FAQ

Successful candidates will normally hold a faculty position in an appropriate university or research Institute. Application and acceptance of a RSP Award requires the candidate to demonstrate that there is a host institution in place that is able to accept the terms and conditions of this award. Given research fellows normally work under contract to a funder and principle investigator, or already hold an independent fellowship, they would normally not be eligible for the program.

In order to receive funding for the award, it is a requirement that you be a citizen or permanent resident in one of the eligible countries. If your visa status is pending at the time of application, you may submit your application, however, if selected for funding, it would be required that you provide proof of a valid visa or citizenship for the duration of the two year award period, prior to the award disbursement date.

In order to receive funding for the award, it is a requirement that you hold a position at a recognised research institution. If you anticipate receiving your position at a recognised research institution prior to the award disbursement date, you may submit your application, however, if selected for funding, it would be required that you hold a position at a recognised research institution by the award disbursement date.

You will be asked to note any current or pending funding on the relevant form and indicate any applicable overlap between such funding and your RSP submission. It is the responsibility of the applicant to check whether the host institution will accept the award under the terms and conditions provided. Failure to do so may result in forfeiting of an award.

This would be considered pending funding and should be noted on the relevant form. Please indicate the pending status and check the appropriate boxes for scientific/budgetary overlap where applicable. If the Scientific Review Committee has any questions around any pending (or current) funding, you will be contacted directly by the RSP Coordinator.

Institutional Review Board (IRB) approval is only required at the time of award disbursement. However a copy of the submission to the IRB must be submitted prior to the award.

No, as long as the budget requirements have been adhered to, you may present your itemised budget in any manner you see fit. For additional information on budget requirements and spend caps, please visit the page linked here: Proposal & Budget Guidelines.

This is an optional upload field. As such it is not required that you upload anything here, however, this is an opportunity for applicants to detail any co-mentorship arrangements, how your team will support the proposed research, or other support mechanisms which may not be covered in the proposal or mentor letter. 

It is okay to submit your itemised budget in your local currency so long as the amounts don't exceed $65,000 USD annually, $130,000 USD total. Please include estimated conversions to USD in the top-level budget summary. (The manually entered fields under proposal information during your application).

Please email the RSP Coordinator with the details on your requested change. Please note, the RSP Coordinator can not edit any of your file uploads. If you wish to replace a file ahead of the program deadline, please email the RSP Coordinator directly at gileadsciencesrsp@bcdme.com, with specific information on which file you wish to replace and the new attachment.

Unfortunately, once the program deadline has passed, unless the RSP Coordinator contacts you regarding a submission error, it is not possible to amend your submission after the program deadline. 

If a co-mentorship arrangement is in the best interest of your proposed study then it is permissible for applicants to have more than one mentor, however, only one can be listed as the primary mentor in the application fields.

It is not required to upload a biosketch for your co-mentor, however, if you wish to do so then please merge the biosketches for your primary and co-mentor into a single PDF, and upload under the ‘Mentor Biosketch’ application field. Your primary mentor’s biosketch should be included first, followed by your co-mentor’s.

Yes, it is permissible for your mentor to be based at a different institution, however, please provide details as to how that partnership would work in the upload field for the 'Mentor Support Letter'. Where co-mentorship is being arranged at least one mentor must be based at the same institute. 

You should provide contact information for an administrative department or person within your institution who can assist with reviewing the grant agreement should your proposal be selected for funding.

Ideally this letter would come from your Department Chair, Division Chief, or another institutional equivalent.

In this case your mentor can sign the ‘Acknowledgement of Indirect Costs Limitation’ form given their institutional authority.

The award is an industry sponsored award funded by Gilead Sciences, Inc. which is a for profit entity, not the Gilead Foundation.  While the award is funded by Gilead Sciences, Inc., the review of the applications and selection of awardees is carried out by an independent scientific review committee. Gilead is not part of the scientific review committee and has no involvement in selecting the applications that receive the awards.

Indirect costs are defined as overhead costs paid directly to the institution, for example maintenance of labs/space and departmental/admin costs. For more information on the percentage of allowable indirect costs, please visit the Proposal & Budget Guidelines page. Note: Indirect costs must be included in the total award value, and are subject to country specific compliance regulations.

The official start date is the date of award distribution which can be found on the program timeline page. (Program Timeline). Award deference may be subject to country specific compliance regulations. If in doubt, please check with your institution.

In most cases, we can defer the start date of the award up to 4 months. Award deference may be subject to country specific compliance regulations. If in doubt, please check with your institution.

The approximately 50% protected time refers to time spent on research in general. This time does not need to be spent only on research related to your RSP proposal. 

The RSP Coordinator can’t provide feedback on proposed studies. Please carefully review the Scientific Focus page to ensure your proposal is in line with the program focus.

No, neither can be funded by the RSP award. You may, however, allocate funds towards a lab tech, or similar position type, permitted the spend remains within the budget allowance, and permitted such use of funds is not in violation of any country specific compliance regulations.

If your technical difficulties prevent you from submitting before the application deadline, please contact the RSP Coordinator at gileadsciencesrsp@bcdme.com as soon as possible. 

As a contract needs to be put into place before we can consider you an official RSP awardee, we ask that you please wait until your agreement has been executed. Once the agreement has been fully executed, you may publish the fact that you have been selected for the RSP award on social media.

Yes, please contact the RSP coordinator at gileadsciencesrsp@bcdme.com to request the template for the interim progress report.  Please feel free to include links or PDFs of any published manuscripts when sending your report. 

There is no template for the final report and findings may be shared in any manner you see fit. Please feel free to include links or PDFs of any published manuscripts when sending your report.

Extension requests are considered on a case by case basis and are subject to approval by the Scientific Review Committee.  If you wish to request an extension, please contact the RSP coordinator at gileadsciencesrsp@bcdme.com  In your message, please include:

• Reason for the extension request
• Any impacts to budget/ability to complete research as proposed. (If the requested extension will impact your budget, please include a revised budget with your request)

This will be considered on a case by case basis. (Note: in order for a change of institution to be considered, it is required that the new institution also be located in one of the program’s eligible countries).  Changes of institution to countries not eligible for the RSP program can’t be considered. 

In order to consider your request, please contact the RSP coordinator gileadsciencesrsp@bcdme.com. In your message, please include:

• Timing of institutional change. (How much work has been done to date, how much work will be accomplished under your new institution)
• Confirmation that the new institution is willing to continue supporting your RSP research (note: your new institution will need to enter into a new RSP Agreement)
• How the change of institution will impact your research as originally proposed (any changes to budget – please note any transfers of funding which would need to occur between institutions, your mentorship arrangement, etc.)

Providing the above information will allow the RSP Coordinator to run the circumstances by the Scientific Review Committee for approval. Additional documentation will likely be required in order to formally process the change of institution

If there is budgetary/scientific overlap between your newly funded work and the RSP award, please email the RSP coordinator with detail on the extent of overlap, along with justification for this overlap.

If there is no budgetary/scientific overlap between your new funding and the work completed under the RSP award, and permitted the new funding/time spent on that research will not impact your ability to complete the RSP award,  this is permissible and there is no need to request approval.  Please note this may be subject to your specific country compliance requirements.