International Graduate Student Funding Opportunities

Book a Service:

Funding Search: Schedule a meeting with Tori about grant options at your career stage or questions about funding opportunities you are considering
Grant Kickoff Meeting: If you already know the grant you will be applying for, schedule a meeting with Tori, and Maria or Tijana to set up your Dropbox/Google Drive, receive a checklist, and plan your grant writing
Grant Editing: Book a time for Tori to edit your grant. You can book this far ahead of time and send your documents at your editing time slot
Summary statement review + strategy: Set up a meeting with us to discuss the next steps after receiving your summary statement

Grants and Fellowships for International Ph.D. Students studying Neuroscience/Neurobiology (not an exhaustive list)

Applicant's Home Country / Region

Mechanism

Title and Link

Annual Deadlines

Eligibility

Deadline Month

Any

AAUW Grants for Women

AAUW Fellowships and Grants

Early November / Mid November / Early December

Identify as a woman
Check eligibility for specific grant, as it differs among grants

11

Europe (geographical) including: all EU countries, UK, Belarus, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Moldova, Russian Federation, Ukraine, Turkey, and Israel

Boehringer Ingelheim Fonds

BIF Ph.D. Fellowship

Early February / Early June / Early October

Must have at least pursued secondary school or university education in Europe, in order to be considered as European by the BIF.
Must have begun your project no more than six months prior to the deadline (must apply within the first 6 months since you joined your thesis lab)
Project must be an experimental project in basic biomedical research, including in silico projects.

02 + 06 + 10

Canada

Canadian Institutes of Health Research

CIHR Doctoral Research Award : Doctoral Foreign Study Award (DFSA)

Fall (likely October)

Canadian citizen/permanent resident or a Protected Person under subsection 95(2) of the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act (Canada), as of the application deadline date;
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;
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;
- Applicants that fall into this category have access to the 36-month window whether or not they were previously enrolled in a Master's program
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).
Applicants can submit a maximum of one scholarship (master's or doctoral) or fellowship application per academic year to either CIHR, NSERC or SSHRC.
Research must fall within one of the stated priority areas (see funding opportunity announcement)

09-11 (?)

Canada

Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada

NSERC Postgraduate Scholarships – Doctoral program

Mid-October

Applicant may take up the PGS D award at any eligible foreign institution, provided you have received a previous degree from a Canadian institution
Proposed research must clearly lie within the natural sciences and engineering (NSE), rather than the health sciences
Applicants can submit a maximum of one scholarship (master's or doctoral) or fellowship application per academic year to either CIHR, NSERC or SSHRC

10

Hong Kong

Croucher Foundation

Croucher Scholarships for Doctoral Study

Mid-November

Must be a permanent resident of Hong Kong
Must have obtained First Class Honours or equivalent qualifications in their first degree. Otherwise will be expected to be able to receive substantively a higher degree (e.g. MSc or MPhil degree) by September of the year following the application to become eligible (MPhil transfer to doctoral candidature is not considered as equivalent).
Students in their final year of first degree studies may also apply, but any offer of award will be conditional on their obtaining First Class Honours or equivalent qualifications upon their graduation.

11

Any

Google Research

Google Ph.D. Fellowship Program

Limited Submission:

Call for applications expected: Mid-Late August
Internal application due: Mid-September

Must apply through Columbia's internal competition
Research must be within one of the listed fields of computer science (see web page)
Will complete all graduate coursework by the academic award year when the Fellowship begins
Students must remain enrolled full-time in the PhD program for the duration of the Fellowship or forfeit the award.
Google employees, and their spouses, children, and members of their household are not eligible.
Students that are already supported by a comparable industry award are not eligible. Government or non-profit organization funding is allowable.

09

Any

F99/K00 Transition to Aging

Transition to Aging Research for Predoctoral Students (F99/K00 Clinical Trial Not Allowed)

Mid-October

Must have a valid visa for the F99 phase
1-2 years from completing Ph.D.

10

Help us expand this list!

Please email Tori ([email protected]) if you find additional funding opportunities for international students. We are eager to add to this list.

