Funding Your Postdoc
Highlights of Postdoc Funding
Postdoctoral Scholars at Stanford must be supported by Stanford grants and contracts, training grants, departmental or School fellowship funds, or external fellowship funds, or by a combination of these sources. Postdoctoral scholars may not be self-supporting.
Minimum funding levels for Research Scholars are set by the University every spring for the following fiscal year (starting October 1). Clinical fellows will follow the PGY levels established by the department of Graduate Medical Education (GME) at the Stanford Hospital & Clinics.
Current University policy requires faculty and departments with postdoctoral scholars who are entirely (or on a majority of) fellowship support to be responsible for a funding package that exceeds the minimum funding levels of stipend support.
That funding package includes the University’s minimum stipend levels plus the institutional cost of benefits (medical, dental, vision, life, disability and postdoc assistance). The institutional cost varies by levels of coverage. In calendar year 2014, the cost ranges from $7,628 to $18,252 for the year as a direct cost to departmenta/PI unrestricted accounts (see the 2014 Benefits Guide for rates).
A fellowship institutional allowance should be used first to cover for this institutional cost of benefits. For example, the NIH NRSA awards and training grants include an "institutional allowance" to be used to pay additional expenses, including health insurance, on behalf of the recipient of the award.
If no fellowship or training grant funds are available to pay the cost of a Scholar's benefits, then the cost must be borne by a departmental or other unrestricted account. See memo from Godfrey Mungal regarding Charging and Paying for Benefits for Postdoctoral Scholars and Graduate Students
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In cases where the postdoctoral scholar is receiving salary at 75% or more from a research grant, the University’s fringe rate for postdoctoral scholars is assessed and covers the cost of benefits as an indirect cost.
Annual Funding Adjustments
Postdocs receive a step increase every October 1 in addition to an adjustment in the funding scale where the postdoc is placed based on the cumulative years of research experience. The funding scale levels are minimum levels that take into account the cost of a graduate student at Stanford, and the cost of living in the bay area for a single person on a student budget. Many departments and/or labs establish norms with respect to funding postdocs at levels higher than the minimum in order to take into account equity within the unit.
For more information, see Levels and Sources of Financial Support for postdoctoral scholars in Stanford Research Policy Handbook.
For additional administrative information regarding postdoc funding processing, click the Administrator section on Paying Scholars.
Updated March 10, 2014.