Grant collaborator and interest in future career opportunities

[tenuredcovid]

For a junior faculty member at an R1 university clinically-focused research, is it wise to request a collaborator/consultant on a grant proposal EVEN IF this person works at an institution (R1) that they have previously been invited to visit to give a job talk/discuss a potential future faculty position while still a postdoc?

More specifically, if said junior faculty member were fortunate to get grant funding and open to future opportunities for potential recruitment to collaborator's institution, is this considered a good or bad idea to ask about a collaboration this way?

And to clarify, the collaborator is a good fit for the particular expertise of the grant.

[Puget]

I'm a bit confused by this question-- why would it be bad to have a collaborator someplace you are applying? The more you grow your professional network the better. Just make sure you are a good collaborator who they want to continue working with.

[Ruralguy]

I certainly would not mention the career prospects at collaborator's school to the collaborator, if that is what you are asking. Just focus on the science. The fact that you met or found out about the person at a job interview isn't that unusual. If they feel uncomfortable about it, they'll probably just back out nicely.

[Hibush]

Seconding Ruralguy's perspective.

Job interviews and scouting vitsits can be great for networking. People who don't get hired end up being good collaborators across departments in future years. In the postdoc and early faculty years, getting to know people in the field is super important. Some of those connections result in joint projects where interests, skills, personalities and institutional quirks mesh in a productive way. Sometimes, those collaborations interact with job opportunities, but that can be thought of as fairly independent. Don't let the latter influence efforts to do the former well.

[fizzycist]

For most clinically focused single-PI, junior-faculty-led proposals, I'd think it would be wise to seek a collaborator/consultant at the PI's institution. If that is not possible, then I guess sure include someone from another place. But it might be a better strategy to modify the scope of the proposal so that such a special colllaborator/consultant weren't necessary.

Offering a consulting/collaborating position on a proposal because you hope to move to their institution later seems slimy. Also it's pretty unlikely to help the candidates chances to be recruited--if candidate had a good chance before they will have an even better chance if the grant is awarded regardless of who the random co-Is are.

So if I were the candidate I would aim to maximize my chances of getting the grant and ignore the rest.

[tenuredcovid]

These are all great pieces of advice, and I'm going to focus more on who would be the best collaborator for the grant.

One thing I struggled with as a clinical junior PI was finding a faculty position in the first place that wasn't from a money-hungry medical department with no experience in research at all.