Office of Fellowships and Scientific Writing

The OFSW runs multiple fellowship writing workshops that combine didactic lectures with peer review of participants’ proposals. Notification of the workshop dates are sent out via the Graduate Student email list.

• NSF GRFP Workshop: The National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship Program (NSF GRFP) funds first-year students, who have not completed a stand-alone Master’s degree. This multi-week workshop includes a recorded portion of best practices for writing personal statements and research statements, detailed instruction regarding rules and regulations, and description of the official review criteria, which is distributed to incoming students before their arrival. Once on campus, students are able to participate in peer review, as well as a Q&A with previous awardees. 
  • Dates: Workshop August – September. Submission deadline typically mid-October.
• Grantsmanship for Predoctoral Fellowships (Previously: NIH F31 Workshops): The National Institutes of Health National Research Service Award (NRSA) predoctoral training fellowship is given to promising applicants with the potential to become productive, independent investigators. We offer this course, which prepares post-ACE students to submit an NIH Fellowship application, each semester to coincide with NIH fellowship cycle deadlines. The goal of the course is to provide students with information regarding application components, outline the NIH peer review system for evaluating fellowships and grants, and conduct peer review. Post-ACE students applying for F31 or F30 fellowships are highly encouraged to attend. 
  • Dates: Workshops September – November, January – March, and May – July. Submission deadline April 8, August 8, and December 8. 

Some fellowships are submitted to the sponsor from the university using a "system-2-system" platform; other fellowships are submitted to the sponsor by the applicant. Regardless of the method of submission, all fellowships with a budget must be reviewed by the university prior to submission.

The Office of Fellowships and Scientific Writing is responsible for routing all graduate student fellowship and grant applications to the Office of Sponsored Research Administration (OSRA) at Weill Cornell Medicine for review. Fellowship applications are routed to OSRA through Weill Research Gateway (WRG). OSRA has standard due dates associated with application routing in WRG.

• NIH submissions:
  • NIH submissions are due for pre-review at 9am ET, 7 business days prior to the sponsor deadline. Pre-review requires that all “non-science” documents must be finalized. All attachments except the Specific Aims page, Research Strategy, and associated Bibliography are due in their final form at pre-review.
  • NIH submissions are due for final review at 9am ET, 2 business days prior to the sponsor deadline. All grant documents must be finalized at this time. 
• All other submissions:
  • All other submissions are due for final review at 9am ET, 2 business days prior to the sponsor deadline. All grant documents must be finalized at this time.

The Office of Fellowships and Scientific Writing (OFSW) works together with the Graduate School's post-award and financial team and Office of Sponsored Research Administration (OSRA) to help students with federal fellowships submit required progress reports. These include:

• NIH Research Performance Progress Reports (RPPR) for F31 and F99/K00 fellowships. RPPRs are due to the NIH 2 months before the start of the next project period. RPPRs are submitted to the NIH via eRA Commons, and must be routed to OSRA in eRA Commons for approval 7 business days prior to the NIH deadline for review.
• NSF GRFP Annual Activities Reports, described in the administrative guide. Annual Activities Reports are submitted via the NSF Fastlane portal. 

• Applicant must be a US citizen or US national. 
• Applicant must have completed less than two years of graduate study in the discipline in which they are applying. 
• Award provides stipend, tuition, and travel support for three years. 
• Deadline: November 

Website: Department of Defense (DoD) National Defense Science and Engineering Graduate Fellowship (NDSEG)

• Applicant must be a US citizen or US national. 
• Open to 1st year PhD students. 
• Eligible applicant must use math or computer science to conduct doctoral research in specific research field such as chemical engineering and life sciences. 
• Award provides stipend, tuition, and academic allowance. 
• Recipient is required to conduct a 12-week research practicum at a DOE laboratory and attend yearly conferences. 
• Deadline: January 

Website: Department of Energy (DoE) Computational Science Graduate Fellowship 

• Applicant must be a US citizen, permanent resident, or have been granted temporary permission to stay and study in the US 
• Applicant should be in their 2nd or 3rd year 
• Award provides up to 3 years of support for stipend, tuition and fees, and eligibility to apply for four additional years of postdoctoral support
• Deadline: December 

