NIH Early Independence Award: Harvard Pre-Proposal Deadline

NIH Director's Early Independence Award
Harvard Pre-Proposal Deadline: June 19, 2019 by 5:00 PM
FAS/OSP Deadline (if nominated): September 6, 2019
Sponsor Deadline (if nominated): September 13, 2019
Award Amount: Up to $250,000/year for five years plus applicable indirect costs
Eligible Applicants: Date of terminal doctoral degree or completion of post-graduate clinical training of the PI must be between June 1, 2018 and September 30, 2020. At the sponsor application deadline, the PI must not have served as a post-doctoral fellow following a previous doctoral degree for more than twelve months and must not yet have research independence.

The NIH Director's Early Independence Award Program supports exceptional investigators who wish to pursue independent research directly after completion of their terminal doctoral/research degree or end of post-graduate clinical training, thereby forgoing the traditional post-doctoral training period and accelerating their entry into an independent research career. Though most newly graduated doctoral-level researchers would benefit from post-doctoral training, a small number of outstanding junior investigators would benefit instead by launching directly into an independent research career. Applications in all topics relevant to the broad mission of NIH are welcome, including, but not limited to, topics in the behavioral, social, biomedical, applied, and formal sciences and topics that may involve basic, translational, or clinical research. The paramount features of the research proposed must be innovation and magnitude of potential impact.

To be eligible, at the time of application, candidates must have received their most recent doctoral degree or completed clinical training within the previous fifteen months or expect to do so within the following twelve months. By the end of the award period, the Early Independence Award investigator is expected to be competitive for continued funding of his/her research program through other NIH funding activities and for a permanent research-oriented position.

This is a limited submission opportunity and only two applications may be submitted by Harvard University from the University Area (Cambridge Campus). Potential applicants to be hosted by Harvard schools in the University Area must submit a pre-proposal to Jennifer Corby via email at jcorby@fas.harvard.edu no later than 5PM on June 19, 2019 in order to be considered for the Harvard nominations. The pre-proposal should include:

• A two-page research proposal. Subsequent pages for references and/or graphics may be included and do not count toward the page limit.
• A current CV
• A letter of support from the department chair or program director of the candidate’s proposed host department/program at Harvard. The letter should describe the position details, the institutional resources to be committed, and the commitment of the host to the career development of the applicant.