T-466D Health Sciences Building
pdafrs@u.washington.edu

MENTORING

NSF Requires Section on Mentoring in Grant Proposals The America COMPETES Act of 2007 requires that all NSF grant applications that include funding for postdoctoral fellows contain a description of mentoring activities. The policy is described in the NSF January 2009 Grant Proposal Guide: "Each proposal that requests funding to support postdoctoral researchers must include, as a separate section within the 15-page Project Description, a description of the mentoring activities that will be provided for such individuals. Examples of mentoring activities include, but are not limited to: career counseling; training in preparation of grant proposals, publications and presentations; guidance on ways to improve teaching and mentoring skills; guidance on how to effectively collaborate with researchers from diverse backgrounds and disciplinary areas; and training in responsible professional practices. The proposed mentoring activities will be evaluated as part of the merit review process under the Foundation's broader impacts merit review criterion. Proposals that do not include a separate section on mentoring activities within the Project Description will be returned without review." The University of Washington issued a memorandum on October 17, 2008 providing information to UW personnel about how to meet this requirement.  To view the memo, please go to this link: UW Office of Research:  Guidance for addressing NSF requirement to provide a mentoring plan for post-doctoral fellows.

---

NIH Clarifies Policy on Postdoc Mentoring

In response to a request from the National Postdoctoral Association, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) has clarified its policy regarding the mentoring of postdoctoral scholars supported on its research grants. The new policy makes it clear that Principal Investigators (P.I.s) engaged in mentoring postdocs supported on their research grants may bill that time as part of their "effort reporting." This is an important clarification, as many P.I.s and postdocs supported on research grants have expressed concern about the permissibility of mentoring and professional development activities when 100 percent of their time is billed to a research grant. Visit the NPA website "News Item" for further details.

---

Useful information about mentoring has been made available by The Graduate School.
*Mention of these resources is for information only and is not an endorsement*

Good Practices in mentoring

Mentoring Resources

• Faculty Mentoring Handbook (pdf)

• Student Mentoring Handbook (pdf)

Compact Between Postdoctoral Appointees and Their Mentors,  Association of American Medical Colleges

"Rules of the Mandoli Lab & Authorship Policies,"  information from Dr. Dina Mandoli, Department of Biology, University of Washington

Information on mentoring available from the National Postdoctoral Assocation
*Mention of these resources is for information only and is not an endorsement*

• Recommendations for Policies and Practices

• The Role and Rights of Postdocs

Information from phds.org, science math, and engineering career resources
*Mention of these resources is for information only and is not an endorsement*

• Postdoc Policies and Handbooks

MentorNet is an online mentoring system.  For more information, please go to http://www.mentornet.net/

Office of Postdoctoral Affairs, unit of The Graduate School, University of Washington, Seattle, WA  98195
Contact:   pdafrs@u.washington.edu       Telephone 206-543-4836      Fax 206-685-3234   Modified: 12/03/08