From the Public Affairs Committee - January 16th 2012

Post-Docs get the chance to submit R01 applications at Stanford
In the competitive academic environment in which post-docs. are competing for faculty positions, the National Institutes of Health has tried to engineer strategies that give some advantage to post-docs. in the form of career development awards. These awards range from the F32, K01, K08, K12, K99, etc. and include various stipend levels and associated research budgets, depending on institute applied to, degree, and background. However, post-doc. success rates in these awards have been decreasing over the past several years. To circumvent this challenge, the Stanford University is beta-testing a program whereby post-docs. submit and compete for an R01, to reduce the overall time to research independence. You can read more about this trial program below and submit your thoughts on our UoCPDA blog website.
Post-Doc. R01 Trial: http://med.stanford.edu/ism/2010/december/postdocs-1213.html

2011 success rates, applications and investigators
One of the great things about being a post-doc. at UoC is that many career routes are available. One of the most obvious paths is the academic biomedical research career. In today’s standards, NIH funding is essential to that career progression. Dr. Sally Rockey, NIH’s deputy director of extramural research, has recently posted on her blog that overall success rates fell between 2010 and 2011. To understand which awards had the lowest and highest success rates, please visit the NIH’s data book for 2011, below. In contrast, you can visit Dr. Rockey’s ‘Rock Talk’ blog to learn more about specific areas that she highlighted in her comments about the new 2011 data.
NIH Data Book: http://report.nih.gov/NIHDatabook/Default.aspx?catid=13
Rock Talk Blog: http://nexus.od.nih.gov/all/rock-talk/

Bill introduced to limit NIH’s open-access policy
Republican Representative Darrell Issa introduced HR.3699, also known as the ‘Research Works Act’. This bill intends to reverse the 4-year old process that NIH implemented to make sure that biomedical researcher’s work can be read by anyone, for free, after inclusion in the PubMed Central Database. A link to the formal language of the bill, as well as an op-ed. piece opposing the legislation, published in The New York Times, can be found below.
Research Works Act: http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d112:h.r.3699:
New York Times Rebuttal: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/11/opinion/research-bought-then-paid-for.html?_r=1
Ending on a Good Note
With an almost completely stagnant budget at the NIH, not all of the news coming from the NIH has been great for post-docs. However, there is careful optimism on the horizon. Rumor has it that post-docs. will get an 2% salary increase in the year, 2012, based on a post at The National Post-Doc. Association’s website. Check back soon for confirmation of the great news!
NRSA Salary Increase in 2012: http://www.nationalpostdoc.org/policy/briefing-room/191-nih-stipend-freeze