Any funding you can get as a postdoc gives you more leverage--and helps you cultivate independence more effectively--than if you were paid out of your principal investigator's (PI's) grant. So below, we list a few of the most important grants, career awards, individual fellowships, and junior-leader positions for postdocs in Europe and the United States, with asterisks (*) beside the ones that are especially aimed at cultivating independence.

This is only a starting point. Search GrantsNet [1], Science Careers, and the European Commission's Euraxess [2] Web site for more specific funding and job opportunities in the United States and Europe.

Grants

The U.S. National Institutes of Health [3] (NIH) have an R03 grant mechanism [4] to support small research projects for up to 2 years with or without preliminary data. These can be useful for senior postdocs who can get their PIs to collaborate on a grant proposal.

*The Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research [5] (NWO) offers the Veni, Vidi, and Vici research grants [6] for postdocs in all fields to pursue their own lines of research at different stages in their careers.

Training Awards and Fellowships

*The NIH Mentored Research Scientist Development Award [7] (K01) offers a salary and training, research, and travel expenses for up to 5 years for a supervised career-development experience leading to research independence.

NIH's National Research Service Awards for Individual Postdoctoral Fellowships [8] (F32) offer postdocs a stipend as well as training and travel money for up to 3 years.

The National Science Foundation [9] (NSF) offers postdoctoral fellowships in many fields, including the *NSF Astronomy and Astrophysics Postdoctoral Fellowships [10] (AAPF), which enable postdocs to carry out independent research at the host institution of their choice for up to 3 years.

Some other NSF awards:

*The Postdoctoral Research Fellowships in Biology [11] (PRFB) for underrepresented groups in biology and biological informatics.

The International Research Fellowship Program [12] (IRFP).

Postdoctoral Fellowships in Polar Regions Research [13]

Intelligence Community Postdoctoral Research Fellowship [14]

*NASA awards Hubble Fellowships [15] to help postdocs pursue independent research related to its Cosmic Origins Program, with a stipend and research and travel money for up to 3 years. NASA also offers Einstein Fellowships [16] for research related to its Physics of the Cosmos Program and Sagan Fellowships [17] to its Exoplanet Exploration program.

The European Commission [18] gives Marie Curie Intra-European Fellowships (IEF) for career development [19] for European postdocs to spend up to 2 years in another European country with a mobility and travel allowance and research funding. It also offers International Outgoing Fellowships (IOF) for career development [20] for European postdocs to go to a non-European country and then come back. Marie Curie fellows may gain further support for 2 to 3 years with a *Marie Curie European Reintegration Grant [21] (ERG) while securing long-term employment.

Postdocs who have spent at least 3 years away from Europe may apply for a Marie Curie International Reintegration Grant [22] (IRG) and win financial support for 2 to 4 years to come back. Non-Europeans may also apply to come to Europe with a salary and research money for up to 2 years with the International Incoming Fellowships [23] (IIF).

*The Spanish Ministry for Science and Innovation [24] offers 5-year fellowships, with prospects for an independent position, to young scientists with less than 10 years of postdoctoral experience through the Ramn y Cajal [25] program.

Independent Funding and Positions

*The NIH Pathway to Independence Awards [26] (K99/R00) offer postdocs a salary and research funds for a mentored phase of 2 years followed by support for 3 years after recruitment into an independent position.

*NIH offers Independent Scientist Awards [27] (K02), which give newly independent scientists salary support and protected time so they may focus on their research for up to 5 years.

*The Burroughs Wellcome Fund [28] offers Career Awards for Medical Scientists [29] and Career Awards at the Scientific Interface [30] for physicists, mathematicians, and computational scientists working on biological questions. (Note that these have been suspended for the 2009–10 year.)

*The Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research [31] runs the Whitehead Fellows Program [32], which consists of an independent appointment with lab space, resources, and institutional support for up to 5 years with no teaching responsibilities.

*The Sandia National Laboratories [33] established the President Harry S. Truman Fellowship in National Security Science and Engineering [34] for newly graduated Ph.D. scientists and engineers to pursue independent research of their own choosing at one of the laboratories.

*The Research Institute of Molecular Pathology [35] in Austria offers IMP fellowships [36] to scientists with less than 18 months of postdoctoral experience so that they may start a group independently. These fellowships consist of a 5-year appointment with start-up funds, salary money for a Ph.D. student and one undergrad, and travel money.

*The European Research Council [37] offers Starting Grants [38]to scientists of any nationality with 3 to 8 years of postdoctoral experience to establish or consolidate their own research team in Europe. Funding is for 5 years and may be for up to €2 million per grant.

*Through its EMBO Installation Grants [39], the European Molecular Biology Organization offers scientists negotiating a full-time position at an institution in Croatia, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Portugal, Poland, and Turkey research funding (including salary) for up to 5 years as well as additional training and networking opportunities. [39]

*The Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council [40] (BBSRC) in the United Kingdom offers scientists with less than 10 years' research experience (Ph.D. included) the David Phillips fellowships [41]. These include a salary and independent research support for 5 years.

*Science Foundation Ireland [42] (SFI) offers scientists with 3 to 8 years of postdoctoral experience Starting Investigator Research Grants [43] (SIRG) so they may pursue independent research in biotechnology, information and communications technology, and sustainable energy and energy-efficient technologies within a mentor's lab. The award is for up to €500,000 for 4 years and also provides funding for a postgraduate student.

*The German Research Foundation [44] (DFG) set up the Emmy Noether Programme [45] to give scientists with less than 4 years of postdoctoral research experience the opportunity to run an Independent Junior Research Group in a German institution and start teaching duties for up to 6 years.

*The Max Planck Society [46] in Germany offers Independent Junior Research Group Leader positions [47] with lab space, start-up funds, and salary money to recruit a postdoc, a Ph.D. student, and a technician for 5 years.

*The Austrian Federal Ministry of Science and Research [48] (BMWF) also helps scientists with 2 to 10 years of postdoctoral experience to build their own research group through the START Program [49].

*The French National Research Agency [50] set up the Jeunes Chercheuses et Jeunes Chercheurs [51] program to help young scientists within French national research centers and universities start their own research lines or independent group. (Note: To apply, you need to have secured your first permanent position, which in France usually means working within the group of another principal investigator.)

Further Reading

- The 2005 Sigma Xi Postdoc Survey [52] of postdoctoral researchers in the United States

- Enhancing the Postdoctoral Experience for Scientists and Engineers: A Guide for Postdoctoral Scholars, Advisers, Institutions, Funding Organizations, and Disciplinary Societies [53], published in 2000 by the U.S. National Academies

- Committee on Postdoctoral Education: Report and Recommendations [54], a 1998 report from the Association of American Universities

- The Rise of the Post-Doc as Principal Investigator? How PhDs May Advance Their Career and Knowledge Claims in the New Europe of Knowledge [55], a 2008 paper in Policy Futures in Education by Chris Armbruster

Updated: 21 August 2009

Elisabeth Pain is contributing editor for South Europe.