Announcements from the Public Affairs Committee - January 9th 2012

NIH slated for a small budget increase in 2012
Progress on budget details that affect the NIH and thus, post-docs., have been potentially smoothed out for the 2012 budget. A compromise between democrats and republicans has produced a tentative deal that would provide a $239 million dollar increase in the budget, which results in an overall 0.8% increase in appropriations. For more details, please see the weblink below:
Website: http://news.sciencemag.org/scienceinsider/2011/12/nih-doe-appear-headed-for-small.html#more

University of Chicago ranks at the top for post-doctoral NIH support
The Public Affairs Committee has compiled data from the NIH showing the total amount of research post-doctoral funding at all major Chicago-based research institutions (Figure 1), the percentage of funds for each post-doctoral funding mechanism contributing to the overall total at The University of Chicago (Figure 2) and the absolute number of awards per each post-doctoral mechanism at The University of Chicago (Figure 3). Note: these figures are based on independent post-doctoral awards (i.e. F32, K08, K99, etc.) and do not reflect training grants and non-NIH support.


      Figure 1.                                                                      Figure 2.                                                                      Figure 3.                             


Highlighting post-doc. friendly scientific societies and organizations
Each month, the Public Affairs Committee will highlight an organization that commits strong support to their post-doctoral membership with regard to mentorship, grants, competitive awards or friendly atmosphere. This month, we are highlighting the American Association of Anatomists (AAA). The AAA was chosen as the inaugural pick, due to their unprecedented support for post-docs. The AAA provides $20,000 in grant support to post-docs. Irrespective of the field of study, career development mentors, competitive awards of up to $500 for platform sessions and poster presentations at the annual Experimental Biology meeting, as well as guaranteed travel awards of $350 to any post-doc. member that attends the annual Experimental Biology meeting. In addition, the association hosts wine/beer/soda/appetizer mixers at the Experimental Biology conference to promote networking and collaboration amongst their members. To learn more about membership to this organization and the opportunities for post-docs., please see the link below:
AAA for Post-Docs.: http://www.aaatoday.org/membership/postdoc