The fellowship is explicitly open to qualified English-speaking citizens of any nation, including Uganda. Candidates must have 42 months or less of equivalent full-time post-PhD research experience at the fellowship start date of 2027-09-01. Approved family leave, career duties, illness and other career gaps do not count toward the 42-month limit when appropriately documented.

The Clay Postdoctoral Fellowship supports outstanding early-career astrophysicists working in theory, observation, instrumentation, engineering, laboratory science or experimental astrophysics. Fellows conduct independent research while accessing the extensive scientific infrastructure of Harvard and the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory.

Benefits
The fellowship provides an initial annual stipend of USD 87,500, an annual research budget of USD 18,000, health and dental coverage for the fellow and eligible dependants and a one-time relocation allowance. The appointment can run for four years, with the fourth year contingent on satisfactory progress.

Requirements
Applicants must submit a CV including ORCID and up to three Unified Astronomy Thesaurus keywords, descriptions of the impact and relevance of up to four publications, a complete publication list and a research overview containing previous and current research plus a proposed CfA research programme within a five-page limit excluding references. References are requested only for a subset of applicants.

How to apply
Prepare the required PDF documents and submit the application electronically through the Astronomy Job Register route linked from the official CfA fellowship page. Applications must be received by 2026-10-15 at 17:00 Boston time. Referees are contacted later only for selected applicants.