As a postdoctoral fellow, one of the biggest goals that you can set for yourself during your appointment is to secure your own funding, independent of your supervisor/PI. Whether you choose to follow a career path into industry, academics or other, being able to focus your ideas into a grant or written proposal and secure funding is an important skillset to develop. But before you can submit a grant proposal, there are some things you should do and things you should know:

1) If you've identified a funding opportunity and are starting to plan a proposal, it's a really good idea to get in touch with a grants and contracts specialist within your department or research unit. These people know how the Office of Sponsored Projects operates and they can help you with the administrative steps necessary to get an application out the door. If you can't figure out who that person is in your department or research unit, you can email cnsgranthelp@austin.utexas.edu and ask who you should be working with.

2) Some sponsors/funding programs require a postdoc to act as the Principal Investigator for the proposed work. But... UT-Austin does not allow Postdoctoral Fellows to be classified as PIs in its internal systems. So, as part of the proposal submission process, you need to request "PI of Record" status or "Co-PI" status in order to submit your application. This is something that a grants specialist can help with, or you can send an email the Office of Sponsored Projects (Cathie Simpkins at csimpkins@austin.utexas.edu; osp@austin.utexas.edu). These sometimes take weeks to process, so do this early in your proposal planning/writing process! More information about PI status for grant applications can be found here: https://research.utexas.edu/osp/prepare-submit-proposal/pi-eligibility/

 

As a postdoc at UT Austin, there are many funding resources available. Many grants are supported at the federal level. If you are a US citizen, there a lot of sources like The National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the National Science Foundation (NSF). If you are an international postdoc, you may not be eligible for some of these fellowships, so it is important to always check the eligibility guidelines.

 

Useful links for federal funding:

 

Alternatively, there are many privately funded fellowships, with many of them open to international postdocs and visa holders. Some examples of these within the life sciences:

  • The Cystic Fibrosis Foundation (CFF)
  • Human Frontier Science Program (HFSP)
  • American Diabetes Association (ADA)
  • American Heart Association (AHA)
  • Life Sciences Research Foundation (LSRF)

Application deadlines vary between foundations, with some accepting two rounds of applications per year. Each have a lot of information on their websites about the application process, eligibility and terms of each fellowship.

 

UT also has a new resource for crowd-funding support for research. It's called HornRaiser, and it works like KickStarter or GoFundMe. It's really flexible, but does require an eye for marketing.

  • HornRaiser website
  • Any funds you raise (even if you don't meet your goal) can be used for your project
  • Works best with: teams, funding ranges in the thousands of dollars, people with good networks, lots of motivation

 

Application Workshops

 

Application workshops are run throughout the year by the College of Natural Sciences (CNS) that cover both grant writing and the academic or industry job search. Some panel discussions and events have previously included:

  • Research and teaching positions at an undergraduate institution
  • Working for non-profits
  • The academic job search

The CNS postdoc committee is always open to suggestions for programs and resources that could be made available.

 

Grant Writing

 

  • CNS periodically holds NIH F32 and K99/R00 application workshops
  • The American Society of Microbiology and other life science societies also offer writing courses
  • The NIH website has an “RO1 toolkit”
  • www.naturejobs.com and www.sciencemag.org also have lots of grant writing resources
  • Many examples of successfully funded grant applications can be found online
  • CNS provides resources to help you find funding opportunities through the Strategic Research Initiatives office

 

Strategic Research Initiatives (cns.utexas.edu/strategic-research-initiatives)

 

The CNS Strategic Research Initiatives website provides grant development support to faculty, researchers and research support staff in CNS.

 

Strategic Research Initiatives provides an online catalogue of resources you can utilize in grant applications (e.g. core facilities) and research policy info etc.

 

You will also find a list of funding opportunities including:

  • A limited submission calendar
  • Federal/private funding
  • Graduate student/Postdoc funding
  • Undergraduate funding
  • Internal funding

 

Other resources include proposal submission and proposal development help as well as research administrator resources. Tutorials for the use of ‘SciVal’, a programme that tracks both federal and private foundation funding is also available through this CNS website. Email cnsgranthelp@austin.utexas.edu with questions about funding opportunities and application submission processes.

 

The Vice President for Research (VPR) Office also maintains a "Find Funding" website: https://research.utexas.edu/find-funding

 

 

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