Award Conditions for the President’s Postdoctoral Scholars Program
Appointment/Salary
- Recipients of the award need to be appointed as Postdoctoral Scholars (job code: 8806) with a yearly minimum salary of $61,008, benefits at the current university benefit rate (FY25: 36.1%), and a research stipend to support research costs of $5,000. The Office of Postdoctoral Affairs (OPA) will provide $55,079 each year of the award with the remainder of the funding provided by the home college of the department, the department, and/or the faculty mentor.
- Tenure is for one year that needs to start between July 1 and January 5. A progress report is due to the OPA at the 11 months after the hire date (a form for this report will be sent to awardees) to receive the second year of funding. The faculty mentor must commit to serve as a reviewer for the next PPSP competition in order to receive the second year of funding.
PPSP Programing
- Trainees – All awardees must participate in PPSP support and community building activities which are aimed at enhancing their training and increase career success. This will include meetings with OPA staff, professional development workshops, social events, an exit interview, etc.
- Mentors – Faculty mentors and co-mentors of the awardees will need to attend a PPSP orientation meeting on a date to be decided based on everyone’s availability. To go over some of the details of the program and to have an opportunity to answer faculty questions and provide feedback on the process moving forward. In addition, the faculty mentors should draft a mentor-mentee compact to align the expectation of the mentoring relationship. A copy of the compact signed by mentor and mentee must be sent to the OPA no later than a month after the trainee’s start date. The faculty mentor must also commit to serve as a reviewer for the next PPSP competition.
- Grant – The $5000 grant can be used for travel to professional conferences, research related travel, materials and supplies, books, courses or workshops related to research. Purchase of computers with these funds must be approved by the PPSP administration. Computers, tablets or equipment will need to be tagged as university property.
Questions regarding your award may be directed to OSUpostdocs@osu.edu.
Award Administration
A formal offer letter needs to be sent to the awardee. Please copy our office when sending the offer (osupostdocs@osu.edu) and send us a copy of the signed offer as well.
The PPSP funding is for two years as long as conditions are met. The OPA will coordinate the transfer of funds to the awardee’s hiring unit.
These awardees need to be appointed as postdoctoral scholars (job code 8806) by the hiring unit. The OPA will not be processing the trainee’s employee appointment set-up within the Human Resources System. We recommend connecting with your department’s Human Resources contact to help process the new appointment information specific to your department’s employment process and procedures.
The OPA will transfer $55,079 to be used towards the awardee’s salary and benefits, and provide them with a $5,000 research stipend. Details on what this can be spent on is in the attached award conditions. A copy of the transfer will be provided to the department by the OPA’s fiscal officer.
What is the timeline for the current competition?
- The dates for the current competition can be found here.
Is the second year mandatory?
The second year is not mandatory if the awardee secures permanent employment during the first year, such as a tenure-track faculty position. However, the commitment to fund must be of at least two years (the PPSP will only cover 2 years) and the awardees should not be under pressure to end their appointment after one year.