Here is a nice list of funding sources for independent postdoctoral research projects in biology.

Some examples:

• Banting Postdoctoral Fellowships. Eligibility: Canadian citizens, foreign citizens – so about everybody 🙂
• Starting Grants, European Research Council, Europe. “ERC grants are open to researchers of any nationality in the world, any scientific field, any age.”
• Max Planck Research Group, Germany – “The Max Planck Society is committed to support Open Access on all levels. We therefore ask applicants to highlight in their list of publications all items which are freely available in an open access repository or on a journal’s website.”
• Research Fellowships for Young Scientists, Japan Society for the Promotion of Science – “Young researchers in all fields of the humanities, social sciences and natural sciences are eligible to apply.” “This fellowship program is Japan’s core program for cultivating young Japanese researchers. However, there is no nationality requirement for applications.”
• NSF Postdoctoral Fellows. For at least some, maybe all, “be a U.S. citizen (or national) or a U.S. permanent resident, i.e., have a “green card,” when applying; “
• Research Associateship Programs, The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, “Citizenship requirements for the NRC Research Associateship Programs vary depending on the sponsoring federal laboratory.”

Directory of select science and engineering scholarships and fellowships for undergraduates, graduates and faculty on our blog.

Related: Science, Engineering and Math Fellowships (2008) – Proposal to Triple NSF GFRP Awards and the Size of the Awards by 33% (2007) – HHMI Expands Support of Postdoctoral Scientists – NSF Graduate Research Fellow Profiles (Sergy Brin, Google co-founder)