Fund Your Research
It is common for postdocs to be supported by their PI initially, but often postdocs will be asked to find their own funding at some point. Here are some resources that may help you start your search for funding.
Fellowships are competitive awards that generally do not require service (i.e., work) as part of the award. They are intended to fund your academic study and research. Fellowships may be offered by your department, the University, the federal government or private agencies.
Every fellowship has different provisions, so take note of what is offered. What is the length of the fellowship? What is the funding level? Does it include insurance or a tuition waiver? Does the funding come to you through the University, or are you paid directly by the sponsor? Are you permitted to accept other sources of funding simultaneously while receiving the award? We encourage you to communicate with your department about any award you receive.
Plan ahead, if you are interested in applying for a fellowship. Most fellowship competitions have deadlines six to 12 months prior to their award dates, and they usually require personal statements and letters of recommendation that may take several months to compile. Give yourself plenty of time to write, re-write and gather supplementary materials.
Fellowships are typically very competitive, and many students apply for several fellowships at one time. Some competitions require nominations from departments or a faculty members. When asking your department to consider nominating you, be prepared to provide documentation to justify your nomination.
Need some guidance on applying for grants and fellowships? Learn more from a recentcompendium of tips from Yale’s grants office. See below for more tips and tricks from UMN OVPR, UMN graduate office and several other academic institutions from across the US.
Search Tools
-
- Pivot (formerly Community of Science) Grant opportunities in many disciplines. Includes federal, non-federal, and international agencies.
- SPIN contains over 40,000 funding opportunities from 10,000 federal, public, non-profit and private funders. Please note that to access SPIN off-campus, you will need to set up an account.
- Foundation Directory Online (FDO) Profiles and recently awarded grants from over 80,000 foundations.
- GrantsNet: International Funding Index--regularly updated listing of links to sources of funding for European postdocs and investigators
- GrantForward: specialized search algorithm and team of specialists that constantly add new and accurate funding opportunities
- NIH also maintains a list of non-NIH funding opportunities.
- The Pathways to Science Portal hosts opportunities across a range of STEM disciplines, funded by NSF, NASA, NIH, and university and research labs across the country. Along with funding opportunities find a library, webinars, and tips on applying, interviewing, and negotiating a postdoc position.
- The Ph.D. Student’s Guide to Fellowships-A start-to-finish guide to help you land the perfect fellowship. Thousands of fellowships at your fingertips…
-
SITC Fellowships The Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer’s (SITC) Fellowships program was established through the Forward Fund to support the development of early career scientists in the field to cultivate the next generation of cancer immunotherapy experts.
Past Proposal Writing Workshop Videos
-
- Writing Fundable Grants in Sciences & Engineering, proposal writing workshop 2020 Slides HERE
- Writing Grant Proposals in the Sciences & Engineering: by Dr. Esam El-Fakahany. Video HERE (Spring 2019)
- Training Video with tips on how to complete your application and write effective proposals and budgets!
Funded Research Databases (Federal)
Both NIH and NSF maintain public databases of grants awarded. This is a valuable tool for assessing whether proposed research is in the realm of what is being funded by either agency. These records include an abstract of the funded research, the funding opportunity announcement under which the proposal was submitted, names of principal investigators and program officers, dollars awarded, (for NIH) the study section that reviewed the grant proposal, and the divisions or institutes funding the research. Both are kept up-to-date to reflect awards made through the last day or two.
- NIH Reporter
- NSF Award Search
- Grants.gov is the federal government’s central resource for funding opportunity announcements (FOAs) and submission of applications to sponsoring agencies.
Check out the NIH Matchmaker tool
NIH rolled out a Matchmaker tool in RePORTER this spring that can help you determine which IC may be interested in "your idea or which NIH program official you might want to reach out to, and which study section you might want to suggest your application gets assigned to for review." (Check out the video demonstration of Matchmaker):
·Simply enter your abstract or terms into the search field (give it enough information for it to make as precise a match as possible).
