Making the transition from postdoc to independent
investigator is tough. Scientists who received prestigious
fellowships or grants relate their experiences-and offer some
advice
Karin Hing has her own research team at the
Interdisciplinary Research Centre in Biomedical Materials at Queen
Mary University in London. She also has independent funding, her
research into bone graft substitutes has led to the formation of a
spinoff company, and at home she has a budding family. In short,
she could be mistaken for a successful senior lecturer at any U.K.
research university. But one thing she doesn't have--yet--is a
permanent faculty position.
Hing is one of a few early career scientists in the United
Kingdom and Ireland who have won grants that allow them to work
independently, even before they have attained lectureships (the
equivalent of assistant professorships in the United States). These
grants may come in the form of a fellowship in the United Kingdom
or an independent research grant in Ireland, but whatever the name
and particular strategy, they all provide a much-needed kick-start
for an academic research career. Grants like these offer generous,
independent research support, which gives highly talented young
scientists some leverage to negotiate with universities for lab
space and other support usually available only to lecturers and
more experienced scientists. This in turn allows them to build
their own research teams and--most importantly--to pursue their own
research ideas. Despite their relative youth and inexperience,
these lucky few are able to work as principal investigators (PIs)
while greatly improving their prospects for more permanent academic
employment. Call them "junior PIs."
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Making the break. Karin Hing's fellowship has brought
independence to pursue her work on bone graft substitutes.
CREDIT: TOM BUCKLAND
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Finding the right host
Funding bodies in the United Kingdom and Ireland offer a variety
of schemes that provide young scientists at least some of the
advantages that Hing enjoys (see story). These diverse programs all
have a common goal: to free young scientists from dependence on a
more senior scientist or even a university.
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First, however, applicants for these coveted awards must find a
university willing to provide lab space and other institutional
support. In the United Kingdom, applicants approach a prospective
host institution seeking an endorsement of their projects. Working
out the nitty-gritty details of space and equipment and securing
them permanently comes later. "In my experience, it is very unusual
for a fellow to be promised an empty lab by their host before
applying for a fellowship," Hing says. "But once you have your
fellowship, you are then in a position to barter with your host for
extra space--or to find a better offer!"
In Ireland, institutions tend to commit earlier, but this
doesn't mean more casually. As Ruth Davis, research support officer
at University College Cork, says, "We have to know up front--at the
proposal stage--what the candidate needs." While they always look
to choose the best scientific candidates, she notes, they must also
consider whether "we can deliver the space and additional resources
they need."
For the prospective junior PI, there is more to picking an
institution than lab space and equipment. "People have to look at
the support and inspiration [the host institution may offer them],"
says Kevin Ryan, a Cancer Research UK senior cancer research fellow
investigating how regulating factors in programmed cell death may
be used as potential targets for therapy. Also important, Ryan
says, is whether junior PIs feel comfortable with the departmental
and institutional administrators they will have to work under,
because "you will ask them for support and need to know that any
concerns you may have will be heard." Ryan chose the Beatson
Institute for Cancer Research in Glasgow because he knew the
institute well, having worked there as a Ph.D. student.
Cormac Taylor of University College Dublin (UCD) Conway
Institute of Biomolecular and Biomedical Research has a lot of
experience with this kind of negotiation. Taylor won a Wellcome
Trust Career Development Fellowship, which he used to start his
work on oxygen sensing in human disease, after which he secured a
Science Foundation Ireland (SFI) Investigator grant. Taylor's
advice: Use your fellowship and grant money as leverage to
negotiate good working conditions. "Don't underestimate your own
value, and don't undersell yourself."
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"The biggest challenge is to manage people and know
what everyone is doing." -Cormac Taylor
CREDIT: SCIENCE FOUNDATION IRELAND
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Boost your chances
That advice could apply equally well to researchers entering the
hot competition for independent grants. Apart from an excellent
track record, review panels look for a carefully conceived,
interesting research plan that the applicant is well prepared to
execute. SFI Director General Bill Harris says the main criteria
are the "quality of the idea, quality of the recent track record of
the researcher, and the strategic relevance of the research."
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Kristina Downing of the Department of Biochemistry at the
University of Oxford believes that the novelty of a project and its
relevance to the funding body's mission are key. She should know;
she has won two fellowships. In 1996, she received a Research
Career Development Fellow- ship from the Wellcome Trust, a funding
body in the United Kingdom primarily interested in understanding
human health and disease. Downing proposed to study the structure
of fibrillin 1, a large cell-membrane modular protein, and to
examine how structural changes in the protein relate to human
disease. In 2000, she applied for a Senior Research Fellowship in
Basic Biomedical Science, also from the Wellcome Trust, and was
successful again. This time her research project extended her
findings to other proteins and diseases.
