If you're considering applying for the HHMI Gilliam Fellowship, the most important thing to understand up front is that this isn't a fellowship you apply to just for the funding. The Gilliam Fellows Program is built around a mission: supporting scientific excellence alongside a real commitment to making science more inclusive. If that mission resonates with you, the Gilliam can be a transformative experience. If it doesn't, there are other excellent fellowships (NSF GRFP, NIH F31) that will be a better fit and a better use of your application time.

I'm writing this guide as a former Gilliam Fellow. I applied as a second-year PhD student in December 2020, started my fellowship term in September 2021, and completed my three-year term in 2024. I've also worked with many other fellows over the years, both as peers and as mentees, and this guide brings together what I've learned from my own application, from talking to other successful fellows, and from coaching applicants through more recent cycles.

The Gilliam application has evolved significantly since I applied. The 2026 competition (launching September 1, 2026) brings the biggest set of changes yet, and this guide reflects all of them.

If you'd like to see what successful application materials actually look like, I've also shared my own Gilliam essays, fully annotated:

If you want personalized application coaching, here's how we can work together.

My PhD advisor (Dr. Maria Lehtinen) and I together soon after receiving the notification that we’d been awarded a Gilliam Fellowship!

Understanding the HHMI Gilliam Fellowship

The Gilliam isn't just an early-career stipend. A few things set it apart from other PhD fellowships you might be considering.

It's a joint application between a student and a thesis advisor. You apply together, you're evaluated together, and the advisor takes on real responsibilities if you win. This isn't a recommendation-letter relationship. Your advisor has to write substantial application components themselves and commit to a year-long mentorship development course.

It explicitly centers inclusion in science. Other fellowships ask about broader impacts and DEI but treat them as one piece of a broader application. The Gilliam puts inclusion at the center of what it's funding. Your essays should reflect a real, ongoing commitment to making science more inclusive, not a few sentences tacked on.

It comes with community, not just money. Gilliam Fellows join a tight-knit cohort of scientists and meet regularly through annual gatherings, professional development programming, and peer connections that often last well past the fellowship term. The community is consistently the part of the fellowship that current fellows say matters most.

The funding is generous and the program is structured around long-term development. As of the upcoming cycle, the Gilliam can also support fellows beyond their PhD with a new postdoc transition pathway (more on this below).

What HHMI Is Actually Looking For

Before you start writing, it helps to understand what reviewers are evaluating. HHMI is looking for scientific excellence (the ability to ask interesting questions and pursue them rigorously), a track record and ongoing commitment to advancing inclusion in science, evidence of effective mentoring relationships in both directions, and clear leadership potential. The strongest applicants don't just check these boxes individually. They show how all of these threads are woven together in their work.

Eligibility for the 2026 Competition

The 2026 Gilliam competition launches September 1, 2026. Eligibility has expanded significantly compared to past cycles, and the new rules apply to second- and third-year PhD students at eligible HHMI institutions in the United States.

The big changes in 2026:

International PhD students can now apply. Previously, the fellowship was limited to U.S. citizens, permanent residents, and DACA recipients. As of the 2026 competition, international students enrolled at eligible U.S. institutions are eligible.
Students in dual-degree programs (like MD-PhD) can now apply. These students were explicitly excluded in past cycles. They're now welcome.

Beyond these expansions, the eligibility basics are: you should be in your second or third year of a PhD program in the biological or biomedical sciences, with at least two full years of study remaining as of the start of the fellowship term. You and your thesis advisor apply jointly. You should be able to point to a real commitment to advancing inclusion in science, whether through past activities, current work, or both.

One important constraint: you and your advisor must be at an HHMI eligible institution. Not all U.S. universities and research institutes qualify. The list is long (around 270 institutions and growing) and includes most major research universities, medical schools, and independent research institutes, but it's worth checking before you start drafting anything. You can see the full list of eligible HHMI institutions here.

Key Dates for the 2026 Competition

HHMI has confirmed that the 2026 Gilliam application launches September 1, 2026. Full timeline details, including the application deadline and award notification timing, will be released by HHMI in summer 2026 ahead of the application launch.

Based on past cycles, applicants should expect a deadline in early December 2026, with award notifications in June 2027 and the fellowship term beginning September 1, 2027. These are not yet confirmed for the 2026 cycle, but they reflect the consistent pattern from recent years. I'll update this guide once HHMI publishes the official timeline.

