Tips for applying for an NIH K award

Last week, ORDE hosted an NIH K Awardee Panel at our Anschutz Medical Campus with three faculty members who had successfully competed for a K01, K08, or K99, and they had some great advice, which I wanted to recap here.

First, to step back, the NIH K, or Research Career Development Award is a mentored grant. Most of the K mechanisms are for early career investigators, including Post Docs and Assistant Professors who have yet to successfully compete for an R01 or similar award for independent investigators. The goal of these K awards are to fund these promising investigators and to invest in their development, such that they can compete for their R01 or like award by the time they've finished their K.

Tips from former awardees:

The K proposal is unlike any proposal.
Since the K is a mentored award, you probably already realize it's different, but what the awardees stressed was how different it is. You must propose a research plan, a mentoring plan, and a career development plan that is integrated, where the components are mutually beneficial. Your mentoring  and career development plans should complement your research plan, and vice versa. There are also many letters of support required from a variety of people to show not only the commitment of your mentoring team, but also your institution's commitment to you to support you in your K.

Work with your Program Officer.
Although our awardees differed in their discussions about how easy it was to work with their Program Officers, the resounding theme was that each worked with them as much as possible. One awardee had met her Program Officer at a conference almost a decade before submitting her K, and the two had strategized about her research career. Another awardee had a bad first experience with her Program Officer, but despite that, she persisted and continued to engage that PO with her work and her proposal.

Plan to resubmit. 
All of the awardees on our panel had resubmitted their K proposals, with the exception of one who was allowed to make a rebuttal on her proposal without fully resubmitting. The awardees all agreed that those working on their K applications should plan for at least one resubmission, which is difficult given the time it takes to write your K. If you are like most and your first K application is not funded, work with your Program Officer to make the right improvements on your proposal, also don't let the rejection stop you from moving forward with the career development you planned. Go ahead and take the course you needed. Yes, you'll need to take it out of your proposal, but showing that you've moved ahead with things anyway, shows reviewers your commitment to your career.

Find and work with your primary mentor closely.
Your primary mentor should be someone who is a successfully funded researcher and has mentored other successful K awardees in the past. Given your mentor's experience, make sure you are working closely with them before you submit your proposal as they will be your best source of advice, coaching, and mentoring even before they are your official K mentor. Also, choose a mentor that you have a track record with, but not one you've worked with for a long time. You don't want reviewers to wonder what more you can learn from your mentor if you've already been with them for a few years.

Lastly, create a support network as you embark on your K application. Seek out those who have applied and who are applying; ask them to review draft proposals. Also, seek out the resources on campus, like ORDE and the CCTSI. The K application is a tricky one, so do all you can to set yourself up for success!

Resources:
ORDE NIH K Presentation
CCTSI PreK Program