Research Management Group– (RMG)

Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI)
International Student Research Fellowships

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***Limited funding opportunity for international pre-doctoral students--- an internal selection process is required first within each school*, and then at the central university level.***

The 2012 internal deadline has passed. This webpage is only for your reference. The 2013 internal selection process will be announced in Sept. 2013.

This webpage contains the internal selection process for the School of Medicine only.
Other schools: The following link is for general information ONLY. Please contact the individuals listed on the following webpage for information on your school's internal selection process: VPGE webpage with program information>>

Timeline:
Internal School of Medicine* Deadline: Mon., Oct. 22, 2012, 4 p.m.
(see the internal submission guidelines below)
Top seven nominee proposals from each school to be submitted to VPGE internal review committee: Nov. 16, 2012
University submission of candidate names to HHMI:   Nov. 29, 2012
Candidates submit their completed applications to HHMI: Feb. 7, 2013


CROSS-SCHOOL NOMINATION PROCESS

Each of those schools will canvas their graduate programs, and may select a limited number of candidates for consideration for this fellowship. Recognizing the interdisciplinary nature of many of our students' programs, we will use the following selection groundrules:

 

Eligibility

Students who are being nominated for these awards must:



# of applicants permitted:

Stanford University has been invited to nominate 10 international doctoral students for HHMI International Student Research Fellowships. 59 US academic institutions have been invited to nominate students for these awards. HHMI expects to make a total of 50 awards; each will consist of three-years of stipend support, plus partial tuition support.

For the internal selection process, each school will be able to nominate seven proposals to forward to the second and final phase of the selection process at the VPGE (Vice Provost for Graduate Education Office).

Previous recipients:
3 Stanford recipients 2011 more >>
4 Stanford recipients 2012 more >>

Award Information:

HHMI will award three-year fellowships. For the 2013-14 year, the HHMI annual stipend will be $30,000, plus an allowance of $3,000 which may be used for insurance and health costs, books, supplies, and related support. HHMI will also provide an annual institutional allowance of $10,000 in partial payment of tuition and fees. Year 2 and 3 support is contingent on appropriate research and academic progress, and will not be provided beyond the fifth year of a student’s doctoral program.

The HHMI stipend is defined as support for 12 months each year, and HHMI requires that their fellows work full-time on research throughout the year. However, HHMI does not require full-time enrollment in summer quarter. HHMI fellows at Stanford must be enrolled for all four quarters while receiving the HHMI fellowship, but, where appropriate, they may reduce their summer quarter units. See further discussion, below, regarding tuition shortfalls and additional financial support.



Tuition Shortfall/ Supplemental Support / Other Funding Restrictions

HHMI will permit host institutions to supplement the Fellow’s stipend. However, fellows are generally not allowed to be employed (HHMI will permit an assistantship of up to 25%, consistent with Stanford's policies regarding supplementing full fellowships). HHMI Fellows may not receive significant funds from any external fellowship, scholarship or similar program. Schools should not therefore nominate individuals who hold continuing Fulbright fellowships or other signifcant external awards.

As with some other national fellowships, this award will not fund the full cost of Stanford tuition. Programs submitting nominations for this award must understand and agree that the fellow will not be charged for the tuition and fees shortfall.

In order to nominate a Stanford student for this fellowship, the student’s faculty advisor must agree to provide funding for the tuition and fees shortfall, and this must be described in the nomination materials being provided to the VPGE office. If the student will be funded on a supplemental assistantship (up to 25% FTE), those funds can only be used to provide salary and a tuition allowance - the student cannot be required to use that money to pay other university fees. If additional support is needed, the faculty member will have to either pay the balance from his or her own unrestricted resources, or to identify those resources from within the department or school. With the exception of the Cardinal Care subsidy and support for SGF Fellows (below), no central university funds will be provided to support HHMI fellows.

SGF-Stanford Graduate Fellowship. The HHMI fellowship may be combined with a Stanford Graduate Fellowship (SGF) in the same manner as an NSF Fellowship, i.e., the student’s period of support will increase from 3 to 5 years, and the SGF program will fund the difference between the HHMI allowance and the full cost of tuition.


