: Successful candidates should start (activate) their fellowship between 1 April 2026 and 1 January 2027.

Review Procedures

The application and choice processes are confidential. Fellowship Review Committee members and exterior scientific reviewers are additionally certain by confidentiality. An inventory of the Fellowship Review Committee members from the earlier cycle (2025) might be discovered HERE.

Assessment standards and the scoring information for reviewers might be discovered HERE.

All Letters of Intent (LOIs) are checked for compliance with formal eligibility standards by HFSP in accord with the standards described above. Formally ineligible LOIs is not going to be additional thought-about. 

The remaining LOIs are screened for alignment with the aims of HFSP and scientific scope (see the application tips). A small evaluate committee decides which LOIs might be eliminated at this stage. Applicants whose LOIs don’t align with the scientific scope of HFSP might be notified. All remaining LOIs will undergo full peer-review.

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

1. Review of Letters of Intent

   • Each eligible LOI is assessed by two Fellowship Review Committee members.

   • Alphabetical scores are given:

   • If two reviewers’ scores differ considerably, a 3rd reviewer assesses the LOI.

   • Scores are used to rank all LOIs.

   • Typically, high 15–20% of eligible LOIs are invited to submit a Full Proposal.

   • Applicants are notified between mid-August and finish of August whether or not they’re chosen to submit a Full Proposal.

2. Review of Full Proposals

   • Full Proposals are first checked in opposition to eligibility standards, with explicit consideration to publication necessities.

   • Eligible Full Proposals are despatched to exterior scientific reviewers (2–3 reviewers per proposal).

   • Two Fellowship Review Committee members then consider every Full Proposal, incorporating suggestions from exterior reviewers.

   • The Fellowship Review Committee meets in early February.

   • At the assembly:

     • Each proposal is mentioned.

     • Review Committee members defend or revise their preliminary scores.

     • Numerical scores from the unique reviewers are used to recommend an total rating.

     • All Committee members rating every proposal, and the common rating determines the ultimate rating.

   • A ranked checklist of proposals really helpful for funding is created based mostly on the common scores.

For particulars on the evaluate course of and the evaluation standards and scoring tips please confer with this doc:

Assessment Criteria & Scoring Guide (pdf)

Note: Applicants should additionally meet all formal eligibility necessities outlined within the Application Guidelines.

Applicants are notified of the end result of their purposes as soon as inner HFSP formalities are full (often in direction of the tip of March).

Important Dates at a Glance

• Initiation of a Letter of Intent by May 7, 2025. Instructions might be discovered within the Applicant Guidelines (above) and within the ProposalCentral instructions (pdf)
• Submission of a Letter of Intent by 1 PM (Eastern Time US) by May 15, 2025, through ProposalCentral
  • HFSP will notify fellowship candidates between mid-August and finish of August as as to whether their Letter of Intent was chosen or not for submitting a Full Proposal.
• Submission of Full Proposals for invited candidates by 1 PM (Eastern Time US) by September 25, 2025, through ProposalCentral.

Ready to Apply?

Before making use of, fastidiously evaluate the Application Guidelines to make sure you meet all eligibility necessities.

[Start your application on ProposalCentral]
[Long-Term Fellowships Guidelines (PDF)]
[Cross-Disciplinary Fellowships Guidelines (PDF)]

For questions on registration in ProposalCentral, please go to: ProposalCentral info request.

E-mail: pcsupport@altum.com

Phone:  +1 703 964 5840

For extra data, please go to: HSFP Funding

For extra alternatives, please go to: Opportunities For Youth

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