BOSTON, MA - Harvard Medical School (HMS) and Bristol Myers Squibb (NYSE: BMY) are excited to tackle the next frontier in medical research with a new postdoctoral fellowship program.
The BMS Collaborative Research Fellowship creates a pathway for scientists at HMS and BMS to collaborate on the training of the next generation of researchers pursuing groundbreaking ideas from foundational scientific exploration through early translation. Fellows will be mentored by their HMS faculty advisor while also working with senior scientists at BMS. The collaboration will elevate the promising researchers’ experience and knowledge by exposing them to the culture and ways of thinking that characterize global pharmaceutical research — an experience that complements traditional academic postdoctoral training.
“The opportunity to be mentored by Harvard Medical School faculty while also working with accomplished industrial scientists will provide a rare training experience,” said Mark Namchuk, PhD, executive director of therapeutics translation at HMS. “Fellows will gain all the benefits of working at HMS with a luminary faculty mentor, while also being introduced to an entirely different way of thinking. It’s like having a copilot who really loves your idea and is helping you shape where you want to go.”
“Scientific innovation increasingly depends on collaboration across the research ecosystem,” said Robert Plenge, MD, PhD, chief research officer, Bristol Myers Squibb. “This fellowship brings together the complementary strengths of Harvard Medical School and Bristol Myers Squibb to support bold scientific exploration, from discovery through translation. By connecting expertise across academia and industry, we hope to advance new insights into disease while helping prepare the next generation of scientific innovators.”
“This is an important part of HMS’ effort to refine its relationship with industry to encourage productive collaboration around our shared objective: to accelerate the pace at which fundamental science gets transformed into therapies that improve and save lives,” said HMS Dean George Q. Daley. “The BMS fellowship extends that mission by ensuring that trainees develop fluency in drug discovery science so that they, too, can become the inventors of future medicines.”
The BMS Collaborative Research Fellowship will focus on projects aimed at the scientific pursuit of unexplored ideas. The fellowship is open to current and incoming postdoctoral fellows at HMS conducting research in any of the nine basic science departments in the Blavatnik Institute.
Fellowship decisions will be announced in early 2027, with fellowships beginning Feb. 1, 2027.
About Harvard Medical School
Harvard Medical School has more than 12,000 faculty working in the 11 basic and social science departments in the Blavatnik Institute and at the 15 Harvard-affiliated teaching hospitals and research institutes: Baker Center for Children and Families, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Boston Children’s Hospital, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Cambridge Health Alliance, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Harvard Pilgrim Health Care Institute, Hebrew SeniorLife, Joslin Diabetes Center, Massachusetts Eye and Ear/Schepens Eye Research Institute, Massachusetts General Hospital, McLean Hospital, Mount Auburn Hospital, Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital, and VA Boston Healthcare System.