Office of Postdoctoral Affairs

NSF Requires Section on Mentoring in Grant Proposals

The American 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.

When applying for grants, UW faculty might find the following statement useful.

OPA information for inclusion in grants

The University of Washington Office of Postdoctoral Affairs (OPA) serves the three UW campuses, facilitating the mentoring and training of postdoctoral fellows. OPA programs include presentations and workshops on matters relevant to the professional development of postdocs. The topics covered in these programs range from grant writing, teaching, publishing, oral communication, and directing a laboratory to dealing with time management and crafting a personal professional development plan. In addition, a career symposium is conducted annually by OPA in cooperation with The Graduate School and the Center for Career Services. OPA also works collaboratively with the UW Office of Academic Human Resources, the Center for Instructional Development and Research, and the Office of International Students and Scholars. Finally, postdocs are urged to avail themselves of activities provided by the UW Postdoctoral Association.

Additional information may be found at http://depts.washington.edu/pdafrs and at http://depts.washington.edu/uwpa .

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.

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