Post-Doctoral Fellowships In Bioinformatics/Computational Biology?

Question

[Casey Bergman]

When talking careers with PhD students and post-docs, the topic of which post-doctoral fellowships are specifically available for bioinformatics/computational biology often arises, but I am typically at a loss to suggest more than the general biology fellowship programs (EMBO, HFSP, etc.),

I am aware of a few that are specifically designed for bioinformatics/computational biology...

• The MRC Special training fellowship in biomedical informatics (computational biology, neuroinformatics and health informatics): http://www.mrc.ac.uk/Fundingopportunities/Fellowships/Specialtraining/MRC001828
• The NCBI Postdoctoral Fellowship Program is a National Center for Biotechnology Information: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/Sitemap/Summary/postdoc.html
• The NSF Postdoctoral Research Fellowships in Biology (BIO program: Intersections of Biology and Mathematical and Physical Sciences.) http://www.nsf.gov/pubs/2010/nsf10587/nsf10587.htm

...though I suspect there are others out there.

Can anyone add information about specifically available for bioinformatics/computational biology to this list, or information about the "friendliness" of general post-doctoral fellowship schemes for bioinformatics/computational biology research?

Answer 1

[Bert Overduin]

If you're interested in a combined experimental / computational postdoc position (which i.m.h.o. is a wonderful opportunity) on the Wellcome Trust Genome Campus, have a look at the EBI–Sanger Postdoctoral (ESPOD) Programme.

[Bert Overduin]

In fact, also the EMBL Interdisciplinary Postdocs (EIPOD) (http://www.embl.de/training/postdocs/eipod/) offer the possibility to do a combination of experimental and computational research, with e.g. the wetlab part done at EMBL Heidelberg and the computational part at EBI Hinxton.

[Casey Bergman]

Excellent, thanks Bert. This is just the kind of opportunity I'm hoping we can bring to light here on BioStar.

Answer 2

[Jan Kosinski]

I got EMBO LTF for pure bioinformatic research, focused on software development, so what I can say that it at least can happen. I have no idea about their general "friendliness" though. They do have computational biologists among the board and reviewers.

The general advice is of course clear: apply for all fellowships you can find and you eligible for, regardless whether they are general or not.

[Jan Kosinski]

Yeah, certainly it is so. I spent at least a whole month on polishing all my applications. And after that I was so tired, that I almost quit science ;-) Fortunately, soon the effort got rewarded ;-) And next time, I will attack with shotgun again... I think it is generally accepted that in one grant agency the same application can get "outstanding" while in different one just "very good" just because unfortunate set of reviewers, regardless of the fellowship/grant program focus.

[Jan Kosinski]

Heh, by chance it has just been discussed in PLoS ONE: http://dx.plos.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0018680

[Casey Bergman]

Jan, thanks for feedback on EMBO LTF. Your advice on shotgun application is in general true, but it can be a drain on time and dispiriting when you've applied to an off-target scheme...sometimes a more focused approach can be more productive and rewarding.