National Postdoctoral Association

July 20, 2009   The Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation and the National Postdoctoral Association (NPA) have partnered to offer two new awards that celebrate excellence in entrepreneurship: the Kauffman Foundation Outstanding Postdoctoral Entrepreneur Award and the Emerging Postdoctoral Entrepreneur Award.

The Call for Nominations opened July 20, 2009. The deadline for submission of nomination forms and materials was November 2, 2009.

NOMINATIONS ARE NOW CLOSED. 

Thank you to all those who submitted nominations and best wishes to the nominees!

Download brochures:

Kauffman OPE Award Brochure

Kauffman EPE Award Brochure.

About the Awards

Kauffman Foundation Outstanding Postdoctoral Entrepreneur Award

• The Kauffman Foundation Outstanding Postdoctoral Entrepreneur Award recognizes and celebrates excellence in entrepreneurial performance in the scientific community. The winner will receive a $10,000 honorarium.
  
• To be eligible for nomination, the entrepreneur must:
  
  • Hold a Ph.D. in a fi eld of science.
  • Have completed postdoctoral training in the United States.
  • Be the founder or co-founder of a private or public company (or companies) that:
    • Is commercializing or has commercialized the nominee's intellectual property AND
    • Is incorporated and located in the United States AND
    • Has been established for a minimum of three (3) years.
  
  

Kauffman Foundation Emerging Postdoctoral Entrepreneur Award

• The Emerging Postdoctoral Entrepreneur Award will be given to a promising postdoctoral entrepreneur. The winner will receive a $2,500 honorarium.
• To be eligible for nomination, the entrepreneur must:
  • Hold a Ph.D. in a field of science.
  • Currently hold a postdoctoral position in the United States or have completed postdoctoral training in the United States.
  • Be a member of the National Postdoctoral Association (NPA).
  • Be actively seeking to commercialize his/her intellectual property or working as a founding partner to commercialize others' intellectual property.
    

Click here to view the award announcement.

About the Call for Nominations

To apply for the awards, an individual must hold a doctorate degree and have been a postdoctoral scholar in the United States, as well as meet the criteria noted above.  The inaugural awards will be presented at the 8th Annual Meeting of the NPA, slated for March 12-14, 2010, in Philadelphia, Pa.

The Call for Nominations opened July 20, 2009. The deadline for submitting nomination materials was November 2, 2009.

NOMINATIONS ARE NOW CLOSED. Thank you to all those who submitted nominations and best wishes to the nominees!

Please contact Cathee Johnson Phillips, the NPA's Executive Director, with any questions via e-mail, cjphillips at nationalpostdoc.org. Thank you!

About the Kauffman Foundation

The Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation is a private nonpartisan foundation that works to harness the power of entrepreneurship and innovation to grow economies and improve human welfare. Through its research and other initiatives, the Kauffman Foundation aims to open young people's eyes to the possibility of entrepreneurship, promote entrepreneurship education, raise awareness of entrepreneurship-friendly policies, and find alternative pathways for the commercialization of new knowledge and technologies. It also works to prepare students to be innovators, entrepreneurs and skilled workers in the 21st century economy through initiatives designed to improve learning in math, engineering, science and technology. Founded by late entrepreneur and philanthropist Ewing Marion Kauffman, the Foundation is based in Kansas City, Mo. and has approximately $2 billion in assets.

These awards are part of the Kauffman Foundation’s ongoing effort to harness the entrepreneurial potential of postdoctoral researchers and scientists across the United States. In February, the Kauffman Foundation launched the Entrepreneur Postdoctoral Fellowship. Through this program, the Foundation will select 12 top-tier postdoctoral researchers with entrepreneurial aspirations. The Postdoctoral Fellowship participants will learn the entrepreneurial skills necessary to move their innovations from the lab to the market and potentially establish the high-growth technology companies of tomorrow.

To learn more about the program, visit www.kauffman.org/postdocs.