Introduction

Landing a faculty interview is a major milestone, but negotiating your lab startup package is how you know if you’re actually going to be successful in that position. For first-time PIs, it’s easy to overlook hidden costs or under-budget for core needs. This guide walks through how to prepare, what to ask for, and how to build a budget that ensures your lab gets off the ground with momentum.

Still building your lab budget? Check out our step-by-step budgeting guide first.

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What Is a Lab Startup Package?

A startup package is the financial support your institution provides you to help you launch your research program. If you’re negotiating with a US institution it’ll often include:

• Direct funding for your salary (typically 3–5 years)
• Equipment and capital allowances for specific aims
• Lab space and office allocation
• Salary support for initial hires
• Access to shared resources or core facilities
  

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Common Pitfalls in Negotiating a Startup Package

There are so many things that go into this type of contract that it can be difficult to catch everything yourself, especially if this is your first time looking at this type of contract. What will be important is that you get a lot of eyes on this, especially from people that have some experience. Trusted individuals will be part of your inner circle like mentors, colleagues or consultants (like EDC – us) who work with you. Alternatively, there are also anonymous groups of postdocs online who share contract sepecific information such as the Future PI Slack. A few common missed or overlooked elements are the following:

• Underestimating real equipment and personnel costs
  • For negotiations were creating your “top line” budget, so if you have a cost range, list the top number in your budget.
• Cost and time lines of any space renovations or construction
  • Make sure you know what you’re paying for with your startup and how long things should take. Contingency planning can be listed here in order to avoid potential conflict later.
• Accepting vague commitments (“we’ll support you with…”) instead of including it into the contract
  • Always get it in writing.
• Ignoring institutional cost recovery policies
  • Make sure you know if your package is subject to any indirect cost recovery by the institution.
• Not confirming access to core facilities or teaching relief
  • The institution ultimately needs you to be successful, so you can get a lot by simply asking. Access to shared equipment is pretty common, but don’t hesitate to ask for extra support during your first year like teaching relief, facilitation of specific collaborations or equipment sharing, etc.
• Failing to align startup duration with grant timelines
  • This one is a bit more on you and your ability to strategize your finances, but make sure your spending allowances will provide you with enough capital to get started quickly. Most large grants take 12-24 months from submission to award (when everything goes well) and you want to make sure you’re allowing yourself enough time.
• Being strategic with your start date
  • Your first year will be a lot. Make sure you allow yourself enough time to wrap up the previous responsibilities and provide yourself enough time to transition and/or move to your next position before officially starting.
• The origination of funds
  • Make sure your startup package isn’t including money that you’ve already earned and that you are bringing. If you have a R00 grant that will provide $200k and your startup package is $800k from the institution, make sure that in your contract it is not listed as your startup package is $1MM. It’s no problem if your grants are listed in the contract, just make sure that the funds are listed and differentiated properly. YOU are bringing that money with you, they are not giving it to you.
    

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What to Include in Your Startup Budget and how to price it

Startup packages vary by field and institution, but common budget items that should be included are listed below. Remember that we’re creating a negotiation budget, so strategically you’ll want to note the list price WITHOUT any discount. If you’re using a purchase list from an academic lab, you’re likely listing a reduced academic price.

TEMPLATE WORKSHEET FILE: EDC Startup Budget worksheet TEMPLATE [GOOGLE DOC]

Equipment and Lab Setup

• Capital and Subcapital instruments and equipment
  • Capital = over $5000.00, subcapital = under $5000.00
• Fume hoods or biosafety cabinets
  • These are included in many contracts because the institution already owns them, but we typically still include them.
• Specialized core facility or commercial service fees
  • Estimate these costs for a whole year (one cost per core facility or service, no need to get too granular) and extrapolate out for the length of your budget.
• Lab renovation or customization costs
  • Not typically needed, but important to ask because this type of thing is VERY expensive. We also use this section to add office and lab furniture to the budget, if needed.
    

Personnel

Salary information is widely available and ranges a lot. Do you best to be accurate, but aim for top of the range for cost and don’t forget to consider fringe costs.

• Research assistant(s) or technician
  • General salary ranges are usually listed publicly for institutions. Online is also a good general resource. We typically use $60k/year for low experience, $80k/year for high experience techs as a starting point, but note that there are MANY factors that affect these numbers.
• Postdoc or graduate student support
  • Postdoc salaries are standardized so look up the latest cap. Make sure to ask about grad student subsidies, but a good starting point is $35k/year if you don’t have any other information.
• Your own summer salary (if not 12-month)
  • Only include if needed. List $90k/year if you don’t know where to start, but a little bit of research will show you what range you should be considering. With EDC, we easily and consistently negotiate over $100K/year.
    

Operational Expenses

• Consumables and reagents
  • A great resource is your current lab or a lab that does similar science to what you will be doing. Ask for a purchase list for the last 3-6 months. Estimate you monthly cost (USE LIST PRICES) and extrapolate out for the length of your budget, factoring in the number of people being supported by the amount. Obviously, if you add people to your group, you’ll need more reagents.
• Animal care, sequencing, or imaging costs
  • These can sometime be much more accurate if calculated by project. Using your specific aims you should be able to estimate this fairly well.
• Software licenses and computing
  • Figure out your tech stack cost for a set duration and extrapolate out the length of your budget.
    