Additional Funding Opportunities

Mechanism

Title and Link

Annual Deadlines

Eligibility

Deadline Month

Regeneron Pharmaceuticals

Regeneron Prize for Creative Innovation

Call for submissions: Mid-January
Internal application: Late January – Early February

Internal submission:

Morningside competition: Ph.D. student or postdoc conducting biomedical research at the Morningside campus

OR

VP&S competition: Ph.D. student or postdoc conducting biomedical research at CUIMC or ZMBBI, and PI must have primary appointment in VP&S

For either competition:

Need at least 2 publications to submit for the competition

02

Grants available for DACA, refugee, and asylee students

Mechanism

Link and Title

Annual Deadlines

Eligibility

Deadline Month

Ford Foundation

Ford Foundation Predoctoral Fellowship

Early – Mid December

3+ years left of Ph.D.
U.S. citizen/permanent resident, DACA, Indigenous individual (Jay Treaty), asylee, refugee
*note: no 2023 competition for predoc fellowship

12

P&D Soros Fellowship

Paul & Daisy Soros Fellowships for New Americans

Mid – Late October

First or second year Ph.D.; Less than 31 years old
Must be an immigrant or child of immigrants
U.S. citizen/permanent resident, DACA, asylee, refugee

10

HHMI Gilliam Fellowship

Gilliam Fellowships for Advanced Study

Early – Mid September

Nominators notified in August

Second or third year or 2+ years left of Ph.D.
U.S. citizen/permanent resident, DACA
Dual-degree students (MD/PhD) not eligible

09

Ford Foundation

Ford Foundation Dissertation Fellowship

Early – Mid December

U.S. citizen/permanent resident, DACA, Indigenous individual (Jay Treaty), asylee, refugee
Will complete the dissertation in a period of 9–12 months during the following academic year

12

Transition to Post-Doc: must know your postdoc lab for all of these fellowships

Mechanism

Name and Link

Annual Deadlines

Eligibility

Deadline Month

Helen Hay Whitney Foundation

Helen Hay Whitney Foundation Postdoctoral Research Fellowship

Early – Mid June

Must have valid visa
Final stage of Ph.D. or M.D. – or completed the degree
Basic biomedical research post-doc

06

HHMI Hanna H. Gray Fellowship

Hanna H. Gray Fellows Program

Late November – Early December

Ph.D. must be conferred by start of program (okay to apply before finished)
Accepted to join postdoc lab by application due date
Under-represented in sciences (race, ethnicity, disability, disadvantaged background, women)
Non-U.S. citizens and applicants with other nationalities must have a degree from a research institution in the U.S. (including Puerto Rico)

12

Simons Foundation

Simons Society of Fellows - Junior Fellow

Early – Mid September

By nomination
Must have Ph.D. before August start of program (okay to apply before finished)

09

Jane Coffin Childs Memorial Fund

Jane Coffin Childs Postdoctoral Fellowship

Late January – Early February

Must have Ph.D. before starting program (okay to apply before finished)
Applicants may be citizens of any country, but awards for non-U.S. citizens can only be made to sponsoring institutions in the United States

02

Life Sciences Research Foundation

Life Sciences Research Foundation Postdoctoral Research Award

Late September – Early October

Non-U.S. citizens must work in a U.S. laboratory to be eligible for an award
Must have Ph.D. before August start of program (okay to apply before finished)
Letter of acceptance from postdoc PI needed
Post-doc must be in different lab than Ph.D.

10

Additional Links

List of current and previous NB&B PhD students who were awarded fellowships
Ph.D. - Comprehensive funding list updated monthly: Johns Hopkins University (Ph.D.)
Post-Doc - Comprehensive funding list updated monthly: Johns Hopkins University (Post-Doc)
Columbia PIVOT funding database
Duke University funding database
Pathways to Science - Ph.D. portable funding search
Graduate Women in Science National Fellowship Program

Book a Service:

Grants and Fellowships for International Ph.D. Students studying Neuroscience/Neurobiology (not an exhaustive list)

Help us expand this list!

Additional Funding Opportunities

Grants available for DACA, refugee, and asylee students

Transition to Post-Doc: must know your postdoc lab for all of these fellowships

Additional Links

Contact Us