2016 Neurosciences Institute Interdisciplinary Scholar Awards

Call for Applications

Complete applications including all supporting documents must be submitted online by 5:00 pm on September 21, 2015.

Required with the application are a faculty sponsor statement, a co-sponsor statement (if any), 1-2 additional letters of recommendation, description of any present sources of tuition or stipend funding and a curriculum vitae.

See below for detailed information on the Interdisciplinary Scholars Program

• Eligibility Criteria

• Review Process and Selection Criteria

• Funding Requirements and Guidelines

• Application Materials

• Program Requirements

All application materials must be submitted online. ACCESS THE ONLINE APPLICATION

Eligibility Criteria

1. The applicant must be appointed as a postdoctoral scholar at Stanford University at the time the award begins. If the applicant is not an appointed scholar at the time of the application deadline, additional documents must be submitted with the application (contact the SNI Program Manager for details). Instructors and Research Associates may not apply.
2. Applicants must hold an MD, a PhD and/or a DVM/VMD degree(s).
3. The faculty mentor/sponsor and co-sponsor (if any) must be appointed at Stanford University. Acting and consulting appointees are not eligible to be a sponsor or co-sponsor.
4. The faculty sponsor and co-sponsor should be SNI Faculty Affiliates. Any interested Stanford faculty member is invited to JOIN SNI
5. Foreign scholars may have J-1 (receiving stipends) or H1B visas (receiving salary). Citizenship is not a selection factor.

Stanford Neurosciences Institute is committed to offering equal opportunity employment and encourages applications from all qualified individuals regardless of race, religion, cultural or ethnic background, gender, sexual preference, and disability. SNI will make all efforts to ensure program access to those with disabilities by ensuring the accessibility of the physical site and by making further necessary accommodations on a case-by-case basis.

Additional Application Guidelines:

1. A faculty sponsor may not have more than one funded SNI fellow at a time.
2. A faculty member may sponsor one (1) application and/or serve as a co-sponsor on no more than two (2) applications per cycle.
3. Funding is restricted to support investigative activities that are focused in the interdisciplinary neurosciences, which may include basic science, translational and applied science, and the social sciences, and that are conducted under the direction of a Stanford University faculty member.
4. If the postdoctoral scholar currently has other fellowships, or has applied to fellowships that may be awarded during the SNI Interdisciplinary Scholar Award period, full disclosure of the names, amounts and dates of the other award(s) must be made in the application materials.

Review Process and Selection Criteria

All applications will be reviewed by a panel of faculty drawn from the School of Humanities & Sciences, School of Engineering, School of Medicine and School of Education with expertise in neuroscience. Applicants will be notified of results in December 2015. Note the committee will not provide feedback on individual applications.

The SNI Interdisciplinary Scholars Award selection committee reviews applications based on:

1. Applicant qualifications.
2. Scientific merit of the proposal. The proposal must be written by the applicant and reviewed by the faculty sponsor.
3. Interdisciplinary approach to the neurosciences broadly defined.
4. The applicant's career path, academic focus and progress to-date.
5. Number of years of postdoctoral research training since latest doctoral degree, with preference to applicants in the first two years of their post-residency or postdoctoral training. If considerable time has elapsed since the doctoral degree, and that time was not spent engaged in research or clinical residency, the applicant is expected to describe in the application how the time was spent.

Funding Requirements and Guidelines

Fellows receive annual support of $57,000 over twelve months as either salary or stipend, plus tuition and health benefits. An additional sum of $3,000 per year is awarded to offset fellow-related laboratory expenses. Equipment purchased with these funds belongs to the Department/University. Travel directly related to the research project is allowed, with prior approval from the faculty sponsor and the SNI Associate Director. SNI strongly encourages fellows to make oral presentations at scientific meetings.

Funding is guaranteed for the first of a two year award period. Funding starts on January 1, 2016. A second year of funding will be awarded based on a progress report submitted towards the end of the first year.

Applicants should be prepared for the fellowship to begin on time and be awarded for two full calendar years. The recipient must be in active postdoctoral scholar status through the duration of the award. The award will be suspended during any leaves of absence, such as a period of medical or parental leave, and resume when the scholar returns to research. Health benefits will continue to be paid by the program during a period of up to 12 weeks of parental leave. Arrangements for redistribution of the remaining funds or extension of the award year are typically made.

