Writing a large part of a grant as a postdoc

Question

Background: I defended my PhD in 2018 and took a postdoc job with my same lab as a matter of convenience. The job had a 3 year contract, funded via an R01 grant, for whom my dissertation advisor was the original PI. He has since retired and transferred PIship to a "research track" junior faculty who followed a similar path to mine (came up through the lab). New PI is certainly capable but perhaps not the "titan" that the original was.

Fast forward to now, I am helping to write a renewal application for the grant, and have contributed 2 out of 4 Aims. These aims contain a lot of (perhaps not all of) my "early career plans". At first glance, this all sounds great, but in a recent email exchange, it was indicated that I would be designated "other personnel" in the grant application, implying perhaps that my position would remain postdoc if the grant was funded.

My question is the following: to what extent is it typical for a postdoc to contribute a large portion of a grant, or grant renewal, but have essentially no formal holding power on the resulting funding? In my particular department, it is my understanding that postdocs cannot hold PI or co-PI on an R01-type grant. My worry is that I'm tying up a bunch of (what I consider) good ideas in someone else's grant, with my only "reward" being another few years of postdoc funding and perhaps a half dozen papers.

Options are clearly: 1. Take whatever I can get, since I have little leverage apart from threatening to "take my ideas elsewhere". 2. Try to negotiate for a position that would allow for a co-PIship (seems difficult during C19 times because university budgets are shot to heck) 3. (semi-nuclear option) Jump ship at the end of my contract (May). 4. Your ideas are welcomed!

Thanks and cheers,

Answer 1

Appointments to more permanent positions (like tenure-track or research faculty) are typically made by the university, not by receiving a grant. In other words, I cannot pay myself more simply because I received a grant with available funds. Depending on the university rules, postdocs may not be eligible to be a project PI, which may limit your ability to submit those ideas as your own grant proposal.

In some fields, it is common for postdocs and even PhD students to write grant proposals for their PI as training for their later career. That could even be part of the job expectations for a postdoc. Although you may not have much leverage to receive more funding from this grant, having written a successful grant proposal is a good experience that should help you succeed as a tenure-track faculty and possibly in the job market as well.