Transitioning from training to meaningful employment, whether in academia or beyond, often requires skills not always gained at the bench. The goal of submitted projects should be to help trainees acquire, understand, and demonstrate the skills needed for complex careers.
The Career Guidance for Trainees (CGT) program offers grants of $15,000 - $25,000 to support projects that model affordable, transferable strategies to enhance trainees’ career readiness. Employers seek from Ph.D. applicants what graduate education aims to provide: deep knowledge, hands-on experience, the ability to ask and answer meaningful questions, project management skills, independence, initiative, entrepreneurial thinking, and advanced communication skills.
The Burroughs Wellcome Fund supports pilot projects that help scientists navigate career transitions, whether exploring paths beyond academia, within academic roles, or flexibly applying their intellectual skill set. We seek innovative ideas with the potential to scale. For example, FASEB’s Individual Development Plan and the Preparing Future Faculty program started small but had a significant impact. We encourage applicants to propose ideas that could transform how organizations prepare trainees for fulfilling, successful careers that reflect the value of scientific education.
Application Deadline: Jan. 16, 2025 by 3 pm
Applicants must be in an accredited doctoral degree-granting institution or other professionally-focused non-profit in the United States or Canada. Applicant organizations may submit multiple proposals, but an individual may only serve as a principal investigator on one.
This call for proposals is open to both single institutions and institutions working in partnerships. Academic institutions, professional societies, and advocacy organizations are among the appropriate drivers of proposals. Only non-profit institutions may be supported by BWF’s award, but nonprofits may involve for profit organizations in their proposals.
This program does not support biomedical research projects proposed by individual investigators.
The Career Guidance for Trainees (CGT) program provides grants of $15,000 - $25,000 to support demonstration projects that will model affordable, transferable approaches to improving trainees’ readiness for stable, fulfilling careers