- 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...
- What the F? Advice for Fellowship Applicants from Reviewers. Part 1
To craft the strongest fellowship application, know what review criteria are in place. A good place to start is Section V. Application Review Information of the program announcement for the technical definition of the review criteria. However, another great source of insight is t...
- What the F? Creating a Commons ID
Help! I’m submitting an NIH fellowship application and need a Commons ID. How do I get one?
Let’s start with what eRA Commons and a Commons ID are.
eRA Commons
The NIH describes eRA Commons as “an online interface where grant applicants, grantees and federal staff at NIH and...
- What the F?: Childcare Costs Allowed on Fellowships & Training Grants
The NIH has recognized how the high cost of childcare can create roadblocks for graduate students and postdocs on the way to completing their training. In order to help alleviate some of this burden, the agency announced that as of FY22 full time pre-doc and postdoc trainees supp...
- Sell Your Specific Aims Using the PASTOR Method
I am often struck by the similarities between selling methods and grant writing. Of course, grant writing is selling, but scientists don’t usually think of themselves as salesmen. I recently read a blog post about the PASTOR method, which was conceived by a well-known copywriter ...
