Graduate students and current postdoctoral researchers who wish to secure postdoctoral funding can approach their search through a few different methods.

1. Postdoctoral Researcher as Applicant
2. Host Institution as Applicant
3. ORS Training Series

1. Postdoctoral Researcher as Applicant

First and foremost, you should complete a funding search. Perhaps the best way to do this is by setting up a personalized funding alert through one of online funding databases available to Duke researchers. When you set up the terms of your funding search or alert, remember to choose at least two terms to describe what you wish to fund. By describing yourself under "Requirements" as a "PhD or MD or Other Professional" and by "Funding Type" selecting "postdoctoral award" and "visiting personnel" you will locate grants and fellowship funding geared to bring a postdoctoral or postgraduate staff member to a particular campus. It may also be helpful to additionally select "Research" and "Training or Scholarship or Fellowship" to locate the range of awards that you may use towards postgraduate research.

2. Host Institution as Applicant

Secondly, be aware of those grants available to universities or research centers to host a postdoctoral researcher. If you are communicating with the potential host organization of your postdoctoral work, it may be very useful to you to know what awards are available to them to fund you and your research. To search for these types of funds, we also recommend setting up another, separate personlized funding alert from #1. Use the subscription funding databases available to Duke researchers. Under "Requirements" choose "Academic Institution or Government or Nonprofit" and under "Funding Type" select "postodoctoral award" and "visiting personnel."

3. ORS Training Series

We provide a number of workshops for Duke researchers, including graduate students and postdocs. Two that may be most useful to those applying for postdoctoral awards are "Locating Research Funding" and "Nuts & Bolts of NSF FastLane."

Last updated, May 29, 2007 by Steven Abels.