Award Details (Including the New Postdoc Pathway)

For PhD students, the Gilliam provides up to three years of dissertation support. The current structure includes a stipend of approximately $50,000 per year, a discretionary allowance for professional development, an institutional allowance for tuition and fees, and a Community Engagement Allowance for the fellow to lead community-facing science projects. Final award details for the 2026 competition will be in HHMI's official program announcement when the application opens.

The biggest structural change to the program: starting with the upcoming cycle, Gilliam PhD Fellows who are interested in academic research careers can apply for additional postdoctoral support after completing their PhD. Gilliam Postdoc Fellows receive up to four additional years of salary and research support at $80,000 per year starting salary, at any eligible lab in the country. That means a single fellow could receive up to seven years of HHMI funding total across PhD and postdoc combined. This is a significant expansion of the program and worth thinking about as you consider whether the Gilliam fits your long-term plans.

A few other things worth knowing about the funding. Fellows can't receive funds from another extramurally funded fellowship during the term, so if you're also applying for the GRFP or F31, you'll need to choose between them if you're awarded both. The discretionary allowance can be used flexibly, including for non-elective medical expenses, mental health support, and (within limits) food or housing insecurity. The Community Engagement Allowance is not for your research. It's specifically for projects that engage your community in science.

Is the Gilliam Fellowship Right for You?

Before you commit to applying, take an honest look at whether your goals and values align with what the fellowship is funding. The application is substantial and your advisor's commitment is real, so this isn't something to apply to casually.

Some questions worth sitting with:

Do you have a track record of advancing inclusion in science, or a clear desire to start?
Are you actually excited about engaging communities beyond your lab, including through the Community Engagement Allowance?
Is your advisor willing to participate in a year-long mentorship development course and engage deeply with the program?
Would you find real value in a community of scientists committed to similar work?

If the answers are yes, the Gilliam can be one of the most rewarding fellowships you'll be part of. If you're hesitant about any of these (especially the advisor commitment piece), it's worth being honest about that before you start the application.

If the Gilliam doesn't feel right but you still want strong PhD funding, the NSF GRFP and NIH F31 are excellent options with different focuses. They're worth considering in parallel.

Ensuring Your Advisor Is Fully On Board

This part is critical. The Gilliam asks more from your advisor than any other fellowship I know of, and a half-committed advisor will hurt your application more than help it. Before you start drafting anything, sit down with your advisor and have a real conversation about what they're signing up for.

Your advisor will need to write substantial application materials of their own, including a mentoring plan, an equity and inclusion statement, a community engagement support statement, and a personal narrative about what they hope to gain from the mentorship development course. These aren't recommendation letters. They're full essays that will be evaluated alongside yours.

If you win, your advisor commits to a year-long mentorship development course run by HHMI. This includes monthly online webinars and two in-person workshops at HHMI headquarters in Maryland. It's a meaningful time commitment, and they should know that going in.

Most importantly, your advisor's commitment to inclusion in science needs to be genuine. Reviewers are good at spotting advisors who are participating because their student is applying versus advisors who are actually invested in this work. If your advisor isn't naturally engaged with mentorship and inclusion, this might not be the right fellowship for either of you.

Once you've had this conversation and your advisor is fully on board, the joint nature of the application becomes a real asset. You can craft essays that present a unified vision of what you'll do together.

Changes to the Application Process

Beyond the 2026 eligibility expansion, several changes over the past few cycles are worth knowing if you're using older guides or example materials as references.

The fellowship is now an open competition, with no nomination step. When I applied, each institution could only put forward a limited number of student-advisor pairs. As of the 2024 cycle, any eligible pair can apply directly.
The research plan is now three pages instead of five. This is a significant change. My research plan was five pages and used most of that space. You'll need to be much more concise.
There's less emphasis on traditional publication metrics. The current program weighs a holistic view of your contributions, including teaching, mentorship, outreach, and inclusion work. This was implicit before and is now formalized.
The Community Engagement Allowance replaced the older Advisor Diversity Allowance. The shift puts the fellow in charge of leading community-facing projects, rather than having those projects led by the advisor. You'll need to propose how you'd use this allowance in your application.
Career flexibility is now explicitly valued. When I applied, there was an unspoken assumption that fellows were headed toward academic careers. The current program says clearly that all career paths (academia, industry, policy, education, science communication, others) are valued equally. Be honest about your goals.

