Postdoctoral Resource Page

The Office of Research Strategy and Development is charged with supporting the School’s faculty in growing and diversifying their research funding portfolios. Postdocs at the School often have questions about finding and applying for funding opportunities. In response to those needs, ORSD has curated the following post-doc specific resources to provide a centralized resource for HSPH postdocs seeking funding. Additionally, we encourage post-docs to make use of the many resources, templates, and information provided in the ORSD Proposal Toolkit

Please use the list of resources below to understand and navigate the complex funding landscapes of the NIH, other federal agencies and non-federal foundations.  Additional support and guidance for post-docs is provided by the Office of Faculty Affairs (OFA) and the HSPH Postdoctoral Association.  

F31 Toolkit
Coming soon!
COS Pivot

Harvard University subscribes to COS Pivot, a comprehensive web-based resource of funding information, which publishes more than 15,000 federal, non-federal, and industry-sponsored funding opportunities.  New users must create an account using their Harvard e-mail before performing searches.  One of Pivot’s most useful features is its ability to save and then automatically run searches on a weekly basis to notify users when opportunities matching their search parameters are announced.

Postdoc Awards
A list of awards targeted specifically to post-docs from federal and non-federal sources

NIH Specific 

NIH: Mechanism, Institute, Study-Section
A guide to understanding and targeting the NIH’s funding mechanisms, institutes and study sections

K success rates
NIH Success rates for K mechanisms. All success rates can be found on the NIH website.

K awards descriptions and availability
K award explanations, their availability and sponsoring institutes

Maintaining ESI Status
Investigator/Early Investigator awards and grants that maintain Early Stage Investigator (ESI) Status

Early Stage Investigator FAQ
To answer questions on the NIH Early Stage Investigator (ESI) Policy

NIH Matchmaker
NIH Matchmaker allows researchers to enter their research abstract/summary to be matched with an IC (institute or center) and study section. It will also return lists of similar projects from RePORTER or program officials associated with those projects.

NIH Reporter
NIH RePorter is a repository of NIH-funded research projects and the publications and patents resulting from that funding. Researchers should use it to identify types of projects the NIH has funded in their area of science and success rates by institute and mechanism.