Terms & Conditions for Postdoctoral Trainees

Stipend:  The NIH NRSA fellowship provides a stipend ranging from $36,996 to $51,036. The level of support is specified by NIH and is based on the number of prior years of postdoctoral experience. The stipend may be augmented by salary for other activities from a nonfederal source (or a federal source with prior approval from both the federal source and NIH, see PHS guidelines).

Going on leave: Trainees who decide to go on leave during their period of support may do so for up to 6 months and resume grant support upon their return. Please contact Brian Giebel (bgiebel [at] u.washington.edu) to make arrangements. While exceptions are possible under unusual circumstances, trainees who end up being away for longer than 6 months typically are not added back to the grant upon their return.

Travel:  The fellowship provides $800 per year to each trainee to assist with the cost of travel to scientific conferences (when the trainee is presenting a poster or giving a talk) or collaborating laboratories (when the training is not available at the UW).

Please be sure to read through these instructions before making any travel arrangements.

To book your travel:

The department must pay for flights and conference registration up front. Please do not pay for these items on your own and then ask to be reimbursed.

Once you have checked in with Brian Giebel (bgiebel [ a t ] u.washington.edu) and are ready to book your travel, please follow the steps below. If you plan to take personal time before or after the conference, please let Brian know before you book your flights, since this may complicate things, particularly if it results in a higher airfare.

Contact the current agency of choice, Tangerine Travel (http://www.vacation.tangerinetravel.com/group+and+corporate+travel/). Please be sure to let them know this will be paid by UW Genome Sciences.  Once you’ve been emailed an itinerary, please send this to Brian - or have the travel agent include him on the initial email - so that he may fill out the purchase order paperwork.

To pay for your conference registration, provide the registration info needed (either to fill out a form or enroll online) to Brian.

Reimbursement:

Please note that we will need a copy of your flight itinerary and conference schedule in order to process any reimbursements.

Lodging and meals will be reimbursed after your return from the conference.

Meals will only be reimbursed if they are not provided by the conference, and will be reimbursed at standard per diem rates (http://www.washington.edu/admin/travel/contracts.html#meal.lodging.rates). Since per diem rates are used, you do not need to save meal receipts. If you choose to skip a conference dinner, etc, you cannot be reimbursed for that particular meal.

If your lodging costs are higher than the allowable per diem rate, please include a brief explanation (e.g. it was the designated conference hotel, only place you could find space, etc) along with your receipts.You will need to provide receipts for ground transportation.

Benefits:  Information on available insurance plans and premium rates through UW is available at: http://www.washington.edu/admin/hr/benefits/ . Retirement benefits are not covered. 

Taxability of stipends:  The awardee is responsible for determining his/her tax liability.

Payback agreement:  The first 12 months of NRSA support for postdoctoral research training carries with it a payback obligation to engage in a month of health-related research, research training, or teaching for each month you receive an NRSA award for postdoctoral research training up to and including 12 months. This service must be initiated within two years after termination of NRSA support. Should an NRSA fellow continue on for a second year on the Genome Training Grant, that second year will count as payback, and the fellow will leave the training program with no further service payback obligations.

Continued support:  Following their first year on the training grant, awardees may apply for a second year of support contingent upon satisfactory research progress and participation (see requirements below).

Total number of years of fellowship support:  The GTG generally supports postdoc trainees for up to 2 years. The total number of years that an individual may receive NIH NRSA support as a postdoctoral fellow is 3 years.

Citizenship:  The training fellowships are available only to citizens of the United States or foreign nationals holding Permanent Resident Visas (alien registration receipt card I-151 or I-551).

Ethics:  Fellowship awardees are required under the terms of the training grant to attend departmental ethics training. 

Course requirements:  As part of their interdisciplinary training, trainees are expected to attend at least one seminar outside of their normal research activities each week. Postdoctoral trainees are also encouraged to take elective courses to broaden their interdisciplinary knowledge base.

Does your project include human or animal subjects?  If so, please provide the existing protocol # and approval date or contact the Genome Training Grant assistant if this needs to be set up.