Solve My Weird SULI Situation | LBNL Staff Scientist

[electricsheep420]

Hey guys I'm kind of stuck in this weird SULI situation and I've been sweating bullets since last night. I was contacted by an LBNL staff scientist who agreed to take me in. I received an email from him saying that he had accepted my application. I hadn't received an official offer yet so I wasn't celebrating just yet. But last night I received an email saying from my mentor saying that he wasn't aware that he has to arrange for part of the funding of the program. He said "I am hopeful but not 100% sure" when asked about the likelihood of being able to arrange funding.
My question is to previous/current SULI mentors or those who work in national labs to give me an idea of hard it is to manage funding for these programs so I can put my mind at ease haha.

 

[TeethWhitener]

Well, if they don’t have the funding they don’t have the funding. It isn’t a ton of money to come up with, so if it’s for the summer, they have some time to secure funding. I’ve had to give similar disclaimers to postdocs/students. It generally goes “happy to have you contingent on funding.” Sometimes you get it, sometimes you don’t. It may not be particularly comforting to you, but it never hurts for you to keep more than one iron in the fire. It’s nice of him to basically be giving you a heads up.