The SNI Interdisciplinary Scholars Award is intended to provide full support to the scholars rather than add to existing support. Supplemental support to awardees must be pre-approved by the SNI Executive Committee. Supplemental support is allowed in the case of scholars emerging from residency or other clinical training programs who are subject to the PGY levels, per department or School of Medicine policy.

In accepting this award, the Interdisciplinary Scholar's home department is responsible for adhering to the funding requirements and guidelines. If guidelines are not met, the Interdisciplinary Scholar may be asked to return all or part of the fellowship. For instance:

• overspending occurs above award amount
• incorrect expenditure code(s) are used, or
• falsified or misrepresented information is later determined that effects eligibility

Other Concurrent Fellowship Support and Combination of Awards

If an SNI Interdisciplinary Scholar receives another fellowship award from Stanford or from an outside agency, the Scholar must notify the Stanford Neurosciences Institute. If the two awards combined do not exceed the total support committed to the scholar as part of the terms of appointment, the SNI Interdisciplinary Scholar Award may be retained. If the two awards combined exceed the agreed-upon support for the scholar at the time of reviewing the SNI Interdisciplinary Scholar application, the SNI Interdisciplinary Scholar Award should be adjusted accordingly, up to a complete forfeiture of the award. If an outside award or other funding is used that exceeds the research or PGY pay level, the SNI Interdisciplinary Scholar Award must be declined/turned back unless an exception is granted.

The Fellowship Committee relies on faculty sponsors to report in writing the receipt of external support, via e-mail to the SNI Program Manager

Application Materials

Applications are to be submitted via the online application service at neuroscience.slideroom.com. No printed documents are to be mailed directly to our program.

A complete application and supporting letters must be submitted online by the deadline.

Please begin the online application with enough time to allow the system to solicit the required letters prior to the application deadline.

Please note: The SNI Interdisciplinary Post Doctoral Scholars Fellowship application will only be visible during the application period of June 29 - September 21, 2015.

Please carefully read the Eligibility Criteria, the Review Process and Selection Criteria and Funding Guidelines sections of this page before starting the application process.

A complete application consists of:

1. Complete online application form
2. Applicant's Curriculum Vitae formatted using the SNI Interdisciplinary Scholars CV Template (uploaded by applicant online). Other CV formats will not be accepted. Download the CV Template
3. Research Proposal: (three page limit, including any graphics and/or charts, references not included). The research proposal must be written by the postdoc and reviewed by the faculty sponsor.These two or three pages should include a brief statement of proposed investigation in the following sections: Background, Goals, Hypothesis, and Experimental Methods). Formatting guidelines require at least 1-inch margins at the top, bottom, left and right; and 12 point or larger fontTimes New Roman, Times Roman, Arial, Helvetica, or Verdana. Include title of project and your name on both pages and number pages. If the applicant choses to include references, the reference should include enough information to allow the reviewer to look up the paper.
4. Describe the collaborative process between you and your sponsor/ co-sponsor in the development, review, and editing of this research training plan. Discuss the respective roles in accomplishing the proposed research.
5. References:
   1. Faculty Sponsor and Co-Sponsor Statement(s): In lieu of a letter of reference, the Faculty Sponsor and/or the Co-Sponsor (if any) should each submit the SNI Interdisciplinary Scholars Sponsor's Statement through the reference management feature of the slideroom application. Download the Sponsor's Statement Template
   2. Request 1 or 2 letters of recommendation for a TOTAL of 3 references. At least one letter should be from a scientist not directly engaged in the proposed research.
   3. Important Reminder: do not skip this portion of the online application form - you cannot return to the page to add the information later and your letter writers will not be contacted.

Program Requirements

All SNI Interdisciplinary Postdoctoral Scholars are expected to acknowledge the SNI Interdisciplinary Postdoctoral Scholar Award as a source of support in all presentations and on all publications related to their work during the research fellowship period, are required to attend events honoring award recipients, participate in donor events, and submit annual progress reports to the SNI Fellowship Committee.

Progress Reports highlight the fellow's research progress to-date and future plans.  Reports are due each year by the submission deadline; fellows are notified in late spring of their report due date. Satisfactory research progress is necessary for the release of pledged funding in year 2 of the award.

Detailed Progress Reports should be submitted in the form of 2-3 pages (including any graphics or charts), and should include the following:

1. Overview of proposed research and potential insights gained
2. Summary of progress and long-term goals
3. Details of progress and future directions
4. Include, your updated CV including a list of all publications submitted and published

Questions regarding the application materials should be directed to:

Roula El-Asmar
SNI Program Manager
roula@stanford.edu
650-497-8031