Applying for the NIH K Awards

The NIH's Career Development Awards (or K awards) are a unique set of awards at NIH in that they are focused first and foremost on the candidate, as opposed to the research project, although research is a component. The Ks are mentored awards designed to move an early career investigator, in need of mentoring and career development, to an independent investigator, successfully competing for an R01 (or similar award) by the end of their K award.

The majority of K awards are mentored awards for early career investigators, including the K99/R00, K01, K08, K23, and K25. For these mentored awards, the following apply:

• They require 75% protected time
• The awards range from 3-5 years
• There are no renewals
• Success rates vary by mechanism from 20-50%

The NIH has K awards that are available at different points, but the idea for most of the mentored Ks are to facilitate and support an investigator in different points in their career, but particularly early on.

The chart above from the NIH gives a sense of the appropriate timing for applying within one's career trajectory. At the post-doctoral level, the K99/R00 is designed for postdocs looking to transition to independent or tenure-track positions at an institution usually different from where they did their postdoc.  The K01 is a mentored research scientist award. The K08, the mentored clinical scientist development award, is designed for MDs who want to become bench scientists. The K23 is the mentored patient-oriented research career development award and the K25, the mentored quantitative research career development award is designed for PhDs in Engineering who want to transition to the Biological Sciences.

One seasoned K reviewer once explained the NIH K as being about "the wo/man, the plan, and the fan," suggesting that it's first and foremost about the candidate and their promise. Next, reviewers are looking for a clear, integrated plan that includes your career development plan, your mentoring plan, and your research plan. Lastly, your mentor and mentoring network must have the track record and commitment to you that shows they can facilitate your success in becoming an independent investigator by the end of the award.

The important thing to remember when applying for the NIH mentored career awards is that they are for folks who would not be considered independent investigators. Those who successfully compete for an R01 or other major independent award are ineligible. But, the applicant must also show their need for mentoring and additional training, and show reviewers how a K investment in them will move them from a promising start to realize their full potential as an independent investigator after being mentored and trained during their K award.

Resources:
Research Career Development Awards Page - NIH
NIH K Award Grant Planning Video - ORDE

Buzzwords versus Jargon

One of the biggest challenges researchers face is how to rid their grant proposals of jargon that while common parlance to them is sometimes jibberish to their readers. Because researchers are experts and have spent decades focused on a particular topic, they're not even sure what constitutes jargon. But, to define it, jargon is the technical or conceptual phrases that your reader doesn't understand. Thus, to know what jargon is, you have to know who your reader is and what they will understand.

So, I've trapped you back into my rule on knowing your audience, which is the cardinal rule of technical writing. But what about buzzwords? As I'm defining them here, buzzwords are the language and concepts that your audience, and particularly, your funding agency uses to describe what they want to fund. Now, while using a bunch of jargon in your proposal is going to annoy people, using buzzwords in your proposal can catch your reviewers' interest.

To show you what I'll mean, I'll use an example sent to me by our wonderful Director of ORDE, Lynette Michael. The Waterloo Foundation recently put out a call for proposals on Child Development and Co-occurrence. They begin the call discussing Co-occurrence:

"In 2018, our funding will again focus on co-occurrences, and the fact that each child has one brain. We are interested in the common and co-occurring neurodevelopmental conditions of, Developmental Coordination Disorder (DCD) and ADHD, along with Rolandic Epilepsy and Developmental Trauma, and have a particular interest in factors under parents’ influence such as diet, sleep and exercise."

Three paragraphs into the call, the Foundation highlights their use of the term co-occurrence as opposed to the more commonly used co-morbidity, saying

"The medical community often refers to this as comorbidity. We are steadfastly refusing to use this term and refer instead to co-occurrence, which is surely more cheerful for children and their families. We do hope you will join us in using this terminology¹."

This is a very explicit call-out of the Foundation's buzzword, along with why they are choosing to use it. And, if this wasn't clear enough, you'll note the footnote at the end of this explanation:

"1 - Indeed, we will prioritise those applications which refer to co-occurrence rather than to comorbidity."

Although I'm grateful to the Foundation and Lynette for giving us this excellent use of a buzzword and demonstrating how and why PIs should use them, remember that agencies don't usually highlight which words they prefer you use in your application. You have to figure out their buzzwords by researching the agency and being crystal clear on what they're looking for. This research will pay off when the reviewers and agency think, "you know, they really know what we want in a funded project" when they read your proposal.

Resource:
Child Development Call for Proposals - The Waterloo Foundation
Why Academics Have a Hard Time Writing Good Proposals - Texas A&M International University

How to write a Letter of Intent (LOI)

Last week we posted some suggestions for writing a white paper, and I wanted to continue this mini-series on different types of pre-proposals. This week, let's look at how to write a Letter of Intent (LOI). LOIs are generally brief pre-proposals that are requested by a foundation. The foundation reviews the brief LOIs and requests full proposals from those groups who submitted the best projects. This culls the best ideas and limits the number of full proposals the foundation needs to review.

Just like you must do for white papers, your LOI should respond to the needs of the funding agency to be most competitive. Also, if the agency offers you guidelines to use for the LOI, use them! Aside from this, as the name implies, the LOI should be short (letter length) and it should give a brief and compelling overview of your project. It should be written for the layperson and should be written in the first person and in active voice.

If the funding agency does not specify guidelines for an LOI, UMassAmherst recommends the following format:

Summary Statement: Give a summary of your project, what it is, what need it meets, and how much you're asking for.

Statement of Need: Why is this project important?

Project Activity: What will the project entail?

Outcomes: What do you expect to achieve?

Credentials: Why are you and your team the best team to do this work?

Budget: How much are you asking for and briefly what will the money be used for?

Closing: Briefly return to why this project is important and offer your vision. Give any final contact information and offer to answer any questions they may have.

Signature: Make sure you know who is designated to send LOIs on behalf of the university to a particular agency (sometimes an Advancement Officer is the liaison for an agency and LOIs must go through him or her).

LOIs are your opportunity to pique the interest of funders. Once you are invited to submit a proposal, you are already competing with a much smaller pool of applicants. So, always make sure your project aligns with the agency's needs and mission and pitches your project clearly and succinctly.

Resources:
Guidelines for a Letter of Intent - UMassAmherst
How to Write a Winning LOI - Grant Writer Team