The Amos Institute for Medical Faculty Development supports basic/biomedical, clinical, dental, nursing, public health, and health services/epidemiology research.
The information requested in the application process is essential for screening as well as for interviewing applicants.
An application to the AIMFD consists of the completion of the online process through our application website.
You will first need to register. While it is necessary to create a user ID and password, you may retain these for all future applications.
The SAGE will consider applications only when they are complete. Therefore, you should start the process as soon as you decide to apply.
Applicants:
- must be US citizens, permanent residents, or granted DACA status at the time of application;
- must be residents, fellows, or early in an assistant professor role;
- must have excelled in their education and training;
- must be committed to an academic career;
- must be able to spend at least 70% of their time engaged in research activities (50% in the case of surgeons);
- must be prepared to devote four consecutive years to research;
- must be able to articulate how their identity, lived experience, background, or research interests have positioned them to contribute to the goals of the program; and
- must be committed to serving as a role model and mentor to succeeding classes of medical faculty researchers and/or to improving the health status of the underserved.
We anticipate the eligibility will be expanded in future competitions.
In order to pursue the advanced research training required by this program, applicants must identify faculty mentors with whom a research plan will be developed. The mentor’s experience in the supervision of trainees and the adequacy of the mentor’s research environment and support will be strongly considered.
Parts of the application are offline or require others to supply documents to the application site.
Mentors: You must reach an understanding with a prospective Mentor who has substantial research experience and who is willing to provide guidance for your research training. Download the Letter to the Proposed Mentor and give it to him or her. This letter should serve as a guide to the kind of information we need from your Mentor(s). Successful competition for this award is strongly influenced by the quality and strength of your proposed Mentor. Please be sure that you have substantive contact with him or her as you develop and complete your application. If you have more than one mentor, they may collaborate on one letter, or may provide separate letters; the application site can accept more than one Mentor’s statement.
You will also be required to supply a CV for each Mentor. An NIH-style CV is preferred for Mentors, although other documents will be accepted. This is discussed more thoroughly in the Online Application section below.
References: Invite three people to serve as authors of a confidential reference report through a link in the online application. One of the referees must be someone familiar with your research interests and/or experience. Your proposed Mentor(s) should not be used as a reference. References must be submitted electronically. If this poses a hardship, please contact the AIMFD.
Transcripts: We do not require original transcripts to be sent to our office. You will upload transcripts from your undergraduate college(s), medical/dental/nursing school(s), and any institution at which you undertook health-related coursework (toward an MPH or PhD, for example). These may be student copies of transcripts. If you receive transcripts electronically, please print, scan and upload the scans to ensure that access does not require a login or expire.
Visit apply.aimfd.org to register with the site so that you may begin to submit your proposal. You will be asked to provide contact information for yourself and your mentor, as well as information about your institution and background. We also require a short, readable executive summary of your proposal, in no more than 1500 characters. Sample executives summaries are provided to guide you in developing your summary.
You will be uploading documents that you create to the application system. These documents are listed and described here:
Proposal: There are five substantive questions to answer and upload as part of the online process (limit for the five questions total: 10 pages):
Research Training: Please list any previous formal training or experience in biomedical research, clinical investigation, and health services research/epidemiology/public health. Limit your response to 1 page.
Experience/Intent: What is your experience in addressing issues facing the medically underserved (e.g. mentoring, service, advocacy)? What are your future plans for addressing these issues? Limit your response to one page.
Commitment to the Goals of the AIMFD: Awardees are expected to excel in biomedical, clinical, or health services research; to serve as role models for succeeding classes of researchers; and have a commitment to a career in academic medicine that might not be possible without the type of mentored research and leadership training that this program provides. How would this award enhance your ability to realize these goals? Limit your response to one page.
Individual Background: Please describe how your background, identity, or lived experiences have positioned you to contribute to the goals of the program. Limit your response to one page.
Project: Please describe what you propose to do during the award period. Any tables, charts, or graphs used to support your description may be included, but your entire response should be limited to six pages. Reference/citations may be included in a separate document and will not count toward the six page total. Make sure that your hypothesis is clearly stated. Keep in mind that your interaction with a mentor and that plans for research and training that you and your mentor develop are extremely important features of this program. Describe courses you plan to take, if any, skills you expect to acquire or enhance during the course of this award, and how such courses and skills will facilitate the conduct of your research. Limit your response to six pages.
References/Citations: Please upload a document with the citations or references from your scientific proposal. These citations will not count toward the six page limit for the description of your research project.
Applicant CV: Upload you CV to the system. You may format your CV in any way you want, but please include at a minimum the following information: undergraduate, medical, and other institutions, major(s), degrees, dates, and honors; internships and residencies; fellowships; research and work experience; academic appointments; and publications. Please use 1-inch margins and a 12-point font. The Applicant CV is limited to 15 pages.
Mentor’s CV: Upload your Mentor’s CV. The NIH biosketch format is preferred; however, the CV may be formatted in any way you want with a limit of 15 pages per CV. In the case that you have more than one Mentor (and most applicants do not), you may upload two CVs.
Mentor’s (or Mentors’) Statement: You must upload a statement from your Mentor or Mentors. In essence, this statement contains the answers to the questions posed in the Letter to the Proposed Mentor that you downloaded. If you have more than one Mentor (and most applicants do not), they may collaborate on one letter, or you may upload more than one individual letter to the application system.
Institutional Letter of Support: The AIMFD requires a commitment of at least 70% of time spent in research activities (50% of surgeons), as well as a supportive research environment. Please provide an institutional letter of support. This should come from a division chief, department head, dean, or other senior administrator. This is no template for this document. There is no page limit.
Reapplicant Update (optional; required for reapplicants): Please tell us what has changed since your last application (for example, changes in status, institution, mentoring, funding, training and skills, project, publications). This document is required of all reapplicants.
The timeline for 2026 applications has not yet been released.
Feel free to contact us (apply@aimfd.org) with any questions about the information below.
- Register at apply.aimfd.org.
- Give the Letter to the Proposed Mentor to your Mentor or Mentors and have him or her (or them) write a letter with the requested information. This or these will be uploaded to the online application site.
- Get an NIH-style biosketch from your Mentor. This will be uploaded to the application system. If you have more than one Mentor, the CVs will be uploaded separately.
- Arrange for undergraduate, medical, dental, nursing, and any other science- or health-related transcripts to be sent to you. Make sure that you have hard copies of all of these to upload directly to the system. Electronic copies may have expirations dates.
- Arrange for three people to submit confidential reference reports.
- Complete all sections of the online application at apply.aimfd.org.
You may want to print your final application, as you may lose online access to your application after the selection process has concluded.
Budget guidelines will be released once finalists are accepted into the program.