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Funding Guidelines

The University Provost establishes minimum funding levels (below) based on the years of cumulative research experience a Postdoctoral Scholar has when appointed.

Clinical fellows at the School of Medicine must be funded at the PGY level established by the Graduate Medical Education (GME ) office at Stanford Hospitals & Clinics. For more information regarding pay levels please contact GME.

Departments may establish their own guidelines as long as funding rates meet or exceed those established by the University. If you have questions about funding rates or guidelines, please contact the Office of Postdoctoral Affairs.

Required Funding Level Tables

Below are the current and previous years' funding tables to help determine the appropriate minimum annual salary for a postdoctoral scholar based on the scholar's number of months/years of previous research experience after doctoral degree conferral. These funding levels are automatically calculated on the Recommendation and Change Request Web Forms.

2017-2018 Information (effective October 1, 2017):

2017-2018_pd_salary_scale_v2.pdf

budgeting_calculator_2018_v2.xlsx

2016- 2017 Information (effective October 1, 2016):

2016-2017_pd_salary_scale.pdf

Funding Levels for Academic Years 2017-18 and 2016-17
Research Experience years completed

Stanford University minimum annual Salary/stipend (FY18) As of October 1, 2017

(see 2017-2018_pd_salary_scale_v2.pdf)

NIH minimum funding FY17 (effective with awards on or after october 1, 2016)

Stanford university minimum annual salary/stipend (fy17) as of October 1, 2016

(see 2016-2017_pd_salary_scale.pdf)

0 - 1 Years $53,406 $47,484  $51,600
1 - 2 Years $53,406 $47,844 $51,600
2 - 3 Years $53,406 $48,216 $51,600
3 - 4 Years $53,406-$55,361 $50,316 $51,600-$53,489
4 - 5 Years $55,361-$57,578 $52,140 $53,489-$55,631
5 - 6 Years $57,578-$59,890 $54,228 $55,631-$57,865
6+ Years $59,890 $56,400 $57,865
7 or more ---- $58,560 ----

 NRSA support is limited to three years for postdoctoral fellows. The NIH provides eight levels of postdoctoral stipends to accommodate individuals who complete other forms of health-related training prior to accepting a Kirschstein-NRSA supported position. (The presence of eight discrete levels of experience, however, does not constitute an endorsement of extended periods of postdoctoral research training.) Stanford's policy sets a five year postdoctoral training period (including time at Stanford and at other institutions).

For information regarding pay levels for Stanford Hospital house staff, please contact the Stanford Hospital Graduate Medical Education (GME) Office at (650) 723-5948.

When determining funding levels for Postdoctoral Scholars, years and months of research experience should be based on postdoctoral research worked at Stanford University or other institutions. For MDs the years of concentrated research listed on the curriculum vitae may be used; internship and residencies do not count as research years.

Important Funding Guidelines

  • Departments must review their postdoc salaries/stipends on an annual basis and confirm that their scholars are funded at least the minimum appropriate to them based on their cumulative years of research experience on October 1st.
  • Increases in funding must be reported to OPA with a Change Request Web Form.
  • On December 15, 2016, The National Institutes of Health issued its FY 2017 Fiscal Policy for Grant Awards. According to the notice, all FY 2017 awards issued using FY 2016 stipend levels will be revised to increase the stipend category to the FY 2017 level. Effective with NRSA awards made on or after October 1, 2016, the above annual stipend levels apply to all individuals receiving support through institutional research training grants or individual fellowships, including the Minority Access to Research Career (MARC) and Career Opportunities in Research (COR) programs. For more information, please see https://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/notice-files/NOT-OD-17-003.html. Please contact your Departmental Grant Administrator or the Research Process Manager in the Research Management Group at the School of Medicine if you have questions.