A Note on DEI Framing in 2026

HHMI's public-facing language about the fellowship has evolved over the past couple of years, partly in response to the broader political and legal climate around DEI programs in higher education. The fellowship's actual mission hasn't changed. It still funds pairs committed to inclusive scientific environments. But the way HHMI talks about it publicly has become more focused on "inclusive training environments" rather than explicitly emphasizing underrepresented backgrounds.

For your application, this means a few things. Don't assume language that worked in 2020 will work the same way in 2026. Read HHMI's current program announcement carefully when it drops in September 2026 to see how they're framing the mission. Your statements should still center your authentic commitment to advancing inclusion, but the specific language and framing may need to be calibrated to the current moment.

This is an area where personalized coaching can help, because the right framing depends on your specific story and the current climate.

The Application Components

Here's a walkthrough of each piece of the application. For the essay components, I've also shared my own materials with full annotations. Those are the best place to see how these come together in practice.

Scientific Contributions

You'll list your top contributions to science. These don't have to be publications. The fellowship explicitly values a holistic view, so include the things that have actually shaped your scientific identity: research projects, presentations, teaching experiences, mentorship work, outreach, and inclusion initiatives.

For each contribution, give context. What was your role? What was the impact? What did you learn? Avoid jargon, since reviewers may not be in your subfield. And don't pad the list with weak entries just to fill space. A strong list of three contributions is better than a list of five with two weak ones.

Dissertation Research Project Overview

You have three pages to present your research plan. This is the most substantial scientific component of the application, and it needs to be accessible to scientists outside your immediate field.

A strong research plan typically covers background and significance, an overarching hypothesis or central question, two specific aims with clear sub-aims, the experimental approach for each aim (including anticipated results and limitations), and a brief perspective section closing the scientific argument. With three pages, you'll need to be efficient. Mine was five pages and I used almost all the space.

For the level of detail and the structural choices I made, see my annotated research plan, which walks through the actual text of my Background, Hypothesis, Specific Aims, and a complete worked example of Aim 1A.

Equity and Inclusion Statement

This is where you tell the story of your commitment to making science more inclusive. The most common mistake I see is applicants writing this as a list of activities rather than as a coherent narrative.

A strong equity and inclusion statement does a few things together: it grounds your commitment in specific experiences or values that are real to you, it shows what you've actually done about it, and it connects forward to what you plan to do as a fellow and beyond. Be specific. "I've mentored underrepresented students" is forgettable. The exact program, the number of students, the specific outcomes you helped them achieve, those are memorable.

Be authentic. Reviewers can tell when someone is performing commitment versus living it.

Career Statement

You'll articulate your professional goals and how they connect to the fellowship's mission. The current program values all career paths equally, so be honest about where you actually want to go.

The strongest career statements don't just list goals. They connect a personal trajectory to a forward-looking vision in a way that feels inevitable, not contrived. Why this work? Why this path? What will you do with the position you're aiming for? See my annotated Career Statement for a worked example.

Scientific Leadership Statement

This is a shorter essay (about 400 words) where you describe your leadership approach and how it shapes the science you do. The trap most applicants fall into is treating this as a second equity and inclusion statement, or as a generic leadership-philosophy exercise.

The strongest leadership statements use concrete stories. Two stories told well are more memorable than five stories crammed together. Show, through specific examples, how you actually lead. See my annotated Scientific Leadership Statement for what this can look like, including why I opened with a story about managing at a Wendy's instead of a story about leading a science project.

Student Resources and Conflict Resolution Statement

A two-part statement where you describe the mental health and well-being resources at your institution, and your strategy for resolving conflicts with your advisor.

Reviewers are looking for awareness and proactivity here, not perfection. Show that you know what's available, that you've thought about how you'd use those resources, and that you have a real plan for navigating the inevitable bumps in a long-term mentor-mentee relationship. Talk to your advisor about your conflict resolution strategy beforehand to make sure your plans are aligned.

Community Engagement Allowance Plan

You'll describe how you'd use the Community Engagement Allowance to lead a project that engages your community in science. This is a relatively new component (it replaced the older Advisor Diversity Allowance) and there isn't yet a long catalog of what reviewers consider successful.

