Fellowships

Biogen considers requests in the following disease areas:

	US & Canada	Asia Pacific	Europe	Latin America	Middle East
AD	–	–		–	–
ALS	–		–
FA	–
MS	–	–	–	–	–
SMA	–

Fellowship requests will be accepted and reviewed on a quarterly basis as outlined below:

*Fellowship requests that do not meet disease areas of interest or funding categories are ineligible for review.

Funding requests should be submitted during the open submission period in the quarter prior to when a funding decision is needed.
Biogen reserves the right to decline any applications not adhering to the published submission cycles.

To be considered for a fellowship, the following criteria must be met:

• Fellowship request must be unsolicited
• Fellowship request must not provide tangible benefit to Biogen
• Fellowship request must be submitted for a future program
• Fellowship request should not disclose the name of the fellow in the application
• Funding from other pharmaceutical/biotechnology companies, in addition to Biogen, to support the program is preferred (e.g. multiple sources of funding)
• Funds are not granted to directly or indirectly encourage recipients to purchase or prescribe Biogen's products or services
• Funds from Biogen are awarded to the requesting organization and not given directly to the individual fellow
• Requesting organization must be registered for more than 2 years
• Requesting organization must confirm receipt of payment and verify how funds were used for all previous Biogen supported activities
• Requesting organization and fellowship request must be in full compliance with all regional and local codes, laws and industry regulations, including, but not limited to anti-corruption, transparency and privacy laws and regulations.

Biogen will conduct appropriate due diligence on all requesting organizations and fellowship requests.
Biogen reserves the right to deny any fellowship request that does not meet application and eligibility requirements.
Biogen must not provide any substantive input or assistance to a requesting organization in drafting or submitting a fellowship request.
Biogen must not be involved in the selection of the fellow.
Biogen may modify the fellowship application and eligibility requirements at any time.

Biogen supports both Clinical and Research Fellowships. Fellowships are awarded to directly support salaries and limited fringe benefits of fellows, in line with fair market value and local standards. Organizations may not use awarded funds to defray operating expenses.

Research Fellowships must meet the following criteria:

• Fellowship request must describe, with reasonable specificity, what areas of translational or clinical research the fellow will be pursuing
• Fellowship request must have a clear and defined development plan and description of the research program(s)
• Fellowship request should typically be for a one-year period, but no more than three years
• Fellowship request must not be duplicative of any other institutional or research funding
• Fellow must not be the Principal Investigator (PI) of a study; established researchers/investigators are ineligible for fellowship funding
• Fellowship award may not be renewed for a fellow previously selected by the organization using Biogen funds

Clinical Fellowships must meet the following criteria:

• Fellowship request must provide a comprehensive clinical program allowing a fellow to demonstrate his/her learned skills and competencies
• Fellowship request must have a clear and defined development plan for the fellow
• Fellowship request must focus on building the clinical skills of the fellow
• Fellowship program must provide training using multi-disciplinary teams
• Fellowship program must utilize faculty who devote sufficient time to fulfill their supervisory and teaching responsibilities
• Fellowship period must be no more than one academic year
• Fellowship award may not be renewed for a fellow previously selected by the organization using Biogen funds

Funding decisions for fellowships are made through a formal, centralized review and decision-making process.

To confirm Biogen’s independence from the requesting organization, the annual operating costs (total reportable expenses) of the organization are reviewed. The annual operating costs, which must be from either of the last 2 fiscal years, will be compared to the total funding provided to the requesting organization by Biogen on a rolling twelve (12) month-basis.

Funding decisions for fellowships are based on the quality of the proposal, alignment with Biogen’s grants strategy and budget availability. Decision notifications will be communicated in writing.

All recipient organizations must abide by the terms and conditions as outlined in the Biogen Letter of Agreement (LOA)/contract. The LOA/contract is issued electronically to an authorized signatory of the organization once an application is approved. A fully executed LOA/contract is required prior to the start of the program.

Changes to an awarded fellowship must be reviewed and approved by Biogen prior to the start of the program. To determine if funding may continue, organizations should submit the proposed changes by logging into the Biogen portal and submitting a Change of Scope for review.

Once the fellowship concludes, a reconciliation must be completed by the recipient organization. The reconciliation confirms:

• Receipt of payment
• Funding was used appropriately (as described in the letter of agreement/contract)
• Fellowship objectives were achieved

This reconciliation must be completed through the Biogen portal within 90 days of the project or program end date. After 90 days, the reconciliation is considered overdue. Recipient organizations are not eligible to receive new funding until all overdue reconciliations are submitted and approved.

Biogen adheres to global transparency and disclosure reporting obligations in accordance with local regulations.