The Human Frontier Science Program (HFSP) is unique in supporting international collaboration to undertake innovative, risky, basic research at the frontier of the life sciences. The call for both the HFSP Research Grants and Postdoctoral Fellowship programs are open.

HFSP Research Grants support innovative basic research into fundamental biological problems with emphasis placed on novel and interdisciplinary approaches that involve scientific exchanges across national and disciplinary boundaries.

Two types of Research Grants are available:

• Early Career Grants: Awarded to teams of researchers, all of whom are within the first five years after obtaining an independent laboratory (e.g. Assistant Professor, Lecturer or equivalent). Applications for Early Career Grants will be reviewed in competition with each other, independent of applications for Program Grants.
• Program Grants: Awarded to teams of independent researchers at any stage of their careers. Applications including independent investigators early in their careers are encouraged.

Important dates:

Letter of Intent Initiation Deadline: March 19, 2024*
Letter of Intent Submission Deadline: March 28, 2024*
Full Proposals for Invited Applicants Deadline: September 2024*
Funding Start Date: 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. It is important to note that HFSP only funds basic life science research.

Two different fellowship programs are available:

• Long-Term Fellowships (LTF): are for applicants with a Ph.D. 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.

Important dates:

Letter of Intent Deadline: 1 pm (ET) May 14, 2024*
Full Proposals for Invited Applicants Deadline: 1 pm (ET) September 26, 2024*
Funding Start Date: April 1, 2025

*For more information, please consult the HFSP website.

In Canada, the Human Frontier Science Program is jointly supported by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council and the Canadian Institutes of Health Research.