Kick Start your funding: Looking beyond NIH and NSF

Symposium — Wednesday, April 26, 2024 — 10:30 AM - 12:30 PM — , Room W192C
Trainee Advisory Committee — Chair: Jennifer Steiner — Co-Chair: Kristi Streeter

Funding for scientific research is becoming progressively harder to obtain and competition continues to grow.   Despite the increased challenge to gain federal funding (i.e. NIH), many universities and other institutions require their applicants to have funding when applying for faculty positions, regardless of their career stage.  As such, an enormous amount of pressure is placed on trainees to obtain funding prior to looking for a position as an independent scientist.  In addition, early career investigators who have already transitioned to independent positions also experience similar pressures and difficulties obtaining funding.  In recognition of the funding crisis as well as the increasingly competitive job market for trainees and early career investigators, the goal of this symposium is to provide information on funding sources outside of the NIH and NSF.   We will have four speakers with each representing less tradition funding mechanisms including 1) industry, 2) private foundations, 3) crowd-funding, and 4) military funding.  Each speaker will identify how to find funding within their genre, provide information and tips for writing successful grant proposals, and compare and contrast their organization with how other funding mechanisms (i.e. NIH) work.  To provide such information we have invited speakers who have successfully obtained funding (Dr. Leon, military) as well as a representatives from companies or private foundations that either have grant programs or regularly fund product research.  We will also have a representative to discuss fund raising opportunities via crowd funding websites.  This symposium will be conducted in the typical format of 25 min presentations followed by 5 minutes of questions with additional interactions to be encouraged following all 4 speakers presentations. 

Speakers

• Seeking funding outside the norm:  unique opportunities within military research programs
  Lisa Leon — Thermal Mountain Medicine Division, Thermal Mountain Medicine Division


• Successfully securing funding and collaborating with industry
  Wai Man (Eugene) Shek — , Lilly China Research and Development Co., Ltd


•  Cancer funding from a private foundation
  Charles Saxe — n/a, The American Cancer Society


• Crowd Funding your science
  Christina Tran — Community Manager, Experiment.com