Advice on start-up package

[ExpertHoopJumper]

Hi everyone,

While it's not the optimal time to be posting a thread, I'm hoping some may be able to offer a quick thought/opinion.

I have been fortunate to receive an attractive job offer (salary, relocation, and bennies included in the letter), and the hiring institution is requesting my desired start-up package. I'm not sure what to request for the following reasons. I am joining a well-established research center within the department of the medical school. Computing resources are already available. Office space is already delineated and available. Parking is abundant and free. Neuropsych assessments already purchased and available. Scanner time is already paid for. Grad students are funded through the center via a communal pot of money, so I don't need money for them. Besides requesting funds for licensing, conference registrations and travel, board certification, and books, I don't know what I should be thinking of.

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[Justanothergrad]

Without knowing a lot of details about responsibility, space, offer components, or potential scope of the startup budget, here are a few thoughts.

1. funding for workshops for stats and grant training (NIH hosts some - count on them running again starting next year), including in person (this is not conference registration/travel per se and make sure to have it listed separately)
2. If the grads are funding through the center, does that mean you get access to them as research assistants? If not, written in dedicated time by them above and beyond what would typically be given to you after a few years.
3. Do you teach as well I assume? course buyouts/reductions
4. Summer funding
5. Standing desk and comfortable office space furniture/multiple monitors
6. Docking station for a laptop to make your work station portable (this is a COVID lesson learned)
7. different office space if available / better

 

[Ollie123]

Startups vary tremendously so it can help to know what scale we are talking about. Assistant prof startups can vary from 10k to a million.

Things I requested:
- Dedicated staff time (coordinator)
- Post-doc salary if you feel ready to mentor one
- Stats support
- Software you may want/need that isn't provided by the university (e.g. MPlus, obscure psychophys tool X, etc.)
- Equipment? You said scanner time is paid for so assume you do lab work. Does the scanner do everything you need it to do? Need active noise cancellation for an auditory task? Need an MR compatible pulse ox and resp band for resting state functional scans?
- Perhaps the most obvious....money for research? The purpose of startups at big medical centers is to get you up and running so you can write grants that bring in more money. Its an investment in you they hope will pay back.

The best advice I got was to envision the things you want to do over the next 3-5 years. You don't need a full aims page, but what grants do you see yourself applying for in that time frame and what preliminary data do you still need to get? What do you need to get that done? Money for participant incentives, software development, advertising costs, nursing support, etc.

 

[Sanman]

Things to request:

local AA meeting schedules
a sub-machine gun
a 12-foot boa constrictor
a jar of Grey Poupon mustard

Source: Motley Crue backstage tour rider

 

[Justanothergrad]

Things to request:

local AA meeting schedules
a sub-machine gun
a 12-foot boa constrictor
a jar of Grey Poupon mustard

Source: Motley Crue backstage tour rider

I've never felt like I went so wrong in my career choices until this moment

 

[ExpertHoopJumper]

Without knowing a lot of details about responsibility, space, offer components, or potential scope of the startup budget, here are a few thoughts.

1. funding for workshops for stats and grant training (NIH hosts some - count on them running again starting next year), including in person (this is not conference registration/travel per se and make sure to have it listed separately)
2. If the grads are funding through the center, does that mean you get access to them as research assistants? If not, written in dedicated time by them above and beyond what would typically be given to you after a few years.
3. Do you teach as well I assume? course buyouts/reductions
4. Summer funding
5. Standing desk and comfortable office space furniture/multiple monitors
6. Docking station for a laptop to make your work station portable (this is a COVID lesson learned)
7. different office space if available / better

I appreciate these suggestions. The position is tenure-track academic medicine, so rather than teaching I will do clinical work as my second area of emphasis.

Could you clarify what you meant by "scope of the startup budget"? I wasn't given any parameters.

 

[ExpertHoopJumper]

Startups vary tremendously so it can help to know what scale we are talking about. Assistant prof startups can vary from 10k to a million.

Things I requested:
- Dedicated staff time (coordinator)
- Post-doc salary if you feel ready to mentor one
- Stats support
- Software you may want/need that isn't provided by the university (e.g. MPlus, obscure psychophys tool X, etc.)
- Equipment? You said scanner time is paid for so assume you do lab work. Does the scanner do everything you need it to do? Need active noise cancellation for an auditory task? Need an MR compatible pulse ox and resp band for resting state functional scans?
- Perhaps the most obvious....money for research? The purpose of startups at big medical centers is to get you up and running so you can write grants that bring in more money. Its an investment in you they hope will pay back.

The best advice I got was to envision the things you want to do over the next 3-5 years. You don't need a full aims page, but what grants do you see yourself applying for in that time frame and what preliminary data do you still need to get? What do you need to get that done? Money for participant incentives, software development, advertising costs, nursing support, etc.

I've been hired as an assistant professor on the tenure-track in an academic medicine position. The research center is soft-money funded, yet my salary is protected for 4 years to provide time to begin to build out my funding portfolio. In addition to research (70%), I will do clinical work as the other area of emphasis. As I mentioned, the vast majority of infrastructure and a ton of existing data are in place already. Do these additional details suggest a certain scale?

 

[Ollie123]

They may or may not accommodate since it probably depends on the specifics of how you are being hired and fund flows at the AMC, but I'd feel comfortable asking for a minimum of 100-200k at a spot like that. They might say no. They may argue that 4 years of 70% backstopping is the main part of your startup....which, fair enough. I don't think anyone would be offended by the inquiry though.

If you can get word via the grapevine on what is typical there though, that is really helpful in these situations. Alternatively, if you are being hired as part of a center and will have a "mentor" there of sorts you can also ask. Not the strongest negotiating strategy per se, but a lot of times the money isn't even necessarily coming from them per se and they may have a vested interest in helping you get as much as possible since it means additional resources for their center.