A potential for commercial applications may also tip the balance
in an applicant's favor. Fergal O'Brien won a President of Ireland
Young Researcher Award (PIYRA) from SFI to launch his research at
the Department of Anatomy at the Royal College of Surgeons in
Dublin. He is using his award to look into developing a physical
collagen matrix that could be used clinically as an artificial
tissue scaffold. O'Brien feels that the combination of basic
research and commercial potential in his project attracted SFI's
interest.
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Showing that you will bring scientific knowledge back to the
United Kingdom or Ireland is another factor that can play an
important role, or so thinks UCD's Taylor. His Wellcome Trust
Fellowship and SFI grant allowed him to return to his native
Ireland after spending 5 years at Harvard Medical School in the
United States. Taylor believes that the key to both of his funding
successes was his desire and ability to "take expertise or
technology from an international institution" and inject it into a
local institution.
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"Setting up my own lab was really hard. ... I had
come from a pretty computational background and didn't know any
molecular biology." -Kristina Downing
CREDIT: K. DOWNING
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The bumpy road to independence
Once you have independent funding, a host institution, and lab
space, then comes the really hard part: building up a research
team. "Setting up my own lab was really hard," says Downing. "I had
come from a pretty computational background and didn't know any
molecular biology." She was helped by her first postdoc, who had
more molecular-biology experience. Still, Downing estimates that by
the time the old lab she was allocated was refurbished, the lab
space arranged, and the equipment bought and delivered, 6 months
had elapsed. "Fortunately, I was able to work in a different lab
during this time, so no one's work suffered," she says.
Newly independent scientists also must hire--and support--people
for the first time. PIYRA awardee O'Brien, who currently has three
Ph.D. students and one postdoc, encourages new PIs to "take their
time to pick the right people," because "it will pay off." O'Brien
was "stunned" when his advertisement for a postdoc drew about 100
responses from around the world. O'Brien feels that he could hire a
highly skilled candidate because he had 5 years of research
funding. "That was a big selling point," he says.
Like any other newly independent scientist, independent-grant
winners soon find themselves managing people, something they aren't
trained to do. Taylor thinks that "science is the [relatively] easy
part; the biggest challenge is to manage people and know what
everyone is doing." Taylor started with a single technician, and he
advises other scientists to "start small [in order] to learn people
management." His team now has seven members.
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Bird in the hand. Mark Whittingham hopes his
fellowship to study foraging and distribution patterns in birds
will lead to a permanent post.
CREDIT: M. J. WHITTINGHAM
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Next destination: a permanent post?
With a substantial publication record and the experience of
getting a lab up and running and launching an independent research
team, independent grant winners are in good shape when the time
comes to compete for permanent positions. "A fellowship is very
valuable in terms of offering you 5 years and leverage to apply for
a lectureship at a university," says Mark Whittingham, who joined
the Department of Biology at the University of Newcastle upon Tyne,
U.K., in 2004. Whittingham received a David Phillips Fellowship
from the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council to
investigate foraging decisions and distribution patterns of birds
and the implications for conservation.
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Importantly, U.K. fellowships require host institutions to help
recipients integrate into the regular academic staff. "I haven't
signed anything, but there is an informal agreement that as long as
I do well, I will get a position," says Whittingham.
For some independent-funding recipients, integrating into the
regular permanent staff isn't a problem. Ryan applied for a
lectureship at the Beatson Institute at the same time he applied
for his Cancer Research UK Fellowship. "I got offered the job
before getting the fellowship," he says. When he won the fellowship
shortly after that, the institute offered him a new package,
tailored for his position, and he was able to hire a couple of
extra people. Yet Ryan is confident he would have benefited if
things had happened in the opposite order. "If you want to have a
job, a fellowship is a very good thing to bring with you," he says.
"It is very attractive to employers, because you have a salary, it
is quite prestigious, and it indicates you are able to write a
research plan that has already been vetted."
Still, the picture may not be as rosy for everybody, given the
current dearth of faculty positions. Justin McCarthy, an SFI
Investigator in the Department of Biochemistry at University
College Cork, fears that some who have impressive PI funding but no
tenure may be left in the lurch when their funding dries up. He,
fortunately, won't be in that position; he already holds a
lectureship.
Hing's position is not as secure. "Once I had the fellowship,
they gave me a lectureship [immediately]," she says. But this was a
fixed-term lectureship. Although it topped up her fellowship salary
and added to the prestige without requiring onerous teaching and
administrative duties, "there was no guarantee of employment beyond
the end of my fellowship," she says.
Now reaching the end of her fellowship, Hing is negotiating with
her institution for a permanent position. "I have been led to
believe I will get a permanent position, but I am not 100% sure,"
she says. She advises new grantees to make a clear arrangement
about what is going to happen when their independent funding runs
out. "You should negotiate a permanent position with your host from
the beginning, so that you can relax and concentrate on your
research throughout your fellowship," she says. And if it should
prove impossible to get a firm promise from the host institution,
she advises looking into what other career prospects may be offered
by other institutions--another great advantage of having funding in
your own name.
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Also in this special International Careers Report
...
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