Grant Writing

So, you wanna be an NIH investigator? Our first series is targeted at individuals at various career stages–new faculty members, postdoctoral fellows, and graduate and undergraduate students–who are planning careers in biomedical research.

In our first three episodes, we discuss the New and Early Stage Investigator policies, grant writing for new investigators, and grant programs new faculty members can use to develop their research program.

Dr. Sally Rockey, Deputy Director for Extramural Research, describes which parts of the application are made public via the RePORTER website and why using plain language in these sections can help express the value of your research to the public. Don’t miss this episode, “Using Plain Language for Application Titles, Abstracts and Public Health Relevance Statements.”

In this episode of "All About Grants" from the National Institutes of Health, Ms. Megan Columbus, from the NIH Office of Extramural Research, discusses the importance of effectively telling your story in a grant application. She emphasizes the elements of a compelling narrative, such as a fascinating plot, strong themes, well-developed characters, and an appealing style, comparing it to reading a good book.

In this podcast on developing your budget, Grace Olascoaga, a Grants Management Officer from the National Institute of General Medical Sciences, helps you figure out what to include in the budget, which form to use, and where to go for help. For more information, visit OER’s developing your budget page.

Individual fellowship (F) awards provide research training opportunities to trainees at the predoctoral, graduate, and postdoctoral levels. Listen to this next installment of the NIH’s All About Grants podcast series, to hear NIH’s Research Training Policy Officer discusses the F application process, sharing tips and best practices for developing a strong application.

In this next installment of the NIH’s All About Grants podcast series, Cathleen Cooper, Ph.D., who directs the NIH’s Center for Scientific Review’s Division of Receipt and Referral, joins us to talk all about letters of support. Hear what information should be included in these letters, what should not, how they differ from other letters submitted as part of an application, and more.

You have a promising research idea that may involve human participants to carry out the study. Do you know what to do next? Join us for the next NIH All About Grants podcast conversation about how you know you are doing human subjects’ research.

Thanks to a suggestion from a listener, in this NIH All About Grants episode a duo of NIH program officers, Drs. Lillian Kuo from the National Cancer Institute and Kentner Singleton from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, share their advice and experience on developing a research plan for a grant application. They discuss the relationship between the specific aims and research strategy, provide suggestions for when you sit down to start writing, and share common pitfalls.