- 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...
- More Friendly Advice: When Rejection Isn’t Really Rejection
When rejection isn’t really rejection – more friendly advice from your NIH grant reviewer
I know you’ve heard it, too – “Not Discussed” means you should toss that idea in the black hole of bad research ideas never to be spoken of again. But how many clever, impactful, inno...
- Fighting Rejection, Reggae-Style: Three Little Reviewers
Thought I’d start this one off with a nod to Bob Marley, since a little reggae always soothes my FL girl soul. When I had my first baby, I realized I knew very few lullabies. So “Three Little Birds” it was. Baby loved it, and so did I.
Fighting Rejection Lesson #1: Don’t worry...
- Friendly Advice from Your NIH Grant Reviewer
Dear PI,
I am your NIH grant reviewer. Many feel that reviewers are the enemy. But actually, for the next few weeks I want to be your friend. You should want to be mine too. I’m going to explain why.
To get funded you need me to defend your proposal to the review committe...
- Specific Aims Part II – the Solution
In Part I of my series on the Specific Aims page I talked about the first paragraph of this page, which sets up the problem. Although a whole paragraph dedicated to the problem might seem like a lot, remember that the problem includes: (1) a couple background sentences to put the...
- Specific Aims Part 1 – The Problem
Unless you are totally new to NIH grants, you already know that the specific aims page is the most important page of the entire grant. The specific aims page sets the tone for the grant. Will the grant be easy to read and understandable, or dense and frustrating? Unlike you and y...
- Grant funding strategy: Which grants to apply for?
With so many funding opportunities, choosing which grant to apply for can be hard to know. This is an especially important consideration for early-career scientists. Grants are time-consuming to write, but are important for getting the funding needed to complete your research.
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- Diversify Your Funding Portfolio
By Rebecca Helton and Raymond D. Blind
Just like a retirement portfolio, a wise strategy to maintain your research funding is to diversify. You never know how funding priorities at agencies will change, so the more baskets holding your eggs the better. You can do this both wit...
- What the F? Advice for Fellowship Applicants from Reviewers. Part 3
In the final post of this three part series, I share insight from a dozen faculty who review NRSA fellowship applications on the mentor’s role in the application, metrics used to assess the strength of an applicant, who to ask to write letters, and interacting with your PO post s...
- What the F? Advice for Fellowship Applicants from Reviewers. Part 2
In this three part series, I share advice received when I asked a dozen faculty from my institution who review fellowship applications what they look for in a strong application. Part 1 discussed when to submit and logistics around submitting an easily reviewable document. Part 3...
