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VMI Postdoctoral Scholar Award

What: The VMI Postdoctoral Scholar Award is a 12-month pilot grant of $15k per year in direct costs to provide support for up to 3 HVI/VMI postdoctoral researchers to develop preliminary data for competitive extramural proposals (F or K equivalent). Funds can be used to support research supplies and/or salary. Please note that this award mechanism cannot be used to provide additional funding for the faculty mentor’s projects.

Who: HVI/VMI eligible postdocs without current federal support at time of award. It is expected that the applicant would be in the HVI/VMI for a year prior to applying.

How: Application must include in a single PDF:

    • 2-3 page long NIH-style proposal. Should include hypothesis, 1-2 specific aims, rationale, expected outcomes, and an explanation of how this award will support independent career development of the applicant. Preliminary data are not required. Feasibility should be supported.
    • Bibliography (no page limit)
    • NIH-style Biosketch (limit 5 pages)
    • Budget Justification providing a brief explanation of what the applicant is going to do with the funds (1 page limit).
    • Mentor’s letter of support with clear support of a pathway to independence, statement of % of postdoc’s effort that will be dedicated to this award, and assurance that the data produced from this award will be used for postdoc’s grant application.

Review Process: each application to be reviewed by 3 HVI/VMI faculty members and awarded on a competitive basis.

Due Date: July 15, 2021 at 5:00pm

Expected start date of funding: September 1, 2021

Applications are to be submitted electronically, as a single PDF file, to Wade Nixon, VMI Operations Manager, (nixonw@upmc.edu), with a cc to Tess Petropoulos, (tkp3@pitt.edu) by 5:00pm on July 15, 2021.  No exceptions will be made to the receipt date.

Questions about the program should be directed to Brett Kaufman, PhD (bkauf@pitt.edu).