Last Updated: June 16, 2008

As the need for physician scientists continue to rise along with the costs associated with the training of such individuals, APSA will post on this site a list of links to funding agencies and opportunities that are specific to physician scientists in training.  These resources will grow from a list of links to more detailed information on different ways students in this career path can better control their level of indebtedness over the course of their career.  MD/PhD students are generally able to seek funding through the traditional graduate school funding sources such as predoctoral fellowships, research assistantships, and teaching assistantships.

Pre-Doctoral Level (Graduate School, Medical School)

NIH Individual Predoctoral National Research Service Awards For M.D./Ph.D. Fellowships (F30): This fellowship will provide funding for a maximum of 6 years. Participating Institutes include the following: National Heart Lung and Blood Institute (NHLBI) (PA-08-021) National Institute on Aging (NIA) (PA-05-151) National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAA) (PA-05-151) National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (NIDCD) (PA-05-151) National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research (NIDCR) (PAR-05-034) National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Disease (NIDDK) (PA-05-151) National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) (PA-05-151) National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) (PA-05-151) National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) (PA-05-151) National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS) (PA-05-151) Office of Dietary Supplements (ODS) (PA-05-151) NIH Predoctoral Fellowship Awards to Promote Diversity in Health-Related Research (F31): This fellowship will provide funding for a maximum of 5 years (This contributes to the 5 year limit of aggregate Kirschstein-NRSA support) and supports MD/PhD students and any other degree program that leads to a PhD. National Cancer Institute (NCI) (PA-07-106) National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NCCAM) (PA-07-106) National Center for Research Resources (NCRR) (PA-07-106) National Eye Institute (NEI) (PA-07-106) National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) (PA-07-106) National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI) (PA-07-106) National Institute on Aging (NIA) (PA-07-106) National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA) (PA-07-106) National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) (PA-07-106) National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases (NIAMS) (PA-07-106) National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering (NIBIB) (PA-07-106) National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) (PA-07-106) National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (NIDCD) (PA-07-106) National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research (NIDCR) (PA-07-106) National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK) (PA-07-106) National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) (PA-07-106) National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) (PA-07-106) National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIGMS) (PA-07-106) National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) (PA-07-106) National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS) (PA-07-106) National Institute of Nursing Research (NINR) (PA-07-106) Office of Dietary Supplements (ODS) (PA-07-106) NIH Individual Predoctoral National Research Service Awards For Individual Predoctoral Fellows (F31): This fellowship will provide funding for a maximum of 5 years and is only provided during the time you are enrolled as Ph.D. candidate. Participating Institutes include the following: National Institute on Aging (NIA) (PA-07-002) National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA) (PA-07-002) National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (NIDCD) (PA-07-002) National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) (PA-07-002) National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) (PA-07-002) National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS) (PA-07-002) Office of Dietary Supplements (ODS) (PA-07-002) Department of Defense National Defense Science and Engineering Graduate Fellowship: This fellowship will support a student during the PhD years for a maximum of 3 years. Department of Defense Congressionally Directed Medical Research Programs: This fellowship will support a student during the PhD years for a maximum of 3 years. Breast Cancer Research Program - Predoctoral Traineeship Award Prostate Cancer Research Program - Predoctoral - Ph.D. and M.D./Ph.D. Awards NIH Medical Student Scholars Program (F31): This fellowship is limited to medical students who are not pursuing a dual degree (MD/PhD) program at the time of application. This fellowship provides funding for 1-2 years of mentored research usually performed after Year 2 of medical school.  National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (PA-01-099) Doris Duke Charitable Foundation Clinical Research Fellowship for Medical Students: These fellowships which are open to MD or MD/PhD students give students the opportunity to perform heavily clinical oriented research at one of the 10 approved institutions.  Each institution typically accepts in the range of 5-10 students a year with typically half of the slots going to internal students and the other half to external students.  Students typically pursue these fellowships in between their second and third year of their medical school training.  Currently the 10 participating institutions (who all have their own website) are: Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons, Harvard Medical School, Mount Sinai School of Medicine, University of California, San Francisco, School of Medicine, University of Iowa, Roy J. and Lucile A. Carver College of Medicine, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas, Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, and Yale University School of Medicine. Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) Research Training Fellowships for Medical Students: These fellowships are typically awarded to medical students in their second year of medical school to perform a year of research before entering the third year of medical school. This fellowship awards an annual stipend of $27,000, an annual fellow's allowance of $5,500, in addition to an annual research allowance of $5,500.  These fellowships are open to only medical and dental school students and not to MD/PhD students or students enrolled in other degree granting programs leading to a PhD.  Typically 40-45 awards are made each year. Sarnoff Fellowship Program: These fellowships are awarded to medical students and to give them a chance to take a year to conduct intensive research.  Fellowships are typically awarded to second and third year medical students.  These fellowships are open to only medical and dental school students and not to MD/PhD students.  This fellowship awards an annual stipend of $27,500, an annual fellow's allowance of $7,000, and additional travel funds to attend the Sarnoff Annual Scientific meetings, American Heart Association Scientific Sessions, NIH Clinical Investigator Student Trainee Forum, and two national conferences.  Typically 18 fellows are funded each year. American Medical Association (AMA) Foundation Seed Grant Research Program: This annual program provides $2,500 grants to medical students (MD, MD/PhD, MD/MPH, etc.), physician residents and fellows to conduct basic science, applied, or clinical research in a variety of areas.  Applications are usually available in early fall every year, and grants are awarded in early spring of the following year. GrantNet: This is a free searchable resource provided by the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) and the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS).  It does allow one to search for funding opportunities for just MD/PhD students as well as just regular medical students and graduate students. NIH Medical Scientist Training Program: The NIH has provided financial support to individual MD-PhD programs in order to maintain and/or expand their MD-PhD training programs.  Currently 40 MD-PhD programs are under the MSTP training grants.  There are approximately 75 other MD-PhD programs which do not fall under the support of the MSTP. Canadian Institute of Health Research: Similarly to the United States NIH, Canada offers MD-PhD Fellowships under the umbrella of the Institute of Health Research.  However, these are limited to approximately 15 slots for each Canadian MD-PhD program. In essence, this is the Canadian counterpart of the Medical Scientist Training Program Grants (MSTP) found in the United States.  These are offered as MD/PhD Program Studentships.