Francis Collins' Funding Problem
13/08/10 15:27 Filed in: GenomeWeb Daily Scan
Submitted by S. Pelech - Kinexus on Fri, 08/13/2010 - 15:27.
In view of the large numbers of new and established investigators that are having difficulty securing stable funding in the United States and elsewhere, it seem ludicrous to propose making it possible for "promising young investigators" to skip the postdoc stage and to provide them with 5 years of funding to open their own labs. There are so many skill sets that have to be mastered for a trainee to be able to eventually lead his or her own research group and program. I encourage my graduate student trainees to complete their Ph.D. training as soon as possible, but be prepared to spend at least 3 to 5 years as a post-doctoral fellow. I spent five years as a post-doctoral fellow myself, and it was a critical component to my success as a scientist to be able to work with outstanding individuals like Sir Philip Cohen and Nobel laureate Dr. Edwin Krebs. In my reviewing of grant applications from new investigators that have received very significant funding for 3 to 4 years, I have commonly observed a relatively poor rate of productivity. Part of this reflects the difficulty of the task at hand for a starting principal investigator. It is also hard to judge how much of the apparent recent productivity of a new grant applicant is really a reflection of the input of their former supervisor. If that last supervisor happened to be their Ph.D. graduate studies mentor, I would be even more concerned about the true capabilities of a new applicant. Prematurely funding a trainee to try to succeed on their own is probably the fastest way to waste money and doom a promising young investigator to early failure.
Link to the original blog post.
In view of the large numbers of new and established investigators that are having difficulty securing stable funding in the United States and elsewhere, it seem ludicrous to propose making it possible for "promising young investigators" to skip the postdoc stage and to provide them with 5 years of funding to open their own labs. There are so many skill sets that have to be mastered for a trainee to be able to eventually lead his or her own research group and program. I encourage my graduate student trainees to complete their Ph.D. training as soon as possible, but be prepared to spend at least 3 to 5 years as a post-doctoral fellow. I spent five years as a post-doctoral fellow myself, and it was a critical component to my success as a scientist to be able to work with outstanding individuals like Sir Philip Cohen and Nobel laureate Dr. Edwin Krebs. In my reviewing of grant applications from new investigators that have received very significant funding for 3 to 4 years, I have commonly observed a relatively poor rate of productivity. Part of this reflects the difficulty of the task at hand for a starting principal investigator. It is also hard to judge how much of the apparent recent productivity of a new grant applicant is really a reflection of the input of their former supervisor. If that last supervisor happened to be their Ph.D. graduate studies mentor, I would be even more concerned about the true capabilities of a new applicant. Prematurely funding a trainee to try to succeed on their own is probably the fastest way to waste money and doom a promising young investigator to early failure.
Link to the original blog post.