K08 GUIDE FOR REVIEWERS

Mentored Clinical Scientist Research Career Development Award

Purpose of the Award

• Provides support and “protected time” to individuals with a clinical doctoral degree for an intensive, supervised research career development experience in the fields of biomedical and behavioral research, including translational research
• Supports didactic study and mentored research for individuals with clinical doctoral degrees (e.g., M.D., D.D.S., D.M.D., D.O., D.C., O.D., N.D., D.V.M., Pharm.D., or Ph.D. in clinical disciplines)

Applications

• New: NOT-OD-20-033
  •  Program Plan attachment – candidates expected to address, as applicable, new research skills they plan to acquire in rigorous research design, experimental methods, quantitative approaches, and data analysis and interpretation.
  •  Applicants for diversity-related career development programs expected to attach a Description of Candidate’s Contribution to Program Goals.
• There are no specific requirements for who should serve as an applicant’s referees, including a primary mentor or predoctoral advisor. There are many legitimate reasons why a postdoctoral grant applicant would choose not to include a letter of reference from their predoctoral thesis advisor. The absence of a letter from a predoctoral thesis advisor or another previous mentor should not affect the score.

Note

• Individuals with a clinical doctoral degree interested in pursuing a career in patient- oriented research should refer to the NIH Mentored Patient-Oriented Research Career Development Award (K23)