2018 Phase-I Software Fellowships: Deadline Extended to October 9th

2018 Phase-I Software Fellowships: Deadline Extended to October 9th

August 24, 2017 3651 views

Update: Fellowship application deadline extended to October 9th!

The Molecular Sciences Software Institute (MolSSI) is pleased to announce the second Software Fellowship competition.  These prestigious awards will recognize advanced graduate students and postdocs pursuing the development of software infrastructure, middleware, and frameworks that will benefit the broader field of computational molecular sciences, including biomolecular and macromolecular simulation, quantum chemistry, and materials science. Fellows will receive specialized training in state-of-the-art software design principles and tools, and they will engage in outreach and educational efforts organized by the MolSSI.  Each Fellow will be assigned a mentor among the Institute’s Software Scientists, who will oversee their software development efforts and training.  In addition, Fellows are encouraged to spend a minimum of one week each year at the Institute headquarters at Virginia Tech to interact with the Software Scientists, members of the MolSSI Board of Directors, members of the Science and Software Advisory Board, and other visitors.

Inquiries to: fellowships@molssi.org

The MolSSI Software Fellowships will include a number of benefits:

Graduate Student Fellowships:

  • A generous stipend of up to $40k/year plus tuition and required fees;
  • Travel allowances sufficient to fully cover visits to the MolSSI headquarters, as well as participation in MolSSI workshops or summer schools;
  • Access to MolSSI computational resources, including NSF supercomputers, Virginia Tech Advanced Research Computing facilities, and advanced experimental hardware provided by the Institute’s industrial

Postdoctoral Fellowships:

  • A generous stipend of up to $50k/year;
  • Travel allowances sufficient to fully cover visits to the MolSSI headquarters, as well as participation in MolSSI workshops or summer schools;
  • Access to MolSSI computational resources, including NSF supercomputers, Virginia Tech Advanced Research Computing facilities, and advanced experimental hardware provided by the Institute’s industrial

MolSSI Software Fellowships will be awarded in a two-phase structure: Phase-I Fellowships will include half a year of support (based on the above benefits), Phase-II Fellowships will be awarded based on the Fellow’s performance in Phase I and will provide up to a cumulative two years of support.

Eligibility and Selection Criteria:

The MolSSI Software Fellowship program is presently limited to graduate students and postdoctoral associates at accredited U.S. academic institutions. Graduate student Fellows are expected to be enrolled full time at their home university, and postdocs must be fully employed or have an offer of full employment prior to acceptance of the award.   The MolSSI Software Fellowships are an equal opportunity program open to all qualified persons without regard to race, gender, religion, age, physical disability or national origin.  Awardees may accept other concurrent awards that do not require a significant time or service commitment.

MolSSI Software Fellows will be selected by the MolSSI Science and Software Advisory Board based on (1) the quality of the applicant’s software research proposal and its relevance to the Institute’s     goals;     (2)     the     applicant’s     research     productivity,    including    previous software-development efforts; (3) previous academic performance; and (4) external references.

Application Requirements:

A complete MolSSI Software Fellowship Application must include:

  • Project proposal (maximum of two pages);
  • Current curriculum vitae;
  • Undergraduate transcripts (graduate applicants only); graduate transcripts (all applicants);
  • Examples of previous software development products (e.g. links to source-code repositories or other code samples);
  • Two letters of support, one of which must come from the applicant’s current research adviser;
  • Budget:
    • Stipend (up to $20,000 for graduate students, $25,000 for postdocs) for the six-month funding period;
    • Tuition and Fees;
    • Award will be made as a subcontract from the participant costs budget category (no indirects are allowed) from the NSF award. All NSF terms and conditions in the PAPPG – January 2017 and Uniform Guidance 2 CFR 200 apply to this award;
  • Budget Justification;
  • Attachment 3B: Research Subaward Agreement Subrecipient Contacts (link).

Please complete the application and upload the required documents here.
Letters of recommendation should be uploaded separately by your references here.

To receive full consideration for a Software Fellowship, all application materials (including letters of recommendation) must be submitted by October 9, 2017.

Additional Information:

  • Pass-through Entity (PTE): Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University
  • NSF award No. ACI – 1547580
  • Period of Performance
    • Start: 1 Jan 2018
    • End: 30 Jun 2018
  • CFDA No: 47.070
  • CFDA Title: Computer and Information Science and Engineering
  • Subject to FFATA: Yes