Competition

* Unless explicitly noted, all times indicated for deadlines are for the appropriate NL timezone (NST or NDT)

HFSP Research Grants support innovative basic research into fundamental biological problems with emphasis placed on novel and interdisciplinary approaches that involve scientific exchanges across national and disciplinary boundaries (see guidelines).

Participation of scientists from disciplines outside the traditional life sciences such as biophysics, chemistry, computational biology, computer science, engineering, mathematics, nanoscience or physics is recommended because such collaborations have opened up new approaches for understanding the complex structures and regulatory networks that characterize living organisms, their evolution and interactions.

Research grants are provided for teams of scientists who are based in different countries and wish to combine their expertise in innovative approaches to questions that could not be answered by individual laboratories. Preliminary results are not required and applicants are expected to develop new lines of research through the research collaboration.

It is understood that such research inherently contains risks and HFSP expects that teams of applicants address the risks and outline mitigation strategies for their research in case of failure and how they intend to achieve their goals.

Applications for applied research, including medical research typically funded by national medical research bodies, will be deemed ineligible (see guidelines). 

Applicants can check the HFSP Science Digest on recently awardee projects.

Two types of Grant are available: Research Grants – Early Career and Research Grants – Program.

Research Grants - Early Career*All team members are expected to direct a research group (however small) and must have a doctoral degree (PhD, MD or equivalent). They must be in a position to initiate and direct their own independent lines of research. The HFSP award is not intended to create scientific independence, this is a decision of the research institute prior to the application. *Former Young Investigators

Research Grants - ProgramAwarded to teams of independent researchers at any stage of their careers. The research team is expected to develop new lines of research through the collaboration. Applications including independent investigators early in their careers are encouraged.

Deadlines

i. Compulsory initiation of a letter of Intent by obtaining an LOI ID number (1XXXXXX) by 17 March 2026 (updated for each cycle)

ii. Submission of Letters of Intent: 26 March 2026 (updated for each cycle)

Please read the guidelines, the document ‘Writing a letter of intent’ and other information on the HFSP Research Grant homepage carefully to establish whether your project is clearly in tune with the requirements and emphasis of the research grant program.

To apply for a grant, you must first submit a Letter of Intent online as described below. The main steps in applying are as follows:

1. The research team must designate one member as Principal Applicant, who will be responsible for final submission of the Letter of Intent. Note the requirement that the Principal Applicant must have his/her primary laboratory in a member country. See the guidelines (Item 3.2. “Principal Applicant”) for more detail.

2. In setting up the team, the Principal Applicant must ensure that no team member is a Principal Applicant or Co-Applicant on another proposal (see Item 3.5."Concurrent Applications" in the guidelines). Failure to ensure this will result in all those applications being withdrawn from the competition.

3. The Principal Applicant must obtain a 2027 proposal identifier (LOI ID) on the application site as early as possible and no later than 17 March 2026 (Item 11. How to apply and timeline). To this aim, The principal Applicant needs to connect to ProposalCentral  with their usual credentials or create an account, if not already registerted in the HFSP database. This will give them access to the online application form and further instructions concerning the online submission (including the addition of the other team members, the composition of the team can be modified up to the final submission date). This step is mandatory even for those re-applying from previous years.

4. All team members must be designated as co-applicants on the online form and all co-applicants must approve their participation by accessing the online form before the application can be completed and submitted. A brief explanation of the contributions of the different disciplinary expertise should be provided in the summary which will be used in guiding the review process.

5. The letter of intent must be submitted by 26 March 2026. No changes can be made to the letter of intent after final submission.

6. The Principal Applicant will be notified by mid-July on the outcome of the Letter of Intent. The deadline for the full proposal will be around mid - September 2026.

Step 2 : Full Proposals

For information only, see HERE the instructions for submitting Full Proposals in 2025. These are updated each year.

The Intent to Apply (EOI/LOI/NOI) does not require review from HSS or RIS. However, please e-mail a pdf of the submitted EOI/LOI/NOI to an HSS Grants Facilitator: Heather C. O’Brien (HSSResearchAdmin@mun.ca or 864-8603) or Matthew Milner (HSSResearchGrants@mun.ca or 864-8050).

If you plan to apply to this competition or other research funding opportunities (as either PI or CI), e-mail an HSS Grants Facilitator, Heather C. O’Brien (HSSResearchAdmin@mun.ca or 864-8603) or Matthew Milner (HSSResearchGrants@mun.ca or 864-8050), to notify the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences of your intent to apply. E-mailing the intent to apply as early as possible will help to facilitate an efficient review. A Grants Facilitator can answer any questions you may have about internal or external submission procedures and may also be able to help with proposal development.