- Why Partnering with Your Foundation Relations Team is Worth It
As federal funding priorities shift, researchers may need to pivot to maintain career momentum. Foundation grants can be a key resource, but navigating the process can be tricky. The Foundation Relations team at VUMC—Sue Reeves, Executive Director of Foundation Relations, and her...
- Industry Contracts: What PIs Need to Know
You might have noticed that industry funding has become a much more desirable part of a PI's funding portfolio in 2025 than it has been in the past. VUMC's Office of Sponsored Programs - Contracts Management department is here to help.
While each industry contract is unique, i...
- Non-NIH Funding: Industry and Foundations
Some tips from PIs who've walked the path of industry and foundation funding, as well as a member of a university medical center development office.
Industry
If you want to get whatever awesome thing you've discovered into the clinic, especially if it's a drug, you'll event...
- Lessons Learned While Building a Career: Grants
I’ve written lots of grants. Some of them even got funded! Here are some things I learned in my journey from foundation grants to K08 to R01.
Grants beget grants
I was fortunate to have a T32 fellowship during my post-doc, after my clinical training. This helped me gain add...
- A Recipe Gone Haywire (ARGH)
I don’t have a lot of time to cook, so I am always looking for new sources of easy and at least somewhat healthy recipes. Recently, I bought a cookbook titled Mediterranean Every Day (MED) by Sheela Prakash. This cookbook is great because the recipes usually have a short list of ...
- Let’s Talk About Sex as a Biological Variable
I just finished an NIH study section and noted that more than half of the applications discussed did not adequately address sex as a biological variable (SABV). This is a relatively new (for some grant types) component of your grant, and while it may seem relatively minor, it is ...
- Crafting the RCR Section in Application & Progress Report
Let’s talk about Training in the Responsible Conduct of Research (RCR) – you know, that one-page, required piece of an NIH grant application that could use a little attention. NIH released new guidance (effective September 25, 2022) that does not substantially change prior guide...
- Build-a-Grant, Section by Section
In this round-up are building blocks for key grant sections gathered from Edge for Scholars blogs. Some sections are specific to NIH, while others generalize to many sponsors.
A Blueprint for Execution: Like any builder, you’ll benefit from a solid plan. Check out this overvie...
- Know Thy Study Section Members
The top 20% of grants in any given cycle at any study section are largely impossible to rank in terms of objective quality. Assuming paylines won't allow all to get funded—which they won't—funding individual grants in that 20% becomes a lottery, with subjective criteria often...
- Specific Aims Part III – the Hypothesis (part 1)
As Mary Poppins says, let’s start at the very beginning. What is your hypothesis? Since the entire grant revolves around this one statement, it’s important that put some thought into generating a good one. What is a good hypothesis? One that is clear, testable, provable, and supp...
