Fellowship Grant: How to Apply

Purpose

The Fellowship Grant is intended to enable Qualified Institutions to provide post-doctoral research fellowship training to qualified applicants in one of the two areas of stated interest to the Hillblom Foundation.

Grant Making Procedures

The fellowship applicant requires the full support of both the host institution and the proposed mentor. The Fellowship Grant shall be made directly to and administered by the office of contracts and grants at the Qualified Institution, which shall be responsible for the expenditure of the grant funds. Preference shall be given to applicants who have not undertaken a fellowship in the past. Annual renewal of a Fellowship Grant shall be subject to the Foundation’s approval.

Expectations of the Host Institution and Mentor

The host institution and mentor will provide appropriate infrastructure (computer access, personal work space, laboratory space, access to core facilities, library use, research training classes etc). The mentor will personally undertake and oversee the research training of the fellow to include weekly meetings, supervision of the research process and encouragement of the development of independence of the fellow. In its selection process, the Foundation will take into account the research careers of prior research fellows in the mentor’s laboratory.

Expectations of the Fellow

The fellow must be highly promising based on performance during prior training with a demonstrated productivity in research. The fellow will be asked to demonstrate a distinct research plan that is important and achievable. The fellow will be asked to identify planned research milestones. The fellow will be required to submit an annual report to the host institution and the Foundation (submitted electronically via the LLHF Grant Management System).  It is expected that the fellow will give presentations by the end of year one and will publish by the end of year two and this should be reflected in the annual report. Additionally, the fellow will be required to attend the Annual Hillblom Scientific Meeting to give a presentation on the findings of their research to date. The annual renewal of any Fellowship Grant for the three year time period will be contingent upon a satisfactory annual report and presentation at this forum. Renewal / non-renewal decisions by the Board of Directors of the Hillblom Foundation are final and not subject to appeal or review.

Grant Restrictions

In appraising applicants for Hillblom Fellowship Grants, preference will be given to those who (a) received their doctorate degree no more than 3 years prior to the current application (if more than 3 years, please explain) and (b) who receive no extramural funding for the 3 year period of the Fellowship Grant. To be eligible for this grant, applicants must commit 100% of their effort to research directly related to the project described in the application for funding.

If a fellow has active or pending funding from another source at the time of their application submission to the Foundation, consideration will be given for other sources of support for costs such as salary, benefits and education. Applicants with additional support must submit a letter from the Chair of the department which (a) clarifies all of the sources of funds available to the awardee on a yearly basis and (b) guarantees that in no case will the additional support detract from the fellow’s commitment to the Hillblom research project and that all funded research is directly related to the subject matter of the Hillblom project.

Research Costs

Personnel costs are restricted to the fellowship applicant only with a maximum of $5,000 per year for equipment and $2,500 per year for travel (including the Annual Hillblom Foundation Scientific Meeting). Supply costs are not allowed.

Acknowledgements

All publications and presentations related to the Hillblom Grant should cite support by the Hillblom Foundation.

• Qualified Institutions: The PI’s lab must be affiliated with an institution within the state of California
• Funding Areas: Diabetes or Aging
• Maximum Funding: $75,000 per year
• Duration of the Award: Up to three (3) years, subject to annual Foundation approval, non-renewable
• Maximum Allowable Indirect Costs: 10% included in the total grant

• Application Submission Start Date: December 30, 2024
  
• Application Due Date: January 31, 2025 at 5PM PST
  
• Funding Decisions Announced: June 2025
  
• Anticipated Start Date: July 2025
  

Important Quick Tips

• Whenever you use the “Save and Continue Later” feature, make sure to copy the temporary link provided and email it to yourself. (Note: you will receive the same link every time you use this feature and this link is only valid for 30 days.)
• You must edit your online form from the link provided.  Your application PDF will not be emailed or appear in your dashboard for editing until you have completed all of the required fields and have generated a "PDF Preview" (the last step of the online form).
• Once you generate a PDF preview of the application, the temporary link that was provided is no longer valid; therefore, if you need to edit the application after this step, it must be done from the PI’s dashboard.
• Note: your application PDF will only be emailed to you AFTER you generate a PDF preview. After you receive the PDF, you will also have the option to "edit" your application and "update" it from your dashboard and then a revised PDF will be emailed to you again.

Formatting Requirements for PDF uploads (consistent with NIH PHS 398 Guidelines)

Font

• Use Arial, Helvetica, Palatino Linotype or Georgia typeface and a font size of 11 points or larger. (A symbol font may be used to insert Greek letters or special characters; the font size requirement still applies.)
• Type density, including characters and spaces, must be no more than 15 characters per inch.
• Type may be no more than six lines per inch.
• Use black ink that can be clearly copied.
• Print must be clear and legible.

Page Margins

• Use standard size (8 1⁄2” x 11”) sheets of paper.
• Use at least one-half inch margins (top, bottom, left, and right) for all pages, including continuation pages.

Pagination

• The file must be single-sided and single-spaced.
• For new Grant Applications, please do not add page numbers when you upload your PDFs.
• For Progress Reports, consecutively number pages throughout the report. Do not use suffixes (e.g. 5a, 5b). Do not include unnumbered pages.

Figures, Graphs, Diagrams, Charts, Tables, Figure Legends, and Footnotes

• You may use a smaller type size but it must be in black ink, readily legible, and follow the font typeface requirement.