What I'd focus on: pick a specific project you're actually excited about, scope it realistically given the funding and your time, explain how it advances inclusion in science, and show how you'd measure whether it worked. A focused, feasible project beats an ambitious one you can't actually pull off.

Letter of Support from a Faculty Member

You'll need a letter from a faculty member (not your advisor) who knows you well and can speak to your scientific potential and your commitment to inclusion. Choose someone who actually knows you, not just someone with a big title. Share your application materials with them so they can write a letter that complements rather than duplicates your own essays.

Working with Your Advisor on the Application

Once your advisor is fully on board, the joint application becomes a real opportunity. You can shape your essays so that your vision and your advisor's vision present a unified front.

A few things that help: have an early conversation about the big themes you want to emphasize, share drafts with each other so you can identify gaps and contradictions, and make sure your community engagement plan and your advisor's support statement actually align. If you're proposing an ambitious community project, your advisor needs to have explicitly committed to supporting it.

Your advisor will need to submit several components of their own: a biosketch with their contributions to science, a list of grants that will support your project, a letter of support specifically about you, a mentoring plan that includes both their general philosophy and a tailored plan for you, an equity and inclusion statement, a community engagement support statement, and a personal narrative about what they hope to gain from the mentorship development course.

Encourage your advisor to be authentic in their materials, especially in the personal narrative about the mentorship course. Reviewers can tell when an advisor is going through the motions versus actually excited about growing as a mentor.

Practical Tips

Start early. The Gilliam application is one of the more substantial fellowship applications you'll write, and it gets exponentially better with multiple drafts. If you wait until November to start, you'll be drafting in panic mode and your essays will show it.
Get feedback from people who know the fellowship. Generic writing feedback is helpful, but feedback from someone who has seen successful Gilliam applications (or written one) is more useful. Other fellows are often willing to share their materials if you ask.
Read aloud. This is the single most effective revision technique I know. Awkward phrasing, repetition, and sentences that sound smart on the page but don't actually mean anything will all jump out when you hear them.
Match your essays to the page limits without padding. A one-page Career Statement that does its job is better than a two-page Career Statement that wanders. Reviewers notice padding immediately.
Be specific. Specificity is the single biggest difference between memorable and forgettable application essays. Concrete numbers, specific names, real moments. Avoid abstractions wherever you can.
Be authentic. Reviewers read hundreds of applications. They can tell when someone is performing commitment to a mission versus actually living it. Your real story, told well, will always be stronger than a polished version that doesn't sound like you.

Final Thoughts

If you're considering the Gilliam, here's my honest take. This fellowship is meaningful in ways that go beyond the funding. The community is real, the professional development is real, the mentorship development course actually shapes how your advisor mentors you, and the postdoc pathway (newly available) extends that support significantly. If you're committed to the mission, applying is worth the effort even if you don't ultimately receive the award. The act of writing the application, articulating your values, and having serious conversations with your advisor about your shared vision is valuable in itself.

If the mission doesn't resonate with you, please apply somewhere else. Not because the Gilliam wouldn't fund your science, but because the program is built around a community of people who are deeply invested in this work, and it's a much better experience for everyone (including you) when applicants are aligned with what the fellowship is actually about

Whatever you decide, I'm rooting for you. The scientific community is stronger when more of us are doing this work, and the application process itself, regardless of outcome, is one of the most useful self-reflection exercises you'll do in your PhD.

Other Resources

My Annotated Gilliam Career Statement
My Annotated Gilliam Scientific Leadership Statement
My Annotated Gilliam Research Plan
HHMI Gilliam Fellows Program official page
HHMI Gilliam Fellow Lillian Horin's video: Winning the HHMI Gilliam Fellowship (even with the app changes)
Cientifico Latino webinar with 2017 Gilliam Fellow Dr. Titilayo Omotade: Applying to the HHMI Gilliam Fellowships for Advanced Study (some details have changed but the core advice still holds)
2024 Cientifico Latino webinar Grad School 101: Applying to Fellowships, where I speak about the HHMI Gilliam program

Want personalized feedback on your Gilliam application? I offer one-on-one fellowship coaching and have helped many students put together strong applications for the Gilliam and other STEM fellowships. Or reach out for a free consultation to talk through whether the fellowship is the right fit for you.

Navigating the HHMI Gilliam Fellowship Application