Faculty Facilitator

Topic

Grants

relates to sponsored projects - pre- or post-award

Pivoting Research for Foundations

United States federal research funding has historically been a key driver of scientific advancement, economic growth, and societal well-being. The level and consistency of financial support provided by government organizations such as the NIH, NSF, DoE and others has directly accelerated the number of breakthroughs in medicine and technology, while

Developing a Writing Practice

The ability to write quickly and well is essential for success in biomedical research. There is a constant need to produce protocols, grants, manuscripts, letters of recommendation, lay summaries, abstracts, and other documents, along with the high volume of professional emails requiring a response. Fortunately, writing is a skill that

NIH Review Process

Structuring your grant proposal in a way that makes it easy for your reviewers will help them both understand the importance and impact of your science, and validate that you meet all requirements for funding. Understanding what happens to a grant after submission can help you do this. Compliance Review

Writing Lay Summaries

The ability to convey your ideas to a variety of audiences is an essential skill. A lay summary is a short document included in many grant applications that asks you to explain your proposal to a non-specialist audience. Writing an excellent lay summary will help you get funded. Lay summaries

NIH Reference Letters

The NIH requires Reference Letters for Fellowships (Fs), mentored Career Development Awards (Ks), and other programs. They are often confused with Letters of Support, but they have a completely different purpose and should be approached in a structured way to ensure that they provide a trainee applicant with the best

NIH Narrative

The NIH allows you 3 sentences to summarize your proposal in the form of a narrative statement. This structure forces you to succinctly and directly address the NIH's review criteria, specifying whether your research proposal innovatively addresses a problem of importance (Factor 1) in an achievable (Factor 3)

Navigating NIH Post-Executive Order

This post was written on January 24, 2025. What happened? Since taking office, President Trump has issued a number of Executive Orders, including this one which has lead to the cancelation of NIH study sections and a communications freeze that includes the release of new NOAs. News articles (there are

How and when to contact your NIH program officer

“Talk to your program officer” is an oft-repeated recommendation to scientists engaging with the NIH grants progress, however when and how to engage this person can be confusing. The NIH has an excellent guide to staff available, which I’ll explain along with some additional context. Program Officer or Scientific

NIH Study Sections

Study Sections, also known as Scientific Review Groups or SRGs, are panels of experts that review and score NIH grant applications to recommend funding. Each study section focuses on a specific area of science or methodology. Study sections are composed of scientists with expertise in relevant fields, including basic and

NIH Project Summary/Abstract

The Project Summary/Abstract (called abstract from here forward) gives you 30 lines of text to provide an overview of your proposal. The NIH helpfully provides a clear set of requirements for what to include in the SF424 R&R guide. The abstract should touch on all the major