·Select whether you want to search for:
o Similar Projects, which will allow you to explore NIH funded projects that most closely match, which ICs funded those projects, to which study sections applications for those awards went, and more.
o Similar Program Officials, which will show you which NIH program officials have grant portfolios that most closely match the information you input, allow you to explore the awards in those portfolios, provide you email addresses so you can contact the program officials, and shows you the ICs of the program officials
o Explore the results screens! Filter results by clicking on the histograms.
When in doubt, reach out – NIH staff are there to help you navigate the grants process!
Federal Government Funding Opportunities
Download the most recent UMN Washington Update prepared by Lewis-Burke LLC for information regarding funding opportunities and agency updates.
- Cancer Biology Training Grant
- Cancer Research Institute Irvington Postdoctoral Fellowship
- CFI International Travel Award
- Comparative Medicine and Pathology Training Program
- CTSI grants
- DIABETES T32 RESEARCH TRAINING PROGRAM
- F32 Ruth Kirschstein NRSA
- Hematology Research Training Program
- LUNG BIOLOGY T32 TRAINING PROGRAM
- Masonic Cancer Center Program Support
- Medical School Fellowship Opportunities
- Minnesota Craniofacial Research Training (MinnCResT) Program
- Musculoskeletal Research Training Program
- PIVOT database
- Postdoctoral Education and Career Development in Cancer Disparities
- Postdoc Event Grant
- President's Postdoctoral Fellowship Program
- Research Fellowship in Nutrition and Cancer
- Research Fellowship in Translational Pediatric Cancer Epidemiology
- UMN PDA Career Development Award
- American Association of Immunologists
- American Association of University Women (AAUW): Fellowships
- American Cancer Society
- American Federation for Aging Research
- American Heart Association
- American Cancer Society: Postdoctoral Fellowships
- American Institute for Cancer Research (AICR)
- American Philosophical Society
- Graduate Women in Science: National Fellowship Program
- HHMI: Hanna H. Gray Fellows Program (underrepresented minorities)
- Howard Hughes Medical Institute
- Human Frontier Science Program: Postdoctoral Fellowships
- Intelligence Community Postdoctoral Research Fellowship Program
- JDRF (Diabetes research)
- Leukemia & Lymphoma Society
- Michelson Philanthropies & Science Prize for Immunology
- Travel Awards for FASEB Summer Research Conferences
Foundations:
- BrightFocus Foundation: Postdoctoral Fellowship Awards
- Ford Foundation
- The Francis Families Foundation
- G. Harold & Leila Y. Mathers Charitable Foundation
- Gabrielle’s Angel Foundation for Cancer Research
- Helen Hay Whitney Foundation
- James S. McDonnell Foundation: Understanding Dynamic and Multi-scale Systems
- Leukemia Foundation
- Life Sciences Research Foundation: Postdoctoral Fellowships
- The McKnight Foundation
- The Rita Allen Foundation
- The Skillman Foundation
- Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation
- W. K. Kellogg Foundation
Private Funds:
- Branco Weiss Fellowship (science, engineering, social sciences)
- Burroughs Wellcome Fund: Career Awards for Medical Scientists
- Burroughs Wellcome Fund: Postdoctoral Enrichment Program
- Burroughs Wellcome Fund Underrepresented Minority Postdoctoral Enrichment Program
- Cancer Research Institute
- Cancer Society
- Jane Coffin Childs Memorial Fund for Medical Research
- EMBO Long-Term Fellowships
- Fulbright Postdoctoral/Early Career Grants
- L'Oréal USA for Women in Science Fellowship
- Schmidt Science Fellowships
Diversity Fellowship Programs:
- American Association of University Women (AAUW): Fellowships
- Bristol-Myers Squibb UNCF E. E. Just Postgraduate Fellowship in the Life Sciences
- Burroughs Wellcome Fund
- Ford Foundation
- Gilliam Fellowships for Advanced Study
- Graduate Women in Science: National Fellowship Program
- HHMI: Hanna H. Gray Fellows Program (underrepresented minorities)
- L'Oreal Postdoctoral Fellowships for Women in Science
- NCI:Transition Career Development Award to Promote Diversity (K22)
- Schlumberger Foundation: Faculty for the Future
- Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation