The Janelia Farm Graduate Program

The Howard Hughes Medical Institute offers two programs leading to the Ph.D. based at its Janelia Farm Research Campus, in partnership with the universities of Cambridge and Chicago. These accelerated programs are designed for a small number of well-prepared, highly committed, and gifted students. We offer opportunities for interdisciplinary research in an intense environment.

Most students spend one year at their chosen partner institution followed by three years of research work at Janelia Farm. If you join the program you will have two mentors: one at Janelia Farm and one at the partner university. You will fulfill all the academic requirements of your chosen partner university and your Ph.D. thesis will be examined there.

	Graduate Scholar John Tuthill From the fly lab where he spends most days, Tuthill shares his thoughts on Janelia's collaborative nature and what it takes to thrive there. View Slideshow Graduate Scholar Arbora Resulaj Resulaj, a former engineer who now studies olfaction in mice, compares life at Janelia to her first-year experience at Cambridge University. View Slideshow

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW

There are some common requirements for both the Chicago and Cambridge programs. After accepting our offer of a place, you will return to Janelia Farm in September for a brief period of orientation with your Janelia mentor and develop a written plan for your first year of work. The starting point for this will be your research proposal. This “Individual Education Plan” (IEP) must be agreed to by yourself, both mentors, and the Janelia and university heads of the program (your committee). You will then depart for your chosen partner university (usually) for your first academic year to execute the IEP under the supervision of your university faculty mentor. This plan may include formal coursework and/or research as specified by the regulations of the university partner and as agreed to in the IEP.

Each academic year will end with a research symposium to bring you together with both of your mentors and the other members of the programs. You will give a talk to the collected students and mentors on your progress and plans. You will also have a committee meeting to review your success in the execution of the past year's IEP and to compose and agree on your next annual IEP. If needed, your IEP may be modified mid-year, with the consent of your committee. The symposium will rotate between Janelia Farm and the two university partners.

There are also specific requirements at each partner university. In most cases, after the first year at the partner university you will return to Janelia and execute your second-year plan. At the end of your research project and with the consent of your committee, you will write and submit a thesis for examination at your chosen partner university.

Beyond this outline, your program schedule can be very flexible, so long as the partner university's requirements and regulations are met. For example, with the consent of your committee you might move repeatedly between the two mentor's labs to complete a collaborative project.

You will be fully supported financially for the duration of your participation in the program, so long as you remain in good standing academically, and are deemed to be making satisfactory progress by your committee. This includes a stipend set for £16,853 for the first year (paid in UK pounds while in England), or $30,000 annually (while in the USA), health insurance (in the USA) and some other benefits. (In the UK, your health care will be provided by the National Health Service.)

In addition, Janelia Farm and the Neuroscience Graduate Program at The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine have agreed to allow students in that program to conduct their thesis research at Janelia Farm. First-year students in that program may do a summer rotation at Janelia Farm at the end of their first academic year. If the student and Graduate Program directors at Janelia Farm and Hopkins agree that the student should remain in a Janelia Farm laboratory to complete his/her thesis research, then the student will perform that research at Janelia Farm while being registered in the Hopkins Neuroscience Graduate Program. Any student working at Janelia Farm must satisfy all the academic and degree requirements of the Hopkins Neuroscience Graduate Program, including having annual thesis review meetings. The thesis defense will be conducted at the Johns Hopkins University. At least one member of the student's thesis committee will be a member of the Neuroscience Graduate Program Steering Committee