Application requirements
We require interested scholars to speak with a VP faculty mentor before applying to learn more about the Visiting Professor program and preliminarily assess their goodness of fit for the program. Unfortunately, we are no longer accepting requests to speak with faculty mentors for the current application cycle. Sign up here to receive email notifications for the application for summer 2026.
Before starting the online application, you will want to prepare the following text and files for uploading. We encourage you to download a Word Doc listing all of the short answer questions, which you can fill out and save, and then copy and paste your responses into the online application. Using this document is intended to help reduce the potential for problems with the online application.
Text to prepare for the online application:
- A statement of your research program with the following components:
- Title and overall goal of your program of research (100-150 words)
- Significance and innovation of the research, including its theoretical foundations (200-300 words)
- Your previous research relevant to this area, including a brief summary of your work with HIV (or a related area such as substance use or reproductive health) and minority communities (150-200 words)
- How do you see participating in the program fitting into your research program and attainment of long-term goals (150-200 words)
- A description of the Pilot Study or ARE. This year, the VP program will fund an individually-tailored Applied Research Experience in the amount of $20,000 per participant. Due to funder requirements, primary human subjects data collection cannot be supported with these VP funds. The ARE will be awarded after the VP completes their first summer institute, and VPs will initiate the activities between the first and second summer in the VP program. During the first summer with the program, VPs will attend seminars on developing a detailed plan for implementing the ARE. Because of this process, a detailed spending plan is not requested at this time. For the application, we request that you describe some potential activities that might be included in your ARE Explain how the overall experience will inform and support your subsequent grant proposal. Examples of activities that can be included are conducting analyses on one’s own existing data or a publicly available dataset; obtaining access to specialized expertise from a statistician; and attending classes and workshops. In addition, be sure to describe how the preliminary data and findings from the pilot study will support and strengthen your NIH grant proposal. To illustrate how you would spend the $20,000, describe some potential activities that might be included in your ARE. Explain how the overall experience will inform and support your subsequent grant proposal (limit of 250 words).
File uploads for the online application:
- A Specific Aims page for an NIH grant proposal that you would write during your participation in the training program. (Each participant will attend an intensive six-week summer institute in San Francisco from June to July for three consecutive summers. If accepted to the program, during the first summer, participants will develop an NIH grant proposal that contributes to your program of research. In the second and third summer institutes, participants will integrate their pilot study findings into their draft NIH grant proposals, refine their proposal drafts, and submit them to NIH for extramural review.) Please draft a Specific Aims page for the NIH grant proposal that you would propose to write.
- We ask that your Specific Aims page includes a tentative project title, as well as descriptions of the significance, proposed activities, sample(s) and methods, and relevance to public health of the study.
- In case you are not familiar with a Specific Aims page, here is a link to guidance for aims pages.
- Limit the Specific Aims to one page. You may include a second page for references. Please use Arial 11 font, single spacing, and half-inch margins. Include a header labeled SPECIFIC AIMS at the top of the page in boldface type.
- A current CV that includes a list of publications and grants awarded
Additional materials to send by email:
Please have the authors/recommenders send the following to [email protected] by the program application due date:
- Three letters of recommendation received by the program application due date. Letters of recommendation should support the applicant’s participation in our program by specifically noting why the letter writer believes the candidate to be an ideal fit for this particular training program. The letters should also be letters of recommendation which discuss the characteristics and background of the candidate or why they believe the candidate has the requisite skills, background, and abilities (both research/technical and interpersonal proficiencies) to both benefit from the program and to contribute to the development of fellow trainees.
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A letter of institutional support from the applicant’s home institution, typically chair of the applicant's department, demonstrating commitment and support of the applicant’s research by detailing specifically how the applicant's institution will support the applicant in completing the Applied Research Experience and applying for NIH research funding (e.g., descriptions of time off for research, seed money, and administrative and/or research assistant support supplied by the home institution). This letter should explicitly explain how the applicant’s 25% research requirement will be supported. The letter should be received by the program application due date.