Website: HHMI Gilliam Fellowship 

• Applicant must be a U.S. citizen or permanent resident. 
• Open to the students in the fields of physical and biological sciences, mathematics, engineering and computer science. 
• Applicant must be in the first year of graduate study. 
• Award provides stipend, full tuition, and fees for up to five years. 
• Deadline: October

Website: The Hertz Foundation Graduate Fellowship 

• Applicant must be a US citizen or permanent resident
• Funds basic science research in several areas
• Open to first-year students who have not completed a Master’s Degree
• Award provides stipend and tuition support for three years
• Deadline: October

Website: National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship Program (NSF GRFP) 

• Applicant must be a new American
• Applicant should be under 30 years of age as of the application deadline
• Applicant should not be beyond the second year of graduate studies
• Award provides stipend and tuition support for two years
• Deadline: November

Website: Paul and Daisy Soros Fellowships for New Americans

To be considered eligible for support, as of the application deadline date, you must: 

• Applicant must be a Canadian citizen or a permanent resident of Canada. 
• Applicant must be enrolled in full-time graduate studies and research at the doctoral level. 
• Proposal should be focused on the natural sciences or engineering. 
• Award provides stipend support for up to 3 years. 
• Deadline: October 

Website: Alexander Graham Bell Canada Graduate Scholarships-Doctoral Program (CGS-D) and NSERC Postgraduate Scholarships-Doctoral Program (PGS-D) 

• Open to international women students. 
• Award provides stipend support for one year. 
• Deadline: November 

Website: American Association of University Women (AAUW) International Pre-Doctoral Fellowship 

• PhD or MD students who are focused on cardiovascular, cerebrovascular, or brain health research
• Provides stipend support for up to 2 years

Website: AHA Predoctoral Fellowship

• Applicant must be a European citizen working abroad or in Europe, other exclusions apply please see the program announcement. 
• Proposal should be focused in the field of basic biomedical research. 
• At the deadline, the applicant should not have been working on his/her thesis project for more than six months. 
• Award provides for stipend and travel support for up to 2 years. 
• Deadline: February 1, June 1, and October 1

Website: Boehringer Ingelheim Fonds PhD Fellowship 

• Open to Canadian women. 
• Applicant must have completed at least one year of doctoral study. 
• Provides stipend support. 
• Deadline: December

Website: Canadian Federation of University Women (CFUW) Margaret McWilliams Pre-Doctoral Fellowship 

• Canadian citizens, permanent residents, or protected persons who completed at least one previous undergraduate or graduate degree at a Canadian institution
• Grants are routed to one of the following agencies: 1) Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR); 2) Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC); Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC)
• Provides stipend support for up to 3 years

Website: Canada Graduate Research Scholarship – Doctoral program

• This opportunity is only open to Canadian citizens or Permanent Residents of Canada studying abroad. 
   

  Timing 

1. Have completed no more than 36 months of full-time study in their doctoral program by December 31 of the calendar year of application if enrolled directly from a Bachelor to a PhD (not previously enrolled in a graduate program) 
2. Have completed no more than 36 months of full-time study in their joint program by December 31 of the calendar year of application if enrolled in a joint program, such as, MD/PhD, MA/PhD 
3. Have completed no more than 24 months of full-time study in their doctoral program by December 31 of the calendar year of application if previously enrolled in a graduate program
4. The award provides stipend support for up to 3 years. 
5. Deadline: October 

Website: Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR)/ Doctoral Foreign Study Award (DFSA) 

• Applicants (U.S. and non-U.S. citizens) must attend an accredited U.S. university as full-time, in-residence students.
• 1 to 2-year fellowships support students conducting research related to Drug Discovery, Drug Delivery, and Translational Medicine. 
• Applicants should be post-ACE students within 2 years of graduating.

Website: PhRMA Foundation Fellowship

• Cornell University Graduate School: Fellowship advice maintained by the Cornell University Graduate School in Ithaca, NY. 
• UCLA GRAPES Funding Database: Graduate student funding list maintained by UCLA.  
• Johns Hopkins Graduate Funding List: Graduate student funding list maintained by Johns Hopkins University.  
• SPIN. Weill Cornell Medicine subscribes to SPIN, the World's Largest Database of Sponsored Funding Opportunities. To access SPIN, login to Weill Research Gateway (WRG), and then click "SPIN" on the bottom left tab.  
• Grants and Funding: A guide to funding opportunities in biomedical research and science education.