Meyer Cancer Center Physician-Scientist Bridge Award

The transition from clinical training to junior faculty is among the most challenging periods in the career trajectory of physician-scientists. During this phase, they must simultaneously generate preliminary data, establish research credibility, and develop a competitive training award application, all while often needing to justify their salaries through increased clinical responsibilities. These competing demands can hinder the time and focus required to establish research independence. The Meyer Cancer Center Physician-Scientist Bridge Award aims to mitigate this barrier by providing up to two years of dedicated funding to support focused research activity and career development.

The overarching goal of the Meyer Cancer Center Physician-Scientist Bridge Award is to provide time-limited funding to enable talented, motivated, and academically accomplished early-career physician-scientists to gain critical experience and skills to generate preliminary data necessary for a successful NIH K-award or comparable foundation career development award application.

Eligibility Criteria

• Hold an MD, MD/PhD, or equivalent clinical doctoral degree
• Are either: 

1. in the final year of fellowship training and will hold a faculty appointment by the start date of funding, or
2. within two years of initial faculty appointment (Instructor or Assistant Professor) 

• Hold or have a comitted junior faculty appointment at Weill Cornell Medicine or Brooklyn Methodist Hospital
• Must be either board-certified or board eligible 
• Are performing cancer-related research at Weill Cornell Medicine 
• Devote at least 75% full-time professional effort to research-related activities 
• Have a clear plan to apply for an NIH K-award or equivalent career development award within 24 months 
• Have a letter from the Division/Department Chief confirming a faculty appointment, space, protected time, and institutional support 
• Cannot hold other institutional, federal, or foundation-equivalent grants such as NIH K- or R-awards, JumpStart, institutional seed grants, CTSC KL2, or other K-equivalent foundation grants.