Funding sources:
A great place to start looking for funding is at www.grantsnet.org, which is run by HHMI
and AAAS and lists lots of grants.
Another good place to look is the U of I’s Division of Sponsored Programs, which
maintains a funding list at:
http://www.uiowa.edu/%7Evpr/research/fundsrc.htm
Other good lists of funding sources are at:
Michigan State Univ. (www.msu.edu/user/biomed/funding.htm)
and at: www.tuc.edu/lrc/grants.htm
and the International Brain Research Organization (IBRO), which maintains an
international funding database at www.ibro.org/secondary/funding/funding2.htm
Government agencies which fund predoc and postdoc research are primarily two,
NIH (National Institutes of Health) and NSF (National Science Foundation). NSF has
predoctoral grants, but one must apply before the first year of grad school (I think) see:
www.her/nsf.gov/dge/programs/grf/
NIH has both predoctoral and postdoctoral grants, either of which can be applied for middegree (or mid-fellowship). These are called National Research Service Awards, or
NRSAs. See: http://grants2.nih.gov/grants/funding/416/phs416.htm
Other sources of funding are:
Cure Autism Now (www.cureautismnow.org/research)
Helen Hay Whitney Foundation (www.hhwf.org) has research fellowships (v.
competitive) for early postdoctoral research training in basic biomedical sciences
The James S. McDonnell foundation has money, but not specifically for predocs or
postdocs. www.jsmf.org
HHMI (Howard Hughes Medical Institute) has predoctoral money; must apply during
year 1 (www.hhmi.org)
SFN (Society for Neuroscience) has pre- and post-doctoral for minorities in neuroscience.
See their website at http://web.sfn.org/content/Programs/AwardsandPrizes/index.html
NARSAD (National Association for Research on Schizophrenia and Depression) has
advanced postdoc grants. See: http://www.mhsource.com/narsad/research/reindex.html
Human Frontier Science Program has money at: www.hfsp.org. These are for people
who want to do research in a country other than their own (this includes people from
some countries doing research in the States.
In other news, Brain Camp (the McDonnell Summer Institute in Cognitive Neuroscience)
is a great two-week program for grad students and postdocs. Check it out at:
http://www.dartmouth.edu/~cogneuro/Summer.html (this can also be a great place to
meet people (-: )
Finally, for those looking for research assistant positions (full-time, generally requiring a
BA or BS), there are listings in the Cognitive Neuroscience Society’s monthly newsletter.
While you can’t get this unless you’re a member, many of the members of the lab do (it’s
emailed), and if you let them know you’re looking, you can get notice of opportunities to
spend a year or two post-bacc doing research in other cog neuro labs.