Pediatrics Research Guide

• Ask your faculty mentor(s), laboratory colleagues, and recent alumni about their experiences applying to external funding opportunities. Federal agencies, such as NIH and NSF, sponsor fellowships and career development awards. The NIH fellowships are focused on providing training for biomedical, behavioral, and clinical researchers. Nonfederal agencies, such as societies, foundations, and associations, also solicit proposals that support their missions.  Additionally, many institutions offer internally supported fellowships as well as institutional research training grants like NIH’s T32 awards. The Stanford School of Medicine’s Research Management Group (RMG) compiles biomedical / biosciences funding opportunities. 
• Join the RMG’s mailing list
• RMG lists of Fellowship funding opportunities
• RMG list of Grants, including Career Development Awards
• Stanford University Seed Funding
• Searchable databases (see Pivot or Foundation Directory):  Tips for searching

Read all proposal instructions very carefully to identify requirements, goals, and review criteria. All NIH funding should follow both the Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) and SF424 Application Guide. Examples of funded proposals, and even unfunded proposals can be helpful to examine. Generate a checklist of the required documents. 

• Understanding NIH Funding Opportunities
• RMG Tools & Templates
• NIH’s SF424 Application Guide
• HHMI Making the Right Moves – Getting Funded

Keep a small notebook or electronic file to record research ideas as they arise. Master your field’s literature to identify current trends and key players. Participate in scientific meetings annually to stay up to date. Because most impactful research combines ideas from several fields, read widely and attend seminars on diverse research topics. Staying curious will ensure a plethora of future research questions. 

• Conceiving the research question
• Signup for the Stanford Biomedical Seminar email list

The most impactful, innovative research often results from scientific teams with diverse experiences and expertise. In addition, many fellowships and career development proposals require additional mentors or advisory committee members. Seek out new collaborators / mentors in order to gain new skills and move your research beyond the status quo. 

• Use the Stanford Profiles to find potential collaborators at Stanford
• Search funded projects at NIH RePORTER or use NIH Matchmaker

Discuss your career goals and your proposal ideas with the relevant Division Chief, this is required for clinical fellows within the Department of Pediatrics. Explain how writing a proposal is an important component of your training at Stanford and will prepare you for your next career stage. The Division Chief’s commitment to your future research and career training goals is critical. Some proposals, like NIH’s F32 and K Awards, even require documented institutional support included within your proposal. 

• Department of Pediatrics Division Chief’s contact information

. . . As a scientist, you are a professional writer. Writing is as important a tool in your toolbox as molecular biology, chemical analysis, statistics, or other purely “scientific” tools. Some of these tools allow us to generate data; others to analyze and communicate results. Writing is the most important of the latter. Because it forms the bridge to your audience, it can act as the rate-limiting step that constrains the effectiveness of all other tools. Joshua Schimel (Writing Science: How to Write Papers that Get Cited and Proposals that Get Funded. (Oxford University Press, USA, 2012)

As a scientist, writing is a critical way to communicate your ideas and receive funding. Developing a writing routine and a schedule for writing each week will reduce the stress around this process and ensure that your research moves forward. Create a schedule to write as often as possible, at least several times per week. Even when you aren’t working on a looming deadline, creating regular opportunities to record your ideas and questions will enable you to become a more impactful scientist. Create a timeline for how you will organize writing your proposal. 

• 10 Simple Rules for Improving Your Writing Productivity
• Turbocharge your Writing
• Create Writing Schedule and Timetable – from The Grant Application Writer’s Workbook

Most proposals, such as NIH fellowships and career development awards, require a 1-page Specific Aims document that provides an executive summary of the entire proposal. This document is perfect for seeking feedback early and often from your mentor(s), peer(s), etc. Then, when you know your proposal’s conceptual framework is strong, use this document to plan the rest of your proposal. 

• Tips & resources for writing Specific Aims
• Writing Specific Aims that are Crystal Clear
• Anatomy of a Specific Aims Page
• Drafting Specific Aims

The NIH Biosketch should showcase your prior research and skills to convince reviewers you are the right person for this award and have the potential to be a strong independent researcher. Within the Personal Statement detail why you are the best person to receive the proposed funding. Provide a narrative of the significance of your prior work within the Contribution to Science sections. Use the non-fellowship NIH Biosketch format except when writing a NIH NRSA Fellowship (F30, F31, F32) or otherwise noted within the funding opportunity instructions. 

• NIH Biosketch: The Place to Talk About Yourself
• NIH Biosketch format pages, instructions, and examples

Writing is more than crafting perfect sentences. It is an iterative process of seeking feedback and revising. Seeking feedback during the writing process should occur early and often. Be sure ask for feedback appropriate for your writing stage, so the experience is productive. Potential questions to ask your readers include: Does the writing peak your interest in the research topic? Is the preliminary data convincing? Is my presentation of the data accurate? Is the way I am organizing my ideas working? Have I included the relevant information outlined by the instructions and review criteria?

