Novo Nordisk Fellowship

The MIT-Novo Nordisk Artificial Intelligence Postdoctoral Fellows Program invites visionary researchers to redefine what’s possible at the intersection of AI, data science, and the life sciences.

2024–2025 Fellows
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About

A collaboration between MIT’s School of Engineering and global healthcare company Novo Nordisk, the MIT-Novo Nordisk Artificial Intelligence Postdoctoral Fellows Program accelerates discovery and translates breakthroughs into real-world impact — advancing the future of patient care.

The program is also part of the MIT Health and Life Sciences Collaborative (MIT HEALS), a cross-Institute effort that unites researchers across disciplines to advance transformative solutions in health care.

MIT-Novo Nordisk Fellows receive:

  1. A salary between $71,0000 and $90,000 annually, plus benefits.
  2. Additional funding for travel, conferences, and research tools.
  3. Personalized mentorship, career development workshops, and programming.
  4. Access to MIT’s advanced research infrastructure, including state-of-the-art facilities and cutting-edge tools.
  5. Connections with thought leaders in academia and industry.

Why become an MIT-Novo Nordisk Fellow?

The program offers more than postdoctoral support — it serves as a launchpad for researchers who want to redefine human health. 

MIT Novo Nordisk Fellows:

  1. Pursue groundbreaking research across a wide range of disciplines, from AI-driven drug discovery to digital health platforms and emerging medical technologies.
  2. Work closely with a faculty advisor who provides tailored mentorship and career guidance.
  3. Collaborate with leading researchers across MIT’s five schools and the Schwarzman College of Computing.
  4. Receive access to leading voices in health tech and biomedicine — including startup founders, venture capitalists, and entrepreneurs — through workshops and events.
  5. Join a collaborative community of peers across a range of disciplines and backgrounds, fostering lasting professional relationships and sparking new research collaborations.
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Focus Areas

Potential areas of focus for postdoctoral fellows participating in the MIT-Novo Nordisk Postdoc Program include, but are not limited to, the following:

Research and Early Development
  • Bioinformatics and Computational Biology
  • Generative AI-enabled Drug Discovery and De Novo Drug Design
  • Protein Folding/Molecule Design
  • Virtual Compound Screening
  • Structure–Activity Relationship (SAR) Analysis
  • Chemical Property Prediction (Solubility, Toxicity, Bioactivity)
  • Biomarker Identification and Validation
  • Disease Biology and Understanding
  • Target Identification/ Target Validation
  • Translational Modeling and Simulation
Development
  • Clinical Trial Simulations
  • Disease Progression and Risk Modeling
  • Multi-omics Analytics
  • Clinical Data, EMR, and Patient Monitoring Data Analysis
  • Medical Image and Pathology Analysis
  • Furthering Value of Digital Health Solutions
  • Drug Safety and Adverse Event Prediction
  • Trial Automation and Operational Efficiency
  • Portfolio Analysis
  • Device Simulations
  • NLP in Biomedical Literature, Clinical Trial Data, and Drug Databases
  • Patient Recruitment and Site Selection Optimization
  • Population Health and Epidemiological Predictive Modeling
  • Data Augmentation and Synthetic Data
  • Synthetic arms and virtual/digital twin technology development
  • Generative AI applications toward clinical development
  • Graph-based knowledge discovery for clinical development
  • Causal inference
Product Supply
  • Product Quality and Anomaly Detection
  • Systems Surveillance
  • Demand Forecasting
  • Supply Chain Modeling
  • Optimizing Inventory Levels
  • Packaging Optimization
IT/Enterprise
  • Generative AI Solutions for Enterprise
  • MLOps, LLMOps, AI Marketplace, and Reusable AI Capability Blocks and Blueprints
  • AI Ethics and Compliance frameworks
  • Differential Privacy Techniques for AI Services
  • Cybersecurity
  • LLMs and Knowledge graphs
  • AI-augmented Data Engineering, IT Operations and DevOps
  • AI in the Workplace; Education, Implications, Risks and Ethics
  • AI Agents in the Enterprise – i.e AI HR Coach, Salesrep practice with deepfakes HCPs, etc

Eligibility

The MIT-Novo Nordisk Postdoc Program welcomes applications from:

  1. Graduate students within one year of completing their PhD.
  2. Recent PhD graduates are within one year of earning their degree.
  3. Researchers in industry who want to pivot within a year of completing their PhD.

MIT is deeply committed to cultivating a vibrant intellectual community enriched by various perspectives and experiences. We encourage applications from talented individuals — both domestic and international — whose unique backgrounds, viewpoints, and expertise strengthen teams, expand opportunity, and fuel discovery.

Application

Your complete application should include:

  • 2-page statement about your past and future research interests, your interest in the program, and the MIT faculty member(s) you plan to work with
  • CV listing your education history, your publications, your research and work experiences, and other relevant information.

In the application you will also be asked to identify a faculty member you have contacted (see more below) and focus areas that most align with this program (see more above). Lastly, you will be asked to provide at least one letter of recommendation. We advise that this letter comes from someone who can speak to your most recent research activities. We will accept up to three letters of recommendation.

Application Deadline

  • We will update this page with information on the application process for the Fall 2026 cohort.

Identifying Faculty Mentor

Strong faculty connections are central to the application process, as well as the fellowship experience. Applicants are encouraged to identify MIT faculty whose research aligns with their interests — particularly those working at the intersection of AI and the life sciences — and to reach out to them directly in advance of applying to discuss the possibility of joining their lab as an MIT-Novo Nordisk Fellow.

Application materials should include:

  • Names of all faculty members who the applicant has contacted.
  • How those discussions have shaped the applicant’s goals.
  • Which faculty member may be best positioned to support their development through the fellowship.

The MIT-Novo Nordisk Postdoc Program team can also assist in continuing these discussions or facilitating new introductions with MIT faculty.

Current Fellows

Past Fellows

Past Fellows

2024-2025
  • TBD

Team

Contact

For questions about the MIT-Novo Nordisk Postdoc Program, please contact: novo-postdoc-apps@mit.edu

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