Postdoctoral and Clinical Fellowship Program

The purpose of the Postdoctoral and Clinical Fellowship program is to stimulate the recruitment and training of high-quality, innovative basic science and clinical/translational cancer researchers who have the potential to apply for nationally-funded grants. Fellowships will be awarded to promising postdoctoral or clinical fellows who are focused on finding ways to prevent and cure cancer. For clinical fellows, this award is intended to support additional fellowship years for physician-scientists to focus on scientific research.

At this point in their careers, postdoctoral researchers can usually work on their own independent research projects. They have some experience presenting their work and having their results published in research journals. However, they often lack the skills and funding necessary to become truly independent researchers.

The MUSC Hollings Cancer Center Postdoctoral and Clinical Fellowship award provides up to two years of stipend support for postdoctoral fellows and one year of support for clinical fellows during this critical juncture. Priority will be given to funding postdoctoral fellows who have received a doctorate during the past two years, but all qualified candidates are encouraged and eligible to apply. Stipends are based on NIH guidelines.

Program Eligibility

To be eligible for a postdoctoral or clinical fellowship, applicants must meet the following criteria:

• Proposed research must be cancer relevant.
• Applicants must have an identified mentor at MUSC.
• Postdoctoral mentor must commit $5,000 in matching funds from either the mentor or his/her department.
• U.S. citizenship is not necessary, but the applicant must hold a valid U.S. visa.
• Clinical fellow applicants must be enrolled in an MUSC residency or fellowship program, have completed their core clinical training by the award start date, and have sufficient time to commit to the research project.
• Applicants may receive the HCC Fellowship award only once.
• Applicants may only apply twice. A 1-page response to previous critiques is required when resubmitting an application.
• Those who have already received T32 training grant support are ineligible.
• Only one application per Hollings mentor is allowed for each fellowship cycle.

Evaluation Criteria

Applications will be assigned to reviewers who have substantial expertise in cancer research and grant review. These reviewers will score applications based on the standard NIH criteria:

• Applicant strengths and research potential.
• Mentor qualifications and training record.
• Significance, innovation, impact, and approach of the project.

Program Expectations

• Fellowship grant submission.
• Publication of original, peer-reviewed research.
• Hollings Cancer Center trainee database information entered or updated for trainee.
• Year 1 progress report documenting significant progress to qualify for second year of funding. Significant documented progress is also expected for postdocs eligible to reinstate the portion of their Hollings Cancer Center award deferred due to receipt of external funding. 
• Final progress report summarizing project results, resulting publications, and grant applications submitted and planned. 
• Fellow and mentor are strongly encouraged to participate in LOWVELO each year of the fellowship, the fellow as a student rider and mentor as a traditional rider. If either is unable to ride, the option of virtual rider is available with the same fundraising expectations of a traditional rider. 
• Postdoc fellows must attend the Postdoctoral Training Workshop Series which meets at 9 a.m. the first Tuesday of each month and focuses on how to prepare external fellowship applications.