• Getting Feedback and Revising

Many funding opportunities have personnel that will answer questions and/or will provide feedback. When applying to NIH funding, arrange a phone call with the relevant Program Officers (PO) to confirm your research plans fit with the goals of the funding opportunity and mission of the NIH institute. Then, after your proposal is reviewed, follow up with the relevant Program Officer to seek their advice in order to make your next proposal more fundable. 

• How to Contact Program Officers
• When to Contact Program Officers

For NIH proposals, the Research Strategy, consists of three subsections – Significance, Innovation, and Approach. Broadly speaking the Significance addresses: Why is the research important?; the Innovation addresses: What are your new solutions to overcoming barriers in the field?; and the Approach addresses: How will you tackle the proposed research? The Research Strategy / Plan provides the rationale for your research and a description of the proposed experiments. 

• Writing the Research Strategy
• NIH’s information on rigor
• Tips for creating a Research Plan
• Writing the WHY (Significance) and WHAT (Innovation) of the Research Strategy

Most proposals for postdocs or early faculty required a career development plan, including the NIH NRSA Fellowships and K Awards. Develop a career development plan that is based on your needs and design it to propel you towards your next career stage. Within the plan include regular meetings and opportunities for feedback from your mentoring team (mentor, co-mentor(s), advisory committee members, etc.)

• Tips and resources for developing a complete career development training plan
• How to Design a Winning Fellowship Proposal
• Graduate Professional Development Framework
• Determinants of academic success as a clinician-scientist

Use an understand of the review process and review criteria to inform your writing to ensure your proposal is responsive to the funding agencies goals. The structure, content, and language of the proposal should orient the reviewer to the proposal’s strengths and simplify the reviewer’s task of completing the critique form.  

• Using the Review Process and Review Criteria to Inform Your Writing
• NIH Peer Review Revealed

It is imperative to allow enough time for your letter writers to write strong letters. Fellowship and Career Development Awards often require letters from mentor(s), co-mentor(s), advisory committee members, etc. that are included within the proposal application as well as confidential letters from referees which are submitted separately. Some funding agencies inhibit referees from being directly involved in the proposal so read the instructions very carefully. It is key to document within the letters strong support for you, your proposal, as well as the proposals expected outcomes so send relevant parts of your proposal to your letter writers too. Request institutional support letters at least 4 weeks before the proposal deadline. Make sure your letter writers are aware of any requirements and the due date. 

Avoiding bias within reference letters

NIH’s instructions for referees

Difference between letter of support and reference letters

HHMI Making the Write Moves – Letter of Reference

The Project Summary / Abstract should be written last but not last minute. It should summarize your most well-articulated arguments for why you should be funded. The Project Summaries for funded NIH proposals are publicly available through NIH RePORTER. 

• Professor Russ Altman’s formula for Abstracts
• Look up Project Summaries for NIH funded proposals

If you need a PI waiver, for example applying to a Career Development Award as a postdoc, complete the Department of Pediatrics PI request form at least 4-weeks before the proposal is due. Complete the Research Management Group’s RMG Proposal In-take Form (PIF) or Proposal Development Routing Form (PDRF) in SeRA which will alert your assigned Research Process Manager (RPM) that a proposal is planned. Inform your RPM if any subawards are proposed. Aim to have your complete proposal ready to submit 5 business days before the proposal due date to ensure compliance with Stanford internal deadline requirements

• Download Department of Pediatrics pre-award Toolkits, includes how-to guides for PI Waivers, PIF, Subaward
• Department of Pediatrics PI request form
• RMG’s Proposal In-take Form (PIF) guide
• RMG’s Proposal Development Routing Form (PDRF) guide
• RMG K Award Computer Lab course
• RMG NRSA Fellowship Computer Lab course
• Stanford School of Medicine Internal Deadlines

Polish your writing to focus on clarity, coherence, and conciseness. Reviewers are busy people and clear writing can entice them to want to read more. As you are adding the final touches, ensure your proposal addresses all the review criteria and instructions. Add subtitles to subsections and figures / tables that give the take-away messages, so reviewers quickly grasp key concepts. Ask someone (ideally a few people) to review the almost final drafts looking for typos and other errors. 

• Tips & Resources for clear writing
• Writing in the Sciences
• List of action verbs for proposals

Most NIH proposals use the Application Submission System & Interface for Submission Tracking (ASSIST) system to prepare and submit proposals electronically to NIH. Don’t wait for the last minutes to assemble the administrative proposal forms because unforeseen difficulties may arise. Remember that most proposals require your Research Process Manager (RPM) to ultimately click the submit button so follow any internal deadlines.  

• Download Department of Pediatrics pre-award Toolkits, includes how-to guide for NIH Assist
• NIH ASSIST
• Stanford’s Institutional Facts