PRISM Baker Fellowships

The PRISM Baker Fellowships are a pilot fellowship program for postdoctoral candidates that took part in a PRISM recruitment event from Cohorts 8, 9, 10, or 11. For a complete list of Fellowships at Stanford, you can view the webpage here.

The 2022-2023 PRISM Baker Fellowship Awardees can be found here. Also, you can read more about the PRISM Baker Fellowships in this Article from the Stanford Report.

PRISM Baker Fellowships Overview

Funding Period: 12 months

Funding Level: The salary is 50% of the postdoc minimum (at the rate set annually by the Provost), including half of the associated benefits. The salary will increase with any applicable increases to the postdoc minimum salary during the funding period.

Number Funded: 20 total slots (over 2 years) will be awarded for this pilot.

Baker Fellowship Application Deadline (for Each Quarter): March 1, June 1, September 1, & December 1.

Notification of Awards: Within 6-7 weeks of review dates

Disciplinary Focus: PRISM seeks to support excellent and innovative scholars in science, medicine, engineering, technology, social sciences, and humanities research.

Eligibility Criteria:

• Applications are initiated by faculty who have rendered an offer (or offer contingent upon funding) to a PRISM candidate
• Applications are restricted to candidates who participated in PRISM recruitment between October 2021-May 2023
• Faculty may not have more than one funded PRISM Baker Scholar at a time and may not submit more than one fellowship application per review cycle
• These fellowships are not renewable in this pilot
   

Who are the PRISM Baker Fellows?:
All PRISM recruits who come to Stanford for their postdoctoral training become a part of the larger PRISM community. The PRISM Baker Fellows are scholars that will participate fully in this and the many other communities at Stanford that intentionally support belonging and inclusion. PRISM’s mission is to improve the recruitment experience and to support the success of postdoctoral scholars from under-represented populations. Therefore, the PRISM Baker Fellows are talented researchers, across a variety of academic fields, who are developing research independence through top-notch mentoring, innovative scientific training, and strategic collaborations. The broad goals of/for PRISM Baker Fellows are:

• To expand the pool of advanced graduate students considering Stanford for postdoctoral training,
• To develop community both during recruitment and after joining Stanford, and
• To provide education, guidance, and support to others who are in the pursuit of effective postdoctoral training...

The pilot PRISM Baker fellowships, launched in November 2021, support early postdoctoral training through:

• Matching funds for up to half of a Scholar’s first year of salary,
• Establishing community among each cohort of new scholars,
• Providing intentional training to help them get the most out of their postdoctoral experience,
• Preparing postdocs for their future careers in/on whatever path they choose, and 
• Supporting faculty diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts...

PRISM is an opportunity for select late-stage graduate students from broadly diverse backgrounds to explore postdoctoral training at Stanford. The PRISM Baker Fellowships provide matching funds to support some of these first year postdoctoral scholars in developing independence, while also supporting faculty in developing more inclusive and equitable recruitment and training practices. The fellowship application emphasizes faculty commitment to the individual scholar's growth towards independence. Key application components from the trainee have been collected through the PRISM recruitment application, and may be updated if trainees choose to do so. New questions in this application are directed at the proposed faculty sponsor (and later to the candidate themselves) in order to better understand how their research group, mentoring principles, and commitment to training scholars will provide a supportive and rigorous experience.

Applications will be assessed by the following criteria:

• Trainee Research Statement *
• Letter of Reference from Trainee's current mentor/Graduate Advisor *
• CV *
• Faculty statement regarding trainee's research, career, and training goals
• Faculty engagement in DEI activities and application of DEI principles to mentoring and training
  
  NOTE:  The criteria marked with an "*" are collected in the original PRISM recruitment application. Trainees have the opportunity to update these section(s) as well if they prefer.

Application Guide

The PRISM Baker Fellowship application includes components from the candidate's original PRISM application, with a supplemental application to be submitted by the proposed faculty mentor. The supplemental application emphasizes the faculty commitment to the individual scholar's development and growth towards independence, with questions that explore how the faculty's mentoring philosophy and commitment to training scholars will provide a supportive and rigorous experience. We are especially interested in understanding the unique potential of the mentor, the candidate, and their research partnership. 

The supplemental application form asks the following questions:

• Why is this candidate compelling to you?
• What are this candidate's research goals for their postdoctoral training, and how will you support them?
• What are this candidate's career goals, and how will you support them?
• How do you define research independence, and how will you support them in developing independence?
• What DEI related trainings, activities, and initiatives have you engaged with, and how have you incorporated your learnings into your mentoring?
• Why are you applying for these funds (i.e., lack of funding for a postdoc, lack of funding in this research area, to build this candidates funding track record, etc.), and how will this funding benefit you and the PRISM candidate?
• This fellowship provides half of the stipend and associated benefits for one year; how will you fund the other half for the first year of training?
• What is the timeline for this postdoctoral training (how many years), and how do you plan to secure additional funding for subsequent year(s) of training?

Application Process

Faculty: if you interviewed a PRISM candidate between October 2021 - May 2023 and have rendered an offer, please contact stanfordprism@stanford.edu to request a link to that candidate's unique PRISM Baker Fellowship Application + Materials.