Actually, I have been advocating this for some time now. It is one of
my top priorities as a member of the advisory committee for the new
University of Florida Office of Postdoctoral Affairs that I helped
initiate - first meeting is Feb. 3.
What would be better is if the NSF and NIH mandated that postdocs and
adjunct faculty are grant-PI-elegible for that institution to be
eligible to receive grants from those agencies at all, and even possibly
for accreditation (whoever it is that approves research institution
accreditation). That way we wouldn't have to wait decades for every
institution to do right by us as a population.
On 1/19/2012 1:03 PM, Dixon, Mark wrote:
Maybe a partial solution would be if universities were more willing to allow
post-docs or adjunct faculty to be PI's on grants. Not sure what kinds of
structural changes would need to occur for this.
Mark D.
-----Original Message-----
From: Ecological Society of America: grants, jobs, news
[mailto:ECOLOG-L@LISTSERV.UMD.EDU] On Behalf Of Aaron T. Dossey
Sent: Thursday, January 19, 2012 11:34 AM
To: ECOLOG-L@LISTSERV.UMD.EDU
Subject: Re: [ECOLOG-L] Two items about NSF
This is an intriguing choice of words... Some comments: 1) "with", really?, 2) what
about postdocs/postechs/postemps? With more of am emphasis on having a lab to get a grant, more
will be caught in the catch 22 most of us already are: no position, no funding; no funding, no
position. Some of us are pursuing a more entrepreneurial approach to carving out our own careers,
since Universities seem to be wilting and dying, providing no new fruit for developing careers. In
fact, probably a majority of postdocs will end up on this track. Having a strong emphasis on
"you have to have resources", especially when most Universities are reluctant to partner
with you unless you are faculty or work for faculty, stifles those on this type of track.
On 1/19/2012 11:42 AM, Resetarits, William wrote:
Individual PIs collaborating and working with their students
Additionally, data in several reports and articles has clearly shown that
scientists are older and older all the time when they achieve career
benchmarks: like getting a stable position (faculty, etc.), their own lab,
their first RO1, etc. One article recently actually went right out and said
that - this means that professors are NOT where the newer more innovative ideas
is because by the time you become a professor, and then later when you get your
own funding, you are past the most intellectually productive years of the
average human life. They noted how many nobel prize winning ideas/research
projects were done by the lauriets when they were YOUNGER, and that they could
not have even done those works now days because they wouldn't even have a
position by the time they started that work.
--
Aaron T. Dossey, Ph.D.
Biochemistry and Molecular Biology
Founder/Owner: All Things Bugs
Capitalizing on Low-Crawling Fruit from Insect-Based Innovation
http://www.allthingsbugs.com/Curriculum_Vitae.pdf
https://www.facebook.com/Allthingsbugs
1-352-281-3643
--
Aaron T. Dossey, Ph.D.
Biochemistry and Molecular Biology
Founder/Owner: All Things Bugs
Capitalizing on Low-Crawling Fruit from Insect-Based Innovation
http://www.allthingsbugs.com/Curriculum_Vitae.pdf
https://www.facebook.com/Allthingsbugs
1-352-281-3643
