EPA STAR Fellowship 2011 - wanting to switch topics: advice?

[charliebitmyfinger]

Hello all,

I received a STAR Fellowship in 2011, at the start of my PhD. I talked with my Fellowship Officer in last Fall's meeting about switching topics and they indicated that it needs to be evaluated on a case by case basis. They seemed to indicate that they don't always approve requests to switch topics (and it sounded like this was a recent change - in the old days it wasn't a big deal). Their answer appeared to indicate a concern about protocol, like they might get in trouble if they just allowed people to switch topics.

Now that I've had the past year to learn about the opportunities in my department, and the interesting niches in my field, I want to switch topics. Its not like a switch from molecular toxicology to French literature, and some of the methodologies and general issues are the same. But on a specific level, it is a different topic with different specific methods.

I'm writing to request any insight or feedback from anyone on how I should approach this.

Specifically: Have you tried to switch topics in a STAR Fellowship, and if so how did you approach it, and how did it go?

What would you advise in my situation?

Thanks for reading.