Schmidt Sciences
Schmidt Science Fellows
$110,000/year for up to two years
Postdoctoral fellowship funding two years of research in a different scientific discipline than the fellow's own PhD, for recent or soon-to-be PhD graduates in natural sciences, engineering, math, or computing.
Who it's for
IMPORTANT — this is a postdoctoral program, not for students still completing a PhD: it's for people who have already defended (or are about to defend) their PhD and are moving into a funded postdoctoral placement in a different field, nominated by their PhD-awarding institution.
What the program says
Quoted from the program's own page, and separated by what each line actually does — most listings mix hard requirements with preferences and judging criteria, and being told which is which is the difference between ruling yourself out and applying anyway.
Must be true
not meeting these rules you outMust complete all requirements for PhD conferral, including a successful defense, within the specific window set by that year's cycle
Source
Do you actually qualify?
Checking these criteria against your own situation is what ScholarEngine does. It tells you which requirements you meet, which you don't, and which nobody can decide without reading the fine print.
Sources
Last checked against the official page on Sep 3, 2026.