Q:Dear GrantDoctor,
I am looking for funding opportunities for a female postdoc who
just started in my lab. She took time off from the bench after her
Ph.D. to care for her young family and now would like to come back
to the bench and begin a postdoc fellowship.
Your application should state clear scientific objectives and
have a clear and specific research plan. Pay close attention to the
writing; make sure it is clear, concise, and correct.
Are there any fellowships designed to help women wanting to
"restart" their careers after taking time off for family
obligations? Our research area is molecular organogenesis.
Thanks,
K.M.
A:Dear K.M.,
Do you have a major research grant from the U.S. National
Institutes of Health (NIH)? If you do, you're in luck: NIH offers
administrative supplements for precisely this purpose. Applications
for NIH's Supplements
to Promote Reentry Into Biomedical and Behavioral Research
Careers aren't subjected to further scientific evaluation; if
you have an NIH grant, you just contact your program officer,
explain the circumstances, and--if the money's available and you
qualify--NIH writes you a check. These supplements are intended,
says the program announcement,
to support individuals with high potential to reenter an active
research career after taking time off to care for children or
attend to other family responsibilities. The aim of these
supplements is to encourage such individuals to reenter research
careers within the missions of all the program areas of NIH. This
program will provide administrative supplements to existing NIH
research grants for the purpose of supporting full-time or
part-time research by these individuals in a program geared to
bring their existing research skills and knowledge up to date. It
is anticipated that at the completion of the supplement, the
reentry scientist will be in a position to apply for a career
development (K) award, a research award, or some other form of
independent research support.
To qualify, you must already have a grant from one of the
following NIH programs: R01, R10, R18, R24, R35, R37, P01, P40,
P41, P50, P51, P60, U01, U10, or U54. Your new postdoc must have a
doctoral degree (M.D., D.D.S., Ph.D., O.D., D.V.M., or equivalent)
and "must have had sufficient prior research experience to qualify
for a doctoral level research staff or faculty position at the time
they left active research." Candidates must be citizens, noncitizen
nationals, or permanent residents. These awards are intended to
initiate the process of reentry--applicants already supported by a
traineeship, fellowship, or other form of support aren't generally
eligible--but I'm confident the program officer won't penalize your
or the candidate for finding a bit of short-term money for a
deserving applicant.
So, what if you don't have an NIH grant? NIH, as you know, is by
far the most important supporter of biomedical research in the
United States, so it makes sense to try to tap them anyway. Some
NIH institutes and centers employ the K01
mechanism (the Mentored Research Scientist Career Development
Award) specifically to promote reentry into a research career after
a family-related hiatus. These awards are open to all qualifying
U.S. citizens, permanent residents, and noncitizen nationals.
Contact the program officer at the appropriate NIH institute or
center for more information.
If a K01 award doesn't pan out, a Kirschstein National Research
Service Award (NRSA)
might. NRSAs are competitive and are not intended specifically for
reentry, but you can be assured that an application from your new
postdoc will be considered on its merits, without undue concern for
a family-related interruption.
I'm aware of no other U.S. programs that aim to promote the
reentry of women into science following a family-related career
interruption, so good luck with these.
Be Well,
The GrantDoctor
Q:Dear GrantDoctor,
I'm a U.S. citizen currently finishing my thesis work at
Washington University examining the proteolytic mechanisms
underlying organelle degradation in the ocular lens. Soon I will be
starting a postdoctoral position at the University of Göteborg in
Sweden, studying forkhead transcription factors during development.
I'm interested in applying for a fellowship for my studies,
particularly for fellowships funding U.S. citizens studying abroad.
Unfortunately, I'm not very familiar with what is available for me
in Sweden. Any ideas?
Thanks,
Anna
A:Dear Anna,
It sounds as though your postdoctoral research will be in a
substantially different area from your Ph.D. work. That's good,
because it means you may be a strong candidate for a Human
Frontiers Science Program (HFSP) Long-Term
Fellowship . I say "may be" because there's a catch: You must
have at least one first-author publication in order for your
application to be taken seriously. HFSP applications are also
frequently rejected because the research topic doesn't fit with
HFSP's scientific agenda--maybe it's too clinical, too
agricultural, or too disease- or drug-related.
Although your description of your proposed research is very
brief, to me it sounds like a good fit with HFSP's goal of
supporting "basic research focused on complex mechanisms of living
organisms"; anyway, you could successfully spin it that way. HFSP
supports fields from "molecular and cellular approaches to
biological functions to systems and cognitive neuroscience." Your
application should state clear scientific objectives and have a
clear and specific research plan. Pay close attention to the
writing; make sure it is clear, concise, and correct. HFSP awards
are, of course, highly competitive; last year's success rate was
about 13%.
Other possibilities? The Fulbright Foundation has a reciprocal
agreement with Sweden, as it does with many other countries, but
there's no Swedish award that is ideal for your circumstances. The
American Visiting Lecturer/Research Scholar program provides
support for 3 to 5 months abroad, plus travel expenses. All their
other awards for Americans who wish to study in Sweden are for
students.
The Swedish side offers two possibilities. Annika Johansson of
the Swedish Research
Council (SRC) says her organization has two postdoc funding
options for citizens of countries other than Sweden. First is the
council's
Grant for Postdoctoral Positions in Sweden , Natural and
Engineering Sciences, which funds a postdoc salary for up to 2
years. No research costs are covered, and this award will support
you only until the end of your second postdoctoral year, regardless
of your source of support--so even f you were supported as a
postdoc for 6 months from another source, your remaining
eligibility would still only be 18 months.
The second Swedish possibility is the
Project Research Grant , Natural and Engineering Sciences,
which funds salaries, research, and travel costs, usually for a
maximum of 3 years (although in some cases funding can be extended
to 5 years). Most research project grants go to (Swedish) principal
investigators, but a minority, Johansson says, are awarded to
postdocs. There's a caveat for this grant, though: You need to be
employed already in Sweden. It could possibly work as a
continuation to a short-term postdoc.
Hurry--the annual deadline for both of these grants is very
soon: 25 April 2006.
SRC, by the way, is directed by the Swedish government to
support young researchers in particular, and--refreshingly--they
don't exclude foreigners from consideration.
Finally, as a U.S. citizen, you are eligible to apply for a
Kirschstein
NRSA fellowship , even though you'll be working overseas. Your
application must demonstrate that "the foreign institution and
sponsor offer unique opportunities and clear scientific advantages
over positions currently available in the United States."
For practical information on living and working in Sweden, take
a look at the Researcher's Mobility
Portal Sweden .
Best of Luck,
The GrantDoctor