Polling my professorial rank readers II
September 16, 2009
Day two of poll mania. Yesterday we covered the age of academic appointment to a professorial rank, following a suspicion I had that our readers at the blog skew towards the younger side. So far the two polls (research heavy type, teaching heavy type) are producing picture of most jobs being attained by the mid 30s.
Today we move on to research funding and will ask readers to indicate the age at which they acquired their first research grant under two categories.
The first poll asks about the age at which you acquired your very first research funding as a Principal Investigator. Definitions are a little difficult when it comes to smaller institutional awards that are only nominally competitive but the intent is a minimum standard of regionally or nationally competitive, peer-reviewed research (not fellowship) awards. If you happened to acquire R01-equivalent (see below) level funding as your first award go ahead and answer this poll on that basis as well.
How old were you upon receiving your first research award?(survey)
The second poll focuses on what the NIH terms R01-equivalent levels of funding. This includes service as PI (including multi-PI but NOT “Co-PI”) on the NIH R01, U01, subcomponents or the overall of BigMech grants (Centers, Program Projects), etc. [ UPDATE: I really should have specified “or non-NIH equivalent” which is what I originally intended. Are those of you voting “Other” meaning that you have non-NIH but still major research funding?]
How old were you upon receiving your first R01 or equivalent as PI?(survey)
DrugMonkey 
September 16, 2009 at 3:43 pm
You don’t have an option if we’re a PI and haven’t received any national awards yet. Maybe in some fields this doesn’t happen but it’s quite normal to not have received a big grant before your first t-t job in my field.
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September 16, 2009 at 4:30 pm
Kate, I wasn’t really sure how to handle that, nor how to handle the audience of postdocs who have not yet been appointed to professorial rank in the prior polls. I decided to gate on the population. Stay tuned…I’m not done polling yet!
(it seems as though people are using “other” for this, so far though)
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September 16, 2009 at 5:05 pm
You might also want to stratify the results by age. When I was getting my first grants, etc, in the early 80’s it was a different game. Jobs were as tough as today, but NIH grants were somewhat easier to obtain.
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September 17, 2009 at 1:10 pm
I’d fall into the opposite category as Kate – not yet TT prof but I have two national-competitive grants that I am PI on (smaller, non-R01, but I’m working on it!). Unlike Kate, it seems in my field, more and more you need a big grant or big paper to get the job…
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September 20, 2009 at 7:15 pm
My first real grant was an R01 at 31. My K01 got 3 rounds followed by rejection because I had progressed “too fast” according to the committee between round 2 and round 3 and was told I should put in for an R01. This pissed me off royally…until I went in with the R01 and got it….Hmmm. Guess they were right.
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September 20, 2009 at 9:31 pm
Dr. Feelgood, I hope you don’t use your powers for evil. 🙂
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