Dear Colleagues,

As of last year, NIH added the K99/R00 "Pathway to Independence" grant (a.k.a "Kangaroo" grant) to their list of early-career research grants (http://grants.nih.gov/training/careerdevelopmentawards.htm). This award specifically targets both *domestic and international* postdocs and provides a healthy budget for both a mentored postdoctoral and an independent research phase.

Over 50 awards have been made so far, of which, our colleague Li Xin received one (http://www.today.ucla.edu/people/070424_dream-chasing/). Besides congratulating Li Xin for his excellent research vision, SoPS would also like to encourage more people to apply for this grant each year. Among other things, the institutional overheads accrued from such postdoctoral awards could easily help sustain better services for the entire postdoc community (for example access to career services, etc.)

Stanford University, which has already bagged 8 Kangaroo grants last year, is organizing a postdoc workshop later this month for those interested in applying for K-series awards. Although SoPS is trying to organize a similar workshop in Southern California, we encourage those who are planning to apply during the next NIH cycle to attend the workshop at Stanford if possible.

Please see the attached note from Stanford's postdoc association for details. (Note: international postdocs *are* eligible for this event.)

Sincerely,

Ajaykumar Gopal (Postdoc, Chem & Biochem)
President, SoPS
___________________________________________________________________

Dear California Postdoctoral Scholars:

You are cordially invited to attend a a workshop hosted by Stanford University on May 30, 2007, entitled "Guide to NIH K Awards" presented by Stephen J. Korn, PhD, Director of Training and Career Development NINDS, NIH.

This training workshop will provide an overview of eligibility criteria for various NIH K Awards and help applicants to determine
which award is most applicable to them. Participants will learn best practices for application development and gain insight on how the
evaluation process works.

A panel of K award recipients will include mentors and protégés to share tips and strategies for gaining success.

When: Wednesday, May 30, 2007

Time: 9:00AM - 12:00PM (boxed lunch provided)

Where: Fairchild Auditorium & Lobby
Stanford University Medical Center
Stanford, CA

This is a free workshop, you will only be responsible for transportation to/from Stanford.

To register and for more information, go to:
http://postdocs.stanford.edu/events/guide_to_NIH_K_awards.html

Although the registration form requests a Stanford email address, participants from other Universities can ignore this and fill in their own email address.

We hope to see you here!

--
Lucia Mokres, DVM
Post Doctoral Fellow
Vice Chair for Institutional Policy, National Postdoctoral Association
Co-director, Medicine and Horses, Stanford School of Medicine
Stanford School of Medicine, Department of Pediatrics
Rabinovitch/Bland Cardiopulmonary Research Laboratory