Dissertation Support/Grant Funding

[psybee]

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Hello All!

So I think that applying to PhD programs has fundamentally fried my brain -- I cannot stop thinking about grad school!

I was wondering, how many current students have funding from a grant (on a grant of a prof or wrote a grant themselves).

How many are getting support for their dissertation work, either in the form of grant funding, or external fellowships?

And what do these kinds of support cover -- are they mainly for research expenses, research and salary, or do they often cover tuition or academic costs or other costs as well? I know each university had it's own fellowships and scholarships in place, but I also know that there are other external sources of funding as well.

Many thanks!!

 

[Ollie123]

I'm currently funded on two of my advisor's grants and given we have a pretty good track record of funding, I will likely continue to be for most of graduate school. At least until my 3rd or 4th year, when, if all goes according to plan, I will manage to get my own grant. I'm really hoping for an F31 (and am even willing to take an extra year if that's what it takes to get one), and am banking on the fact that of the two faculty I work closest with, one teaches grant writing, and the other reviews training grants😉

I like it, though it does have advantages and disadvantages. I won't get as much teaching experience as people who teach for funding throughout grad school (though how much that will matter is up for debate), and will be trying to avoid the full-blown 20 hour a week clinical placements. The upside is since I DON'T have to do those things, I'm in a better position to pick and choose my clinical experience based on what I need/want rather than what can offer me funding, and have more ability to set my own schedule as a volunteer as opposed to someone being paid.

What sort of support you get for your dissertation depends on where its coming from. If its an F31 it will pay tuition & stipend, travel, and some research costs. Those are typically the biggest you'll see students getting in psychology (well, unless you can secure private funding somehow). They scale all the way down to a few hundred dollars in research support your department might offer for basic research supplies (electrodes, a computer program, etc.).

 

[Cosmo75]

I received funding on a 1 year seed grant during my 2nd year, though not all of the $ went to me since I wasn't PI. This was through an outside institution (I'm in a PsyD program) where I worked as a research assistant. So it's a little bit different than a traditional PhD structure. But securing grant funding certainly is possible. Look for grants for students in the area you're interested in researching via organizations that represent the group you want to study. They're not huge a lot of the time, but hey they're something 🙂 There's also the F30 NIH grant you could apply for:

http://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/pa-files/PA-05-151.html

I didn't qualify since I was a PsyD student. That pissed me right off. So I guess that's an example of PsyD discrimination 😉

Good luck!

 

[Boston2k]

Is there a good, relatively comprehensive source on explaining the grant system, especially for people who are not Ph.Ds (e.g., graduate students and those applying to grad school)? I'm sure having some sort of grant looks great in applying to schools and for postdocs, but starting with the NIH pages of seemingly 100 grant options is rather intimidating (e.g., what grants can realistically be gotten, which ones are awarded most often, which are appropriate for different sectors, etc. - I'm familiar with a few, but I wish there was an encompassing source that presented an overview). What do they teach from for the syllabi in the grant writing classes, Ollie123, or anyone else who might have input in this manner? Thanks!

 

[Ollie123]

You might want to start here

The brief rundown of NIH is as follows:
R01 - These are the big guys. Don't expect to get one until you're WELL established in a faculty job.
R21 - Exploratory
R03 - Small grants
F30 - Minority graduate fellowship (and maybe some other stuff too? I'm not sure)
F31 - Open to everyone graduate fellowship
F32 - Post doc fellowship
K-Something (I can never remember the numbers) - Mentored research training award for young faculty

Think that's it. There's obviously other sources, but pretty much everyone I've worked with has held NIH grants so its all I know.

 

[Boston2k]

Awesome, thanks a lot. If anyone else has syllabi from grant preparation classes or other books, I'd be interested to see. I'll definitely be grabbing that book from the library.