Predoctoral funding opportunities for clinical?

[psychguy2022]

I've heard it said that securing some sort of external funding as you apply to graduate programs greatly bolsters your application overall, however, I'm finding it difficult to locate funding opportunities for those who are not yet in graduate school (e.g., an undergrad, or in my case, a post-bacc RA). 

Additionally, it seems that a great amount of opportunities that do support this subset of people do not allow for clinical foci. For example, I often see the NSF GRFP cited as an option, yet their eligibility criteria explicitly states that "Individuals are not eligible to apply if they will be enrolled in graduate study focused on clinical practice, counseling, social work, patient-oriented research, epidemiological and medical behavioral studies...". 

I have seen similar statements on a few funding sites now. Does anyone have any thoughts or resources on what is available to those wishing to pursue clinical research? 

[kenzieph]

Hm, would the Ford Fellowship maybe be applicable? https://sites.nationalacademies.org/cs/groups/pgasite/documents/webpage/pga_362124.pdf

GRFP is annoying because results come back in April, far past when anyone would be still interviewing students, so I don't know how it would help unless you've been waitlisted. I also applied to it with the hopes of it boosting my (not-clinical) applications, before I realized the timelines wouldn't match up. It did come in handy however, forcing me to have a personal statement that could be adapted for grad apps, and a research statement that I used as a writing sample. 

[psychguy2022]

On 1/8/2021 at 6:28 PM, kenzieph said:

Hm, would the Ford Fellowship maybe be applicable? https://sites.nationalacademies.org/cs/groups/pgasite/documents/webpage/pga_362124.pdf

GRFP is annoying because results come back in April, far past when anyone would be still interviewing students, so I don't know how it would help unless you've been waitlisted. I also applied to it with the hopes of it boosting my (not-clinical) applications, before I realized the timelines wouldn't match up. It did come in handy however, forcing me to have a personal statement that could be adapted for grad apps, and a research statement that I used as a writing sample. 

Thanks, kenzieph! 

I think this might one of the very few feasible options. I appreciate the help!