The National Italian American Foundation (NIAF) is proud to announce that applications are now open for the Fauci Fellowships, inaugurated in recognition of Dr. Anthony S. Fauci’s contributions to humanity and the medical and scientific community.

The Fauci Fellowships will award two $50,000 post-doctoral research grants—one to an Italian researcher working in Italy, and the other to an Italian American researcher working in the United States—to support research in infectious diseases and help establish the recipients’ independent careers. The funding will finance each researcher and his or her specific research program.

“On behalf of NIAF, we are so pleased to inaugurate this program in Dr. Fauci’s honor,” said NIAF Chairman The Honorable Patricia de Stacy Harrison. “When we honored him last October at our virtual 45th Anniversary Gala with NIAF’s 2020 Leonardo da Vinci Award for Leadership in Health and Science, we also wanted to honor his legacy by establishing a program that would fund and empower the next generation to follow in Dr. Fauci’s footsteps in contributing to life-saving health research.”

The program will award the grants to researchers who have completed all the requirements for a Ph.D. in one of the following subjects: medicine, biological sciences, pharmacy, chemistry, or other scientific disciplines. Researchers must also have a strong record of research accomplishments and publications in the biomedical field. Previous experience in the virus and cancer fields will be highly regarded. Preference will be given to applicants who have earned their Ph.D. in an eligible field in the past eight years.

Applications will be peer-reviewed by an ad-hoc committee coordinated by NIAF Board Member Prof. Antonio Giordano, MD, Ph.D., Director of The Sbarro Health Research Organization. “On behalf of the ad-hoc committee, we look forward to reviewing and selecting research proposals that will contribute to the knowledge of the scientific and medical community, and in turn, help humanity protect itself from current and future infectious diseases,” said Dr. Giordano.

Deadline to submit grant applications is April 1, 2021, 11:59 p.m. EDT. For more information regarding the program and application, please visit www.niaf.org/faucifellowships.