Eligible Faculty: Assistant professors within the first three years of a tenure-track position, or an equivalent independent research appointment. Tenure Track dates for the 2020 program must start after August 6, 2016 AND before August 6, 2019. Candidates must be citizens or permanent residents of the United States at the time of application.

The Beckman Young Investigator (BYI) Program provides research support to the most promising young faculty members in the early stages of their academic careers in the chemical and life sciences, particularly to foster the invention of methods, instruments and materials that will open up new avenues of research in science. Projects proposed for the BYI program should be truly innovative, high-risk, and show promise for contributing to significant advances in chemistry and the life sciences. They should represent a departure from current research directions rather than an extension or expansion of existing programs. Proposed research that cuts across traditional boundaries of scientific disciplines is encouraged. Proposals that open up new avenues of research in chemistry and the life sciences by fostering the invention of methods, instruments and materials will be given additional consideration.

Investigators can have no more than $225,000 in direct, annualized external funding grants during any BYI Program Year (Aug-July) at time of application. Start-up funds, department-wide instrumentation grants, and "Transition" grants (such as NIH K99/R00) are not counted toward this total. No individual may apply for a Beckman Young Investigator award more than two times.

Please Note: This is not a limited submission opportunity but does require signatures from Dean Christopher Stubbs (“Divisional Dean”) and Colleen Shanahan (“Chief Academic Officer”). The deadline to obtain the required endorsements is Friday, July 19 by 12:00 PM. The process to obtain the required endorsements is as follows:

Prepare the LOI using the application instructions at the Beckman website. The LOI should be complete before requesting the required institutional endorsements.
For the endorsement of the Chief Academic Officer:
1. Send an email to Colleen Shanahan, Manager of Grants and Contracts Operations (colleen_shanahan@harvard.edu). This email should include a PDF of the LOI and a brief note alerting Colleen that an automated email will be forthcoming from the Beckman application portal.
2. The online portal will have a section labeled “Request” where applicants should provide colleen_shanahan@harvard.edu as the recipient address for the Chief Academic Officer’s endorsement.
To obtain endorsement from Dean Christopher Stubbs:
1. Send an email to sciencedean@fas.harvard.edu with a cc to Zoe Fonseca-Kelly (zoefonseca-kelly@fas.harvard.edu), Tasha Thomas (tasha_thomas@fas.harvard.edu), Jennifer Corby (jcorby@fas.harvard.edu), and Susan Gomes (sgomes@fas.harvard.edu). This email should include a PDF of the LOI and a brief note alerting the Dean’s Office that an automated email will be forthcoming from the Beckman application portal.
2. The online portal will have a section labeled “Request” where applicants should provide sciencedean@fas.harvard.edu as the recipient address to request the Dean’s endorsement.