One-Time vs Recurring Costs

• Initial purchases vs 3–5 year projections
  • We always separate out initial “set up” purchases because they are typically one-time expenses to make sure that initial fund allocations are sufficient and annual disbursements are timed properly.
    
• Grant application support or bridge funding
  • It’s not advised to factor any of these into your budget. Focus on creating a solid foundation for your future success.

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How to Prepare for Your Negotiation

1. Draft a Mock Budget

Use real quotes (if you have them) or vendor estimates, don’t just ballpark numbers you don’t know.

2. Know Your Specific Aims and the Lab Model That Will Execute Them Successfully

Is your lab a high-throughput lab, small team of experienced scientists, computational-heavy or maybe education focused? The type of model will allow you to communicate an effective narrative to the institution leadership on why they want you on their team.

3. Ask for What You Need—Not Just What’s Offered

Identify your non-negotiable items that you NEED to be successful. If you will be taking up more than 60% of a capital equipment instrument’s time, it should be in your lab. Second tier “flex items” are those that can be easily shared or only needed in the future. Flex items should still be a part of your budget, but thinking strategically, these are the places you will trim first in order to be collaborative in the negotiation.

4. Align With Grant Timelines

Making sure your startup lasts until your first major funding cycle (R01, NSF, etc.) is easy in theory, hard in practice. For this reason, do you best to stick to a 3 year minimum budget. We’ve seen this as being the most accurate.

5. Clarify Terms in Writing

Too often things are promised behind closed doors and “forgotten” months or years later, so get confirmation where you can for items such as:

• Space (sq ft and shared vs private)
• Hiring flexibility
• Spending rules
• Access to resources
  

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Case Example: Starting Budget for a Wet Lab [Cell work focused + sequencing heavy workflows] at a Public R1 Institution Negotiation

Final Negotiated Startup Package: $1,350,000 over 3 years from the budget outline below.

When entering a negotiation, EDC’s approach is to always anchor the institution to a high initial budget and adjust it downward in collaboration with the institution. This makes you not only look prepared, but also easy to work with, adding to potential cultural components of your interview.

To do this effectively, your line items should be calculated using the higher end of reasonable ranges. Using your specific aims, try to design the ideal setup for your lab always assuming minimal institutional support, meaning any “nice to have” items should be in your budget. This procedure yields a larger starting budget, which will be refined during negotiations without compromising your ability to meet your research goals. You’re entering the negotiation conversation knowing where you are willing to trim.

Budget Breakdown:

TOTAL = $2,261,000.00

• Capital Equipment: $477,000
  • $257,000 + $220,000 Flow Cytometer
• SubCapital Equipment: $38,000
• Personnel (1 lab manager/tech, 1 Postdoc, 1 PhD student): $711,000 (34.9% fringe)
  • Lab Manager (YR1 Hire, 1.0 FTE ): $65,000/yr + fringe = $275,000
  • Postdoc (YR1 Hire, 1.0 FTE ): $68,000/yr + fringe = $288,000
  • PhD Student (YR1 Hire, 1.0 FTE ): $38,000 + fringe = $148,000
• Supplies & Operations: $288,000
  • $96,000/yr
• Core & Services: $240,000
  • $80,000 average/yr
• In Vivo Models = $462,000
  • 154,000/yr
• Admin/Office & Software: $45,000
  • $15,000/yr
• Renovations/furniture = None
  

Key Takeaways: Budget for your ideal situation without any support or discounts and with items at the top of their cost range. Cover 3 years, using averages and annual/monthly total to extrapolate your numbers over the entire budget period. AIM HIGH!

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Negotiation FAQ (Include FAQ Schema Markup)

Q: Can I ask for more money after the first offer?

Absolutely, a collaborative back-and-forth is expected in these conversations. One advantage of structuring your budget around your specific aims, as it is explained in this article, is that it allows you to clearly communicate what research goals or outcomes won’t be feasible under their offer. Framing the conversation your science rather than the numbers keeps the focus on the experimental work (which you are intimately familiar with) and strengthens your case for more.

Q: What if I don’t use all the funds?

Ask whether unspent funds roll over or are reclaimed. It should be marked in your contract.

Q: Should I get startup commitments in writing?

Always. Emails or offer letters should clearly outline terms.

Have more questions? Email us your question at info@experimental-designs.com or ask for a free 30 minute consultation. One of our executive coaches will reach out to you to set it up.

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Downloadable Resource: Academic Startup Package Budget Template

Download our PI Startup Budget Template:  EDC Startup Budget worksheet TEMPLATE [GOOGLE DOC]

Includes expense types, line item examples and sample costs.

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Conclusion

Startup package negotiations will shape how your lab will function during the first few years of your research. Come prepared, know your numbers, and advocate for your future lab’s success. A well-structured startup budget shows both leadership in confidence and clarity towards where you’re going and what you’ll be bringing to the institution, all traits that resonate with hiring committees and funding agencies alike.

Need help building the numbers? Use our lab budgeting guide to start mapping your needs today.