Fellows-to-Faculty Award
The Simons Foundation’s Autism & Neuroscience division offers the Fellows-to-Faculty Award program to identify scientists with extraordinary potential to advance our scientific areas of interest and bring new perspectives and approaches to our scientific community.
The Fellows-to-Faculty Award program supports talented early career scientists and their research vision as they transition into tenure-track or equivalent faculty positions. Fellows receive funding toward the end of their postdoctoral career and a commitment of a $600,000 USD three-year faculty research grant. Fellows engage in a lively, interdisciplinary scientific community and participate in career development activities. These resources enable fellows to confidently negotiate a supportive faculty job offer, build an independent research lab and assertively pursue their research interests.
The program is intended for senior postdoctoral scholars or equivalent researchers whose backgrounds and experiences are underrepresented in science. Applicants must be ready to apply for faculty positions. Fellows may activate the award funding at institutions located within or outside the United States.
For the 2025 request for applications (RFA), we seek to support scientists whose scientific vision for their future independent laboratory contributes to the mission of either or both of the following scientific areas:
- Simons Foundation Autism Research Initiative (SFARI), consistent with SFARI scientific perspectives
- Simons Collaboration on Plasticity and the Aging Brain (SCPAB), consistent with the SCPAB’s mission
Fellows are expected to transition to a tenure-track or equivalent faculty position any time between notification of their selection for the award and the end of the 2026-2027 academic year. To that end, fellows are expected to apply to faculty positions between September 2025–May 2026.
Annually, when the request for applications (RFA) is open, it is available on the Funding Opportunities page.
