SCHOOL OF ENGINEERING MANAGEMENT OF POSTDOCTORAL FELLOWSHIPS

SCOPE: 

Disposition of individual postdoctoral fellowship proposals and awards funded by extramural sources only; institutional training grants, predoctoral fellowships, and other forms of student financial aid are not covered.

For outside predoctoral fellowships, the Financial Aid Office serves as the institutional representative for graduate students in the School of Engineering.  The Financial Aid Office does not, however, manage the finances on postdoctoral fellowships.

UNIVERSITY REQUIREMENT:

All Applications for outside Postdoctoral Fellowships must be routed through your Institutional Representative:

Fellowships have terms and conditions and other compliance issues to manage and will be handled by Engineering Research Administration (ERA) like all other sponsored projects

[Note:  The policies and procedures for appointing, renewing, or terminating a person as a 'postdoc' at Stanford are managed by the University's Office of Postdoctoral Affairs and explained on their website - http://postdocs.stanford.edu/ ]

 

PROPOSAL SUBMISSION:

All postdoctoral fellowship proposals to external funding agencies will be submitted for institutional review and endorsement through ERA to the Office of Sponsored Research.

To apply the following steps must be taken:

First obtain and fill out a SU-42FL routing form. This form MUST be filled out and signed both by the PI (mentor) and an ERA Research Administrator. Instructions for filling out this form can be found at: http://med.stanford.edu/rmg/su-42FL_guidelines/

Also required is a conflict of interest form.

Both of these forms are required for processing your submission and should be provided to ERA at least six (6) days business days prior to submission deadlines to allow sufficient time for it to be processed.  Submissions will be handled in the order they are received

After the appropriate forms and signatures are submitted OSR will:

• review the fellowship proposal and enter the fellowship in the SPIDERS database
• sign the application
• provide cover letter

 

At which point the applicant is responsible for:

• Mailing
• Photocopying
• Scientific Corroboration
• Sending Animal or Human Protocol Information to the Agency

 

Limited Submission Programs require an Internal Review pre-approved Selection Committee.  In limited submission programs, the sponsor restricts the number of applications or proposals a campus can submit to the agency.   The guidelines for these programs require institutions to screen pre-proposal nominations to determine which applications will be submitted for competition.

In these cases, Stanford’s Dean of Research generally serves as the limited submission selection committee coordinator. The Dean of Research’s review and selection of the proposal would precede any ERA/OSR review.  Post docs are encouraged to contact ERA in advance about their time-frame.  With advance planning, ERA can coordinate the stages of the proposal review, and ensure that we submit strong applications to the outside fellowship program.

AWARD ACCEPTANCE AND ACCOUNT SETUP:

• OSR will accept and/or endorse all fellowship awards.  All post doc fellowships will be reviewed by OSR prior to their formal acceptance by the University and/or account initiation to ensure that the award terms and conditions are acceptable under University policy and that all required compliance reviews have been completed (e.g., human subjects, animal subjects, and biohazard approvals are active.
• In the case of NIH post doct fellowships (e.g., F32s), payback service forms and activation notices will be received from the postdoc either directly or via his/her department or research partners group before the accepting office activates an account or authorizes costs to be incurred.  The accepting office activates an account or authorizes cost to be incurred.  The accepting office is responsible for setting up a mechanism to receive these materials from the postdoc.
• All post doc account setup will be handled by OSR; when the award is accepted by OSR, the account setup process will occur as it would for sponsored projects with a SPIDERS number on file for the project.

 

POST-AWARD MANAGEMENT AND CLOSEOUT:

• The postdoc’s faculty sponsor is responsible for the appropriate charging of costs on postdoc fellowship awards, and ensuring that all terms and conditions governing that award are adhered to (as they would be for other sponsored projects).
• For NIH awards, departments or ERA are responsible for ensuring that a termination notice is filed upon the conclusion of a post doc fellowship; this form is router through OSR for endorsement.
• OSR (working in cooperation with ERA and ICO) will closeout post doc fellowship awards as they do other sponsored projects.

Additional information specific to grants.gov can be found at: ORA's fellowship page