The Hellman Fellows Fund was established at UC Irvine in 2013 through the generosity of Chris and Warren Hellman. In 2019 the Hellman foundation provided endowment funds to UCI, with the income generated providing support for the continuation of the fellowship program.  The purpose of the program is to support the research of promising assistant professors who show capacity for great distinction in their research. Funds awarded are intended as one-time support for activities that will enhance the individual’s progress towards tenure.

A call for applications for the 2024-25 Hellman Fellows Program will be sent to eligible faculty in December 2023. The application deadline is Friday, February 16, 2024. If you have any questions, please email JiWon Kim at jiwon@uci.edu.

For more information on the Hellman’s Fellow Fund, please view: www.hellmanfellows.org.

Support the Society of Hellman Fellows Program

UCI is offering a limited opportunity to match your gift to establish new support for young faculty under the UCI Hellman Society of Fellows.

Expanding Warren and Chris Hellman’s vision, UCI has provided a pool of a total of $1.5M to match the payouts for new endowments established within the Society of Hellman Fellows program. These endowments will support junior, tenure track faculty within the School of your choice.  Matches will be provided for new endowments funded with a gift of a minimum of $250,000 up to $500,000.

To learn more, contact Roland Ho, Sr. Executive Director of Planned Giving at roland.ho@uci.edu

Award

The award can range from about $10,000 to $50,000. Awards may be used for any research-related expense, such as research assistants, equipment, materials, conferences, or travel. The award may also be used to pay for up to one-ninth of summer salary and benefits (up to 19 days). 5% of each fellowship may be used to pay for childcare expenses related to Fellows research during the award period.

Awardees should plan to expend the funds within a year. If a recipient is unable to use the funds in one year, an extension for the continued use of the funds must be requested by emailing JiWon Kim at jiwon@uci.edu. Awardees are required to spend all funds before their tenure case is approved.

Award recipients are required to spend all funds before being granted tenure. If a Fellow has unspent funds from this award upon receiving tenure, the remaining balance will be returned to the Office of the Vice Provost, Academic Personnel for redeposit in the applicable fund.

Eligibility

Full-time, non-tenured, ladder rank faculty, except those in the College of Health Sciences, who have served at least two years at the assistant professor rank by September 30, 2024 are eligible for consideration. Previous Hellman Fellows are not eligible. NOTE: if an applicant spent one or more years as an assistant professor at another research university before coming to UC Irvine, that time may be counted towards the minimum.

Note: Assistant Professors who will be considered for tenure in the 2023-24 academic year will not be eligible to apply for a Society of Hellman Fellowship.

Evaluation Criteria

All applications will be reviewed by an advisory panel of faculty, some of whom are previous Hellman Fellows:

  • Impact of receiving a Society of Hellman Fellowship
  • Innovation
  • Quality of Proposal (clarity of aims/goals and methodology and significance)
  • Candidate accomplishments
  • Addresses inclusive excellence

Application

Proposals should be submitted by individual faculty members using the Society of Hellman Fellowship application form. A letter of support from the chair of the faculty member’s department is not required.

Required components of the application include:

  1. The Society of Hellman Fellowship application form.
  2. A project description with a maximum length of three pages. The project description should explain both the nature and significance of the project. Applicants are advised to provide project descriptions that can be understood by members of the selection committee who may not be in their field.
  3. One page itemized budget.
  4. An abbreviated C.V. (maximum length – 5 pages)