Hello all, I finished my PhD in Chemistry and Nanoscience in late September 2015 and since then have been applying for postdocs without success. I recently emailed an academic in Berlin who told me she doesn't have funding but would be happy to support an application for a fellowship, i.e Marie Curie, or DAAD/DFG (german funding bodies).

Has anyone had any success applying to these fellowships. If so, I am interested to know how long the process would take, and also, given that I only have one second author paper (about three 1st author papers in the pipeline though but these could take a while) is there any chance that I would get the funding or is not worth the application?

Thanks and apologies if this question has been asked before, I couldn't find anything through searching.

I only know about Marie Curie fellowships as I had one - it takes a couple of months to put the very complex application together (so you need real commitment from the academic in Berlin as it requires a lot from her too) and then it takes 6-7 months to hear. The last time I looked success rates were c.8%. I think you'd need the 3 1st author publications to be out to stand a chance if I'm brutally honest, but you could try doing a search for neuroscience and Marie Curie and see if you can find people who have been successful in your field and what their cvs look like.

I appreciate your brutal honesty, thanks. I think I will continue looking for postdocs but also start to consider a different career path. Damn you academia!