Career Awards at the Scientific Interface

Career Awards at the Scientific Interface provide $500,000 over five years to support up to two years of advanced postdoctoral training and the first three years of a faculty appointment.  Candidate eligibility and institutional nomination requirements are set out below.

• Candidates must hold a Ph.D. degree in one of the fields of mathematics, physics, chemistry, computer science, statistics, or engineering. Exceptions will be made only if the applicant can demonstrate significant expertise in one of these areas, evidenced by publications or advanced course work.
• Candidates must have completed at least 12 months but not more than 48 months of postdoctoral research at the time of application.  No exceptions to this requirement will be made.
• Candidates cannot hold nor have accepted, either in writing or verbally, a faculty appointment as a tenure-track assistant professor at the time of application.
  Candidates must be committed to a full-time career in research as an independent investigator at a North American degree-granting institution.
• Citizens of the U.S. and Canada are eligible.
• Non-citizen Permanent Residents of the U.S. and Canada are eligible with certification by the nominating institution.
• Temporary residents of the U.S. are eligible, however see “Institutional Nomination Guidelines” for restrictions.
• Temporary residents of Canada are not eligible.
• All candidates must be nominated by accredited, degree-granting institutions in the U.S. or Canada.

• A degree-granting institution—including its medical school, graduate schools, and all affiliated hospitals and research institutes—may nominate up to two candidates for the award.
• To encourage applications from women, institutions that nominate a female candidate will be allowed three nominations.
• To encourage applications from members of underrepresented minority groups, institutions may have a single additional nomination if they nominate an African-American, Hispanic, or Native American candidate.
• No more than one of an institution’s nominees may be a temporary resident of the U.S. No exceptions will be made.
• Institutions with questions about the eligibility or number of nominees must contact BWF in advance of the application deadline. BWF will make no exceptions to its policies.
• For temporary residents, institutions must certify that the applicant’s visa will allow him/her to remain in the U.S. long enough for him/her to be productive on the project. Note—If a grant is awarded and the individual’s visa does not allow for such a stay, BWF may terminate the grant.
• The U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH) may nominate candidates from its intramural program, with the same restrictions listed above. The NIH will support these award recipients during the postdoctoral years, and BWF will support them for the faculty portion of the award only, for a total of $360,000. Postdoctoral fellows at the NIH should contact its Office of Intramural Studies for information about its nomination procedures.

During the postdoctoral and faculty periods,

• Grants must be made to degree-granting institutions in the U.S. or Canada on behalf of the award recipient.
• Award recipients are required to devote at least 80 percent of their time to research-related activities.
• Indirect costs may not be charged against BWF grants.

View the different levels of program support in the postdoc and faculty award information. 

Questions regarding candidate or institutional eligibility should be directed in advance to BWF by calling (919) 991-5116.  Consult this website for a list of frequently asked questions.