What’s wrong with NSF CAREER?

Winning the NSF CAREER award is a goal for many, if not most, assistant professors in STEM. The program has a lot going for it: it’s a sizable amount of money, it’s prestigious and valued by leadership at your institution, and it places value on teaching and education within the research process. Okay, so there’s nothing wrong with the CAREER award on its own; what frustrates me about CAREER is the messaging around it.

I’ve heard from too many PIs who won the CAREER award, even on the first submission, who then found themselves ill-prepared to secure funding after that. This happens because the preparation of a CAREER proposal is an application-based process, but it’s possibly the last application-based process you will go through in your research career! The messaging around CAREER is that it launches a PI into their independent research career, but I argue it’s more useful to think of winning a CAREER award as an ending, rather than a beginning. It’s an ending to your ‘early-career’ stage.

If you are wondering how I feel about PIs applying for CAREER, I strongly support it, and I regularly help clients with their submissions, be they first, second or final attempts. I’m producing a series of videos to help PIs prepare CAREER proposals; see the bottom of this newsletter for the link. Because institutions place a high value on CAREER proposal wins, including using the number won in various metrics of success, many institutions have dedicated support for CAREER proposal preparation, which you should take advantage of to the maximum extent.

So, go for the CAREER award. If you’ve won one, and there’s been a lot of notifications in recent weeks, congratulations! This is a major achievement so please take time to celebrate this accomplishment. You are likely breathing a big, well-deserved, sigh of relief to have secured some major funding. If you didn’t get the outcome you want, don’t rush into a resubmission, but take the time and gather the information you need to assess and come up with a plan.

Once a CAREER award is in place and you’ve gotten your research staffed, use the time and the breathing room that the funding gives you to do the networking and relationship building to get the next opportunity in place before your CAREER award ends. I’m providing information on lots of ways you can do that through this newsletter, so stay tuned. If you are planning to submit in 2024, now would be a great time to consider the Wise Investigator program; see below for details on how to do that.

Countdown to NSF CAREER 2024

Check out our video series on preparing for the NSF CAREER opportunity.

When you are ready, here’s how we can help

Need to get your research funded, this year? Check out our 10-week program to get you there.

Want a done-for-you website that highlights your research impact? Let us do that for you. (We even write all the content for you!)

Ready to book a call to discuss our training, websites, or to have Dr. Barzyk provide training at your institution? Let’s chat!