What this program funds
The F31 is NIH's individual fellowship for doctoral students: it pays a stipend, a tuition-and-fees allowance, and a small institutional allowance so a promising PhD student can be funded on their own award rather than a grant or teaching line. Review is explicitly about training: the fellowship funds your development into a scientist, with the dissertation research as the training vehicle. Many institutes also offer a diversity-targeted F31 with the same structure.
Eligibility in plain English
- You are enrolled in a research doctoral program (PhD or equivalent) at an eligible institution, usually with a dissertation project and sponsor identified — in practice, applicants apply mid-program, not in year one.
- You must be a U.S. citizen or permanent resident (a standard NRSA requirement).
- You need a sponsor (your advisor) and often co-sponsors whose funding and mentoring record can support the training plan.
- Institute participation and priorities differ — some institutes accept the parent F31 broadly, others only the diversity announcement. Confirm specifics with your sponsored-programs office and the current funding opportunity announcement.
What you'll need to submit
- Specific Aims (1 page).
- Research Strategy (6 pages).
- Applicant's Background and Goals for Fellowship Training (6 pages) — your scientific history, career goals, and what this fellowship period adds.
- Sponsor and co-sponsor statements covering the training plan, funding to support the research, and their mentoring track record.
- Reference letters (typically 3–5), submitted separately by referees before the deadline.
- Biographical Sketches (via SciENcv) for you and your sponsors, plus institutional-environment and training-in-responsible-conduct-of-research sections, human subjects or vertebrate animals materials as applicable, and a Data Management and Sharing Plan.
Tips for this mechanism
- Write it as a training document with science inside, not the reverse. Reviewers score the applicant, the sponsor, and the training plan alongside the research. Each aim should map to a skill you will acquire and who will teach it.
- Timing is strategic. Apply early enough that meaningful support remains (usually after qualifying exams, with 2–3 years left), and remember referee letters and sponsor statements take weeks — your deadline is effectively earlier than NIH's.
- The sponsor statement can sink a strong student. Ask your advisor to address funding for the project, a concrete individualized training plan, and past trainee outcomes — generic praise is the most common weakness cited in F31 reviews.
Related programs
- NIH F30 (dual-degree MD/PhD version)
- NIH F31-Diversity announcements at many institutes
- NIH F99/K00 (predoc-to-postdoc transition at some institutes)
- NIH T32 appointments (institutional training-grant support)
- NSF GRFP (earlier-stage; different rules and citizenship requirements)