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Deadline: August 09, 2019
Cristine Hutchison-Jones

617-495-2316

The call for applications for the 2019-2020 Student Fellowship is now closed. Sign up for our newsletter to receive updates on future fellowships and other opportunities at the Petrie-Flom Center.

The Center and Student Fellowship

The Petrie-Flom Center Student Fellowship Program is designed to mentor students seeking to become thought leaders in health law policy and bioethics. The fellowship supports closely-mentored student research in health law policy, biotechnology, and bioethics and trains students to take advantage of online publishing to promote their scholarship. Students Fellows will receive mentoring for their projects from Harvard Law affiliated faculty, invitations to workshops their research with like-minded, passionate peers, and training in how to promote their online brand. For more information on our recent fellows and their work, see our website and check out their writing on the Petrie-Flom Center’s blog, Bill of Health.

The Petrie-Flom Center for Health Law Policy, Biotechnology, and Bioethics is an interdisciplinary research program at Harvard Law School dedicated to the scholarly research of major topics at the intersection of law and health policy, including issues of health care financing, market regulation, biotechnology, biomedical research, intellectual property, global health, and bioethics. ­

Elibibility

The student fellowship program is open to all Harvard graduate students who will be enrolled at the University during the fellowship year and who are committed to undertaking a significant research project and fulfilling other program requirements. Although the fellowship is open to all graduate students, including those in one-year programs, we encourage those who are in multi-year programs to wait until after their first year to apply. Students enrolled in the JD program at Harvard Law School will not be accepted for the fellowship during their 1L year.

Requirements

All student fellows will have the following responsibilities:

Writing Requirement

Student fellows will conduct independent research projects designed to lead to publishable articles in their fields. Fellowship papers must be single-authored. Fellows are expected to produce at least one such paper by the end of the academic year, with various deadlines for drafts throughout Fall and Spring. Papers written in connection with the fellowship can be used to satisfy the law school’s third-year written work requirement or other optional writing credit by prior arrangement with and final approval of a faculty advisor who has agreed to supervise a fellow’s work for this purpose. For Harvard Law School students: HLS policy prevents us from paying a stipend to students who receive academic credit for their fellowship paper; HLS students who elect to receive academic credit for work completed as part of the fellowship must forego the stipend. Satisfaction of writing requirements or granting credits at other Harvard schools will depend on the policies of each school/program; it is up to the student fellow to manage this process.

Blogging Requirement

Student fellows will be expected to post on the Petrie-Flom Center’s blog, Bill of Health, at least once every other week during the Fall and Spring semesters and during Winter term, with four passes available for the full academic year. Topics are self-determined; posts are subject to final approval by the Petrie-Flom Center, and are usually 800–1200 words. The Petrie-Flom Center Research and Communications Associate will provide mentorship and training on producing scholarly writing for the internet, as well as training on promoting an online brand.

Curricular Component

Student fellows are required to enroll in the Health Law, Policy, Bioethics, and Biotechnology Workshop at HLS. The workshop is intended to provide student fellows with opportunities to interact with leading scholars in the fields of health law and policy, with the expectation that these interactions will further enhance and inform their research and academic development. The Workshop will meet during the Fall semester on Mondays from 5 to 7 PM. Fellowship awardees will have priority enrollment.

Presentations and Events

Student fellows will be expected to present their research to Center affiliates during lunch sessions in the Spring semester. Student fellows may be asked to assist with panels and conferences organized by the Center, including organizing and reporting on events for Center publications.

These requirements are non-negotiable. Student fellows must fulfill all requirements in order to remain in the fellowship and receive the stipend.

Resources

In addition to close mentorship, the Center will award each fellow a $1,500 stipend, paid at the end of the academic year once all fellowship requirements (including submission of an acceptable paper) are completed. Note that some schools/programs, including Harvard Law School, will not allow students to receive both academic credit and a stipend; in such cases, fellows must choose either academic credit or the stipend.

Fellows may be eligible to request additional funding to cover reasonable costs associated with their research projects (e.g., copying, publications, conference fees, travel).

Please note: Student Fellowship stipends are considered taxable income. Students are responsible for self-reporting stipends to the IRS when they file their taxes. Since this income is self-reported, Harvard Law School will not provide any tax documentation. For more information see the Harvard University Office of the Comptroller’s guidelines.

Application

Harvard Law School students had the opportunity to apply for priority consideration by submitting their fellowship applications by Friday, May 24, 2019. HLS students will receive notice of whether they have been accepted or deferred to the general applicant pool by June 14, 2019.

The call for applications for the 2019-2020 Student Fellowship is now closed. Sign up for our newsletter to receive updates on future fellowships and other opportunities at the Petrie-Flom Center. Notifications of awards will be made by August 23, 2019, to enable enrollment in the Workshop.

To apply, email the following to petrie-flom@law.harvard.edu:

  1. Your curriculum vitae;
  2. A proposal describing the research and writing project you intend to pursue (1500-word maximum); and
  3. A digital copy of your most current transcript (which need not be official).

The most successful research proposals will describe an idea and novel contribution, rather than simply a topic of interest. We recognize that students will be applying from a range of disciplines, which we strongly encourage; thus, we will account for a student’s field and typical standards for work in their discipline when evaluating applications.

Contact

For further questions, contact Cristine Hutchison-Jones, Administrative Director, 617-495-2316 or chutchisonjones@law.harvard.edu.

Tags

bioethics   biotechnology   health law policy