Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • NEWS

Scientists’ early grant success fuels further funding

Young researchers who narrowly miss out on postdoctoral grant struggle to compete with those who just qualify.
  1. Holly Else
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed  Google Scholar

The career-defining effect of winning a postdoctoral research grant has been laid bare in an analysis1 of thousands of young researchers’ professional trajectories. The work compared the fate of junior scientists in the Netherlands who just met the bar to qualify for post-PhD research funding with that of people who just missed out on the money. The successful group went on to secure more than twice as much research funding in the subsequent eight years, the analysis found.

Access options

Rent or buy this article

Prices vary by article type

from$1.95

to$39.95

Learn more

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Nature 556, 416-417 (2018)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-018-04958-9

References

  1. Bol, T., de Vaan, M. & van de Rijt, A. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1719557115 (2018).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  2. Heggeness, M. L., Ginther, D. K., Larenas, M. I. & Carter-Johnson, F. D. NBER Working Paper No. 24508 (National Bureau of Economic Research, 2018).

  3. van den Besselaar, P. & Sandström, U. J. Infometrics 9, 826–838 (2015).

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Subjects

Latest on:

Nature Careers

Jobs

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing

Search

Advanced search

Quick links