- Should Tenure Still Depend on an R01?
With several years of flat federal support for science, is it still reasonable to require one or two independent research grants (R01s) before going up for tenure? For some institutions, the answer is slowly changing from "yes" to "not quite." At certain universities, scien...
- Acing Your Observational Research Aims
All research proposals – grants, dissertations, internal funding – must ace the description of aims. Many scientific questions are interesting. Not all are useful. You must persuade your readers that the proposed aims/hypotheses to be tested and the related analysis will f...
- Back to Her Roots: Natasha Halasa
Natasha Halasa’s parents emigrated from Jordan to the United States to make sure their children had a better life. Within one generation, via vaccine and other studies on respiratory illness and acute gastroenteritis in young children, Dr. Halasa is improving the lives of childr...
- The Easiest Grant You’ll Ever Apply For
Many investigators at Vanderbilt have or know trainees eligible for minority supplements from NIH. Others are interested in working with a trainee or early career faculty member at a minority-serving institution who would be eligible, but whom they are not yet collaborating. Th...
- Getting Evaluated – Time to Bite the Bullet and Ask If You’re a Jerk
Fighty Squirrel recently ran into one of her forest friends from another realm of the academic woodlands who has been serving on a fancy schmancy hiring committee. Asked how things were going, Squirrel’s normally chipper buddy’s face formed a scowl, and a groan escaped. “Ugh!” th...
- Tools for Team Manuscript Preparation When the Data are In Hand
Here’s a map to get your best work out the door efficiently. It’s never too soon to plan the journey to a completed manuscript.
Get moving.
Huddle with your lead investigator, statistician, research team members, clinical lead, and other contributors from the start t...
- A Peek Inside Study Section: The Riff Raff Edition
Study section...the great mythical society of uber academics. Everyone wonders what they are up to, but they are sworn to secrecy in a private ceremony in which members turn over their first born to Francis Collins and assure him his haircut is super flattering.
Big news, friend...
- Revising Your R01? There’s Free Online Coaching for That, and You Should Get It.
The National Research Mentoring Network is accepting applications for their R01 Resubmissions Cohort 1, which targets researchers planning resubmissions in July 2017. Cohort members will be matched with an experienced grant writer for six to eight weeks of individualized str...
- Staying on My Good Side
Since the holy trinity important things have come in threes—listen up. You can lose the good will of study section.
1.) Get the details right; misstating the methods or findings of a reference destroys your credibility.
Know every paper you cite. Others who know the science...
- Watch the Front Lines
One of the more common issues I encounter in conversations with junior faculty has to do with people management. We all know that the best leaders can sense when and how much to delegate. Delegation is an important part of team building, for it instills a sense of ownership and ...