School of Medicine Dean's Office Tuition Shortfall Coverage

“SPECIAL NOTE-REVISED FROM PREVIOUS YEARS: the School of Medicine Dean's Office has agreed to cover the tuition shortfall for up to $7,736 for each year of the fellowship

 

Internal Submission Guidelines

School of Medicine pre-doctoral students

By Monday, Oct. 22, 2012, 4 p.m., individual candidates please submit the following, with the exception of the the faculty advisor letter (which is confidential and must be sent separately), in the order listed below in one PDF file to Jeanne Heschele in the Research Management Group, at jheschele@stanford.edu. Jeanne can also be reached at 650-245-2351

  1. Title page
    title of this RFA: HHMI International Student Research Fellowships
    Name and contact information of the candidate, title, department, address, email;
    Name of dissertation advisor, title, department, contact information
  2. ***a CONFIDENTIAL letter of recommendation from the dissertation advisor (printed on your department's letterhead, addressed to Dr. Peter Sarnow and the School of Medicine Awards Committee**, and signed by your dissertation advisor). There are no page limits to the recommendation letter.
    THE LETTER MUST BE CONFIDENTIAL. PLEASE DIRECT YOUR ADVISOR TO SCAN HIS/HER ORIGINAL LETTER AND SEND THE PDF FILE CONTAINING THE LETTER DIRECTLY TO JEANNE HESCHELE IN THE RESEARCH MANAGEMENT GROUP AT JHESCHELE@STANFORD.EDU BY THE (REVISED) OCT. 22nd 4 P.M. DEADLINE.
  3. Each of the following (4-9) should be prepared as individual pages in Microsoft Word. Once you are completed with all of the sections, they should be incorporated into the PDF file. There isn't a page limit for the research experience section. However, keep in mind the wording you use from your abstracts for the project summary in the research experience section should be brief. (Do not include printouts of abstracts or papers you've published.)
  4. a two-page summary of the student’s dissertation research activity, emphasizing “the significance and innovation of the intended research” (single-spaced, no smaller than font size 11). The two page limit is firm. Any illustrations and references must be included in the two page limt.
  5. a listing of the student's research experiences, including dates, project summary, and the student’s role in the project;
  6. Identification of two other individuals who would provide an additional letter of reference as part of the HHMI package. ONLY PROVIDE THE NAMES (& TITLES, INSTITUTIONS, CONTACT INFORMATION)OF YOUR REFERENCES-A LETTER IS NOT NEEDED FROM THEM FOR THIS INTERNAL SELECTION PROCESS. The only letter required is from the faculty advisor. (If selected as a Stanford nominee, the application will require the advisor letter and two or three additional letters “from those who can speak best to the applicant’s potential as a researcher.” We will not ask for those letters at this time, but do ask for the names of the individuals who would likely be submitting those letters.);
  7. the student's CV including educational history, relevant honors, awards, professional activities, publications, presentations, and posters as applicable. (single-spaced, no smaller than font size 11)
  8. a statement of the student’s current funding Simply list all of the funding you receive. Provide the name of the source of the funds, amount of funding, term of funding (dates)
  9. (Final page) prepared by the advisor: the commitment to fund the tuition balance, including a general description as to how that commitment will be met.
    Note: if you have an SGF section in the tuition shortfall section above >>.
    Note: School of Medicine Tuition Shortfall coverage for 2013-2014 recipients (see above>>)


The final phase of the selection process:

A faculty review group will identify a final list of 10 nominations to forward to HHMI by Nov. 29. In making the final selection, Stanford will consider the competitiveness of each application, and will follow the HHMI recommendation to submit a diverse set of nominees in terms of gender, country of citizenship, research area, and departmental/program affiliation and that there will be no preference to HHMI laboratories/investigators/early career scientists.

HHMI will then provide the individual applicants with information about completing the online application – including instructions for recommenders to upload their own reference letters into an online system.





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