Detailed view of the beauty and grandeur of one of the clocks of Harkness Tower

Funding Opportunities

Important Note: In most cases, receiving one of the fellowships below will require a postdoc to be classified as a postdoctoral fellow. The tax and benefits implications of this title are described on our Postdocs Associate & Fellow Differences page.

Need some guidance on applying for grants and fellowships?  Learn more from a recent compendium of tips from Yale’s grants office.   The grants office also provides a list of databases of fellowships.

SPIN and GrantForward are two national databases of funding opportunities. Access these links from the Yale network. 

The NIH also maintains a list of non-NIH funding opportunities. Johns Hopkins regularly updates their list of Postdoctoral Funding Opportunities:

Each year the Yale Postdoc Association and Poorvu Center for Teaching & Learning host workshops on grant writing. Additionally, postdocs can schedule 1:1 consultations with a writing fellow to review a grant applicztion.  

You can also find basic information on grant writing using the resources below: 

Postdoctoral Scholar Travel Fund (FAS and SEAS Only)

The Faculty of Arts and Sciences (FAS) and School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) Yale Postdoctoral Scholar Travel Fund will provide awards of up to $2,000 to reimburse costs associated with presenting research at national and international academic conferences.  Only postdoctoral scholars in departments in the Faculty of Arts & Sciences (including Molecular Biophysics & Biochemistry MBB and Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology, MCDB) and the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences are eligible. Postdocs from any of the professional schools, such as the School of Medicine, School of Public Health, School of the Environment, etc., are unfortunately ineligible for the award.

Awards will be granted on a competitive basis, and decisions will be based on financial need and the importance of the meeting to the postdoc’s professional development. 

Eligibility Requirements

  1. Postdoctoral scholars must be appointed in a FAS or SEAS department. 
  2. First-year postdocs are eligible. However, for those units in the biological sciences, only postdocs in Year 2+ are eligible. 
  3. Applicants must have exhausted all other avenues available to secure funding for the conference, and provide a summary of these efforts. 
  4. The conference must be relevant to the applicant’s current research. 
  5. Applicants may apply for funds before they are accepted to the conference, but must be accepted and present a paper, poster, or talk to receive funds. 
  6. Previous recipients of Travel Fund awards are not eligible. 

Application Process

A completed application consists of the following documents:

  1. Travel Fund Application.
  2. Current curriculum vitae including a list of all conferences attended while at Yale, participation type at each (i.e., paper, poster, talk), and who funded the conference (i.e., self-funded, fellowship, faculty member/department). 
  3. Letter of support from the Faculty Mentor containing the following: a) explanation of why attending the conference is essential to the applicant’s research; b) statement that the mentor does not have sufficient funds to support the full cost of attending the conference including a summary of other efforts to secure such funding; c) statement of how attending this conference would enhance the applicant’s professional development. 
Click here to submit applications electronically to Postdoctoral Affairs.

Applications should be submitted according to the deadlines indicated below: 

  • Round 1: October 1st for conferences held between November 1st and February 28th 
  • Round 2: February 1st for conferences held between March 1st and June 30th 
  • Round 3: June 1st for conferences held between July 1st and October 31st  

Applicants will be notified within a month after each deadline. 

Evaluation Process

Applications will be evaluated on the basis of these criteria: 

  1. Letter of support from Faculty Mentor. 
  2. Level of applicant’s involvement in the conference and effort to find other funding. 
  3. Financial need of the applicant: Financial needs will be determined by reviewing the budget information provided in the application. Priority will be given to applicants who do not have access to funding from their department or faculty mentor. 
  4. Preference will be given to those applicants who have not attended a conference in the past 12 months. 

Reimbursement Process

Awardees should work with their departmental business office or lab administrator to make travel arrangements, book hotel accommodations, and submit registration fees. Awardees should save all original receipts and submit them to their business office or lab administrator in accordance with Yale policies.  Postdoctoral Affairs will provide the business office with an account number to pay for these expenses, but can only accept charges with scanned, original receipts. 

Additional Notes:

  1. If the applicant is chosen for the award, proof of conference acceptance must be received (such as abstract approval, etc.) before funds will be awarded.
  2. “In the Biological Sciences, only postdocs in their 2nd year or beyond are eligible.” The Postdoctoral Scholar Fund’s intent is to help postdocs in later years, to gain exposure and facilitate their job search. Postdocs in the Humanities, Social Sciences, and Physical Sciences are usually only at Yale for 1-2 years and have to begin this process right away.