| Eligibility | Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Fellowships | Application Materials | Award Money |
Eligibility
Q: Outside of the 2-3 year window, am I eligible?
A: The awards are specifically directed toward promising faculty who are two or three years into their appointment, but being earlier or later in your appointment does not make you expressly ineligible. Your application will be more competitive the closer you are to the 2-3 year window in your appointment.
Q: Am I still eligible to apply if I have a K or R award, or other substantial extramural funding?
A: Other past or current funding does not make you ineligible, but may make your application less competitive. Any extramural grant that is substantially larger than the Hellman award (i.e., $100K+) will reduce preference for your application. Specifically, applicants that hold:
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Any K-award (KL2, K12, K23, K01, K08) are unlikely to be competitive
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R01 or equivalent (U01, K99/R00, DP1, DP2, R35) are highly unlikely to be competitive
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R21s may be less competitive
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R03s will likely be competitive
Q: Are faculty who have received start-up funds eligible to apply?
A: Start-up funds do not make you expressly ineligible, but will make your application much less competitive.
Q: Are faculty without salary eligible to apply?
A: Yes.
Q: May part-time faculty apply?
A: No, only full-time faculty members are eligible.
Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Fellowships
Q: Do I need to be from a group underrepresented in medicine to apply for a DEI Fellowship?
A: No. DEI Fellowships are for applicants of any racial or ethnic background who demonstrate outstanding contributions to diversity, equity, and inclusion at UCSF and who propose projects that advance health equity for underrepresented groups.
Q: Does my DEI-focused work still qualify if it is non-research and/or not at UCSF?
A: Hellman Fellowships, DEI or otherwise, must have a research component. Past contributions to DEI do not need to have been in research, but must have occurred at UCSF.
Application Materials
Q: Can I include any additional or supplemental material in my application packet?
A: No. This is a very popular and competitive award; the review committee will only review and take into consideration the materials requested. If an additional letter of support is included, three will be chosen at random to review.
Q: Should the three reference letters be from only UCSF faculty?
A: Letters are not restricted to solely UCSF faculty. They should be, but are not required to be, academic letters of support. It is worth noting that UCSF faculty are more likely to be able to comment fully on challenges in our institution's environment.
Q: Can Judith Hellman (Vice Chair for Research, Department of Anesthesia) write letters of support?
A: No, her relationship with the Hellman family constitutes a conflict of interest.
Q: Is an electronic signature from the Department Chair acceptable, or must it be hand-written?
A: Yes, electronic signatures are acceptable.
Q: Will requesting a higher budget affect the competitiveness of my application?
A: Budget requests over $50K require additional justification. They may also be less likely to be funded; this will be determined on a case-by-case basis.
Q: Does the review committee prefer technical or big picture project summaries?
A: Your proposal needs to include details of your intended research and outcomes; it can be “big picture” if it includes these essential elements. Please see the Review Criteria in the announcement for the best guidance for how your proposal will be reviewed.
Q: Can applicants have access to previous applications?
A: No
Award Money
Q: Can funds be used to pay for faculty salary or research staff salary?
A: Funds cannot be used to replace state-funded faculty salary, but may be used to replace other mechanisms of salary support. Research staff salary is allowable. Please make sure to include both salary and fringe.
Q: Are indirect costs allowed? If so, at what rate?
A: Budget should include direct costs only.
Q: Is there any restriction on international spending of funds?
A: No.
Q: Is GAEL (General, Automobile & Employee Liability self-insurance program) an allowable expense?
A: Yes
Q: Can the Hellman award be used to fill the “K-gap?”
A: No.