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NIH awards individual fellowship grants (often referred to as the "F" series because their activity codes begin with the letter F) to provide research experience to students and scientists at the graduate and postdoctoral levels.
Purpose
NIH Individual Fellowships provide mentored research training and career development opportunities for students and scientists at various stages of their careers. Fellowships allow individuals to develop research skills under the guidance of experienced sponsors and mentors while conducting research related to the NIH mission.
Most NIH individual fellowships are supported through the Ruth L. Kirschstein National Research Service Award (NRSA) program which is NIH's primary statutory framework for supporting research training. The NRSA legislation requires some recipients of support (post-doctoral fellows and trainees) to pay back the Federal government by engaging in health-related research, health-related research training or health-related teaching (or any combination thereof).
These fellowships may provide a stipend, institutional allowance to help support the costs of training, tuition and fees, and childcare costs. Please see the funding opportunity for details.
How NIH Individual Fellowships Work
Individual fellowships are mentored awards. Applicants generally identify a qualified sponsor or mentor and develop a research and training plan in collaboration with that sponsor. Applications are submitted to NIH by the applicant's institution and undergo NIH peer review.
Reviewers consider the applicant's preparation and potential, the proposed research training plan, the sponsors and other members of the training team, the potential of the proposed experience to advance the applicant's research career, and the institutional training environment.
What Makes a Good Sponsor
The sponsor is generally a project director/principal investigator (PD/PI) closely involved in the fellowship candidate’s research training (often the candidate’s graduate mentor or supervisor). The sponsor’s role is to guide the candidate’s development throughout the training process. Among other things, sponsors should regularly communicate with the candidate about their scientific perspectives and training and career goals. Sponsors play an essential role in the fellowship application process and should encourage ongoing communication with the candidate as they conceive and develop the fellowship application.
Sponsors are not required to have had NIH support or extensive mentoring experience. NIH recognizes that the trainee’s research may be funded through a variety of means and that early career faculty may be excellent sponsors or mentors for candidates. The emphasis in the application and in the review is on the individualized nature of the training plan put forth by the sponsor.
Finding the Right NIH Institute or Center
NIH Institutes and Centers support research in different areas of science and health. A fellowship application should therefore be relevant to the mission and research interests of at least one participating Institute or Center (IC).
Not every NIH Institute or Center participates in every fellowship program. Participating ICs may also have different scientific priorities and other program-specific considerations (see ICO Individual Fellowships Funding Considerations and Contacts). Understanding the funding practices of an institute or center of interest is especially important when submitting investigator-initiated applications to Parent or Other Broad Individual Fellowship Announcements.
Programs by Career Stage
Period during which a student who has earned a bachelor's or equivalent degree is pursuing additional education and performing research to obtain a research doctorate. Clinical students acquire the knowledge to earn the clinical doctorate degree.
Postdoctoral refers to a temporary and defined period of mentored advanced training for those who have received a doctoral degree (or equivalent) to enhance the professional skills and research independence needed to pursue their chosen career path. Residency refers to a graduate medical education (GME) program that provides physicians with hands-on experience and training in a specific medical specialty after they graduate from medical school.
Stage at which investigator leads research programs in an academic, industry, or government setting with independent (often peer-reviewed) research funding and have delivered significant research outputs due to their experience and scientific quality.
Also Consider...
- Dissertation Award (R36)
- Fellowship for Intramural Dual-Degree Scientists (FIDDS) (FM1)
- Administrative Supplements – An administrative supplement is a non-competing award that provides additional funding to a currently funded grant. NIH participates in programs for full or part-time mentored research training experiences for individuals with high potential to reenter, reintegrate into, or retrain in an active research career.