Applications for the Henry Grass Rising Stars in Neuroscience Award are open. The application deadline for the 2025 award is December 15th, 2024. Please check guidelines below, and use this link to apply.
There are many wonderful programs aimed at enhancing diversity in science by recruiting underrepresented groups to science and offering initial entry to a research career. However, far fewer programs focus on retention and promotion to encourage diverse scientists at postgraduate levels to persevere in academic research. The diversity gap in research will inevitably persist unless the innovative work, and continuing participation, of underrepresented populations are recognized and incentivized during the period between receiving the PhD and gaining tenure-track employment. The Grass Foundation has a long history of creating impactful change in neuroscience, especially through the Grass Fellowship Program at the Marine Biological Laboratory (MBL) which supports early career scientists.
Building on this tradition, the Henry Grass Rising Stars in Neuroscience Award seeks to increase the visibility of postdoctoral scientists from groups under-represented in neuroscience. The Trustees will make the award to a neuroscientist from among the applicants who meet the following qualifications:
- are between the third and seventh calendar year after defending their dissertation,
- self-identify as women or individuals from racial and ethnic groups that have been shown by the National Science Foundation to be underrepresented in health-related sciences on a national basis,” comprising “Blacks or African Americans, Hispanics or Latinos, American Indians or Alaska Natives, Native Hawaiians and other Pacific Islanders” (criteria established by the National Institutes of Health; see Item A),
- are not yet employed in a tenure-track position, at the time of application, and
- are U.S. citizens (regardless of their location) or permanent residents of the U.S.
The recipient will be awarded a $10,000 prize. At their discretion, the Trustees may award more than one Rising Stars award, and may additionally award up to five Grass Trustees Recognition Awards, carrying a prize of $1,000, as well as mentorship and professional support from the Foundation’s network of Grass Fellowship alumni.
The Henry Grass Rising Stars in Neuroscience Award targets a key career stage when individual recognition and support are particularly significant. By recognizing individual scientists, the Award is intended to contribute to a critical reshaping of the demographics of research faculty. Its focus is on researchers at a crucial career stage, when many are, or soon will be, ready to apply for faculty positions. Independent research projects are taking shape, but few opportunities exist to garner outside recognition. During this vulnerable period, BIPOC and women scientists frequently opt out of academia. With the protracted length of academic training, the years following the dissertation may discourage gifted and highly qualified trainees from continuing in a research career track, as they intersect with concerns about career prospects, lack of support and recognition, job insecurity, financial concerns, and personal life changes, including family commitments and increasing related costs, such as childcare. The effects are well documented. While the number of BIPOC scientists graduating from PhD programs has increased almost ten-fold in the past decade, the diversity of faculty applicant pool and hires at most universities and medical schools has been little-impacted. Likewise, while women make up roughly half of biology PhDs, they hold less than 29% of tenure-track faculty positions, a number that has changed little over two decades.
Applicants may be nominated or self-nominated, with nominees in any case responsible for completing the application, which will consist of:
- a narrative of not more than 4,000 characters (about 600 words), describing how they have served as a role model for diversity based on their personal
- experiences or advocacy / outreach efforts,
- a description of their research accomplishments and scientific vision, not to exceed 4,000 characters (about 600 words)
- a biosketch in the format described by the National Institutes of Health (NIH),
- two letters of recommendation to be sent to grassrisingstars@gmail.com.
Resources to learn more about diversity in neuroscience:
https://elifesciences.org/articles/48774
https://elifesciences.org/articles/21393
https://www.cell.com/cell/fulltext/S0092-8674(20)31223-X
If you have questions, please contact info@grassfoundation.org.
Previous Awardees
2024 Dr. Maria Victoria Moya, Boston University
2023 Dr. Hector Arciniega. now Assistant Professor in the Department of Rehabilitation Medicine at New York University’s Grossman School of Medicine.
2022 Dr. Valerie Darcey, now Stadtman tenure-track investigator at NIDDK and Dr. Freddyson Martinez-Rivera, now assistant Professor at the University of Florida
2021 inaugural winner, Nancy Padilla-Coreano, now an Assistant Professor at the University of Florida.