Week 8:
Applicant’s background and goals for fellowship training or
Candidate information and goals for career development

By Jennifer Kong

Introduction

Don’t listen to what other people say, this component of your application is a joy to write :). The purpose of this component is to discuss a subject you know very well — yourself! Well, specifically you will be writing about your research self. Briefly, for both F-awards and K-awards, this document contains three sections.

Section 1: Previous and current research experiences
Here you will summarize your past and current research experiences.

Often, people ask me… “How is this section different from the biosketch?”
My answer is, some of the core information is the same. However, unlike the biosketch where the focus is on the research, the focus of the candidate section is on your research experiences and path in science.
This is your opportunity to brag about how awesome you are, so do it!
I think it helps to create a narrative. A good place to start is with sharing a research experience that encouraged you to pursue a career in science. Often people begin this section with the “Aha!” moment that drove them to apply to graduate or medical school. From there, describe the thought process that carried you from one scientific project to the next. Even if it’s not true, describe your research history as a linear story… I started with research in A, this made me wonder about the following things, so I then pursued research in B. At each step, describe what you did, what you learned, and how this influenced your scientific path and perspective.
In this section, I would really encourage placing emphasis on curiosity, discovery, and research growth — this is not a research article, express excitement about the things you have done!
The purpose of this section is to build a foundation — to show the reviewers who you are now and how the grant will fund your training to become an even better researcher.

Section 2: Goals
In the second section you will describe what your research goals are.

Here it is important to include both a short term goal (what you hope to achieve with funding from the grant) and long term goals (how this grant will further your career in academia).
For the goals, I think it is important to not only describe the job you want (i.e. to become an assistant professor), but also what kind of research this will allow you to do and the how this research will transform the field.
For example: Funding from the NIH will provide me with the training necessary to become adept in the areas of... This will elevate my science and help me achieve my long-term career goal, to establish and lead an independent lab that successfully studies x, y, z… Advances in the area of … will be beneficial to…

Section 3: The plan
In this final section, you will describe how you plan to achieve your goals.

Here, it is important to take into account not only plans for research support (i.e. who or what will help you learn the new techniques necessary to execute the experiments proposed in your aims), but also plan for mentor support (people or classes that can help your professional development.

Instructions

Below is an abridged list of what should be included in each section from the “Fellowship and Career Development Instructions for NIH and Other PHS Agencies, SF424 (R&R) Application Packages” document.

Instructions for F-awards

A. Doctoral Dissertation and Research Experience
Briefly summarize your past research experience, results, and conclusions, and describe how that experience relates to the proposed fellowship.
Note, this section used to be called “Past Research Experience.”

A proposed fellowship may build directly on previous research experiences, results, and conclusions. Alternatively, past research experiences may lead a candidate to apply for a fellowship in a new or different area of research.
Do not list academic courses in this section (you will put these in the biosketch).
For applicants with no research experience: Describe any other scientific experiences.
For advanced graduate students (students that have completed their comprehensive examinations by the time of award): Include a narrative of your planned doctoral dissertation.
For postdoctoral fellowship applicants: Specify which areas of your proposed research were part of your predoctoral thesis or dissertation and which, if any, were part of a postdoctoral project.

B. Training goals and objectives

Describe your overall training goals for the duration of the fellowship and how the proposed fellowship will enable the attainment of these goals.

Identify the skills, theories, conceptual approaches, etc., to be learned or enhanced during the award, including, as applicable, expertise in rigorous research design, experimental methods, quantitative approaches, and data analysis and interpretation, as applicable.
Discuss how the proposed research will facilitate your transition to the next career stage.

C. Activities planned under this award

The activities planned under this award should be individually tailored and well-integrated with your research project.

Year by year, describe the activities (research, coursework, professional development, clinical activities, etc.) you will be involved in during the proposed award. Estimate the percentage of time to be devoted to each activity. The percentage should total 100 for each year.
Describe the research skills and techniques that you intend to learn during the award period.
Provide a timeline detailing the proposed research training, professional development, and clinical activities for the duration of the fellowship award. The timeline you provide here should be distinct from the Experimental Timeline in your Research Strategy and the Study Timeline in the PHS Human Subjects and Clinical Trials Information form.

Instructions for K-awards

A. Candidate’s Background

Describe your past scientific history, indicating how the award fits into past and future research career development.

If there are consistent themes or issues that have guided previous work, these should be made clear. Alternatively, if your work has changed direction, indicate the reasons for the change.

B. Career Goals and Objectives

Describe your short-term and long-term career development goals.

Justify the need for the award by describing how the career development award will enable you to develop and/or expand your research career.
If applicable (e.g., K24), describe how this award will help you to serve as a mentor to early career investigators.

C. Candidate’s Plan for Career Development/Training Activities During Award Period

Describe the new or enhanced research skills and knowledge you will acquire as a result of the proposed award, including expertise in rigorous research design, experimental methods, quantitative approaches and data analysis and interpretation.

For non-mentored career development awards, describe any planned release from teaching, administrative, and/or clinical duties that will help you focus on your research activities, and if applicable, your mentoring activities.
For mentored career development awards, describe any structured activities that are part of the developmental plan, such as coursework or workshops that will help you learn new techniques or develop needed professional skills.
Briefly discuss each of the activities, other than research, in which you expect to participate. For these non-research based activities, explain how it relates to the proposed research and to the career development plan. Indicate the percentage of time to be dedicated to each activity by year, expressed in person months.
You are encouraged to include a timeline, including plans to apply for subsequent grant support.

Four tips for writing this section

Address the review criteria
Generate an informative timeline
Make your research unique by incorporating an intersection
Illustrate how the training (funded by the NIH) will enhance both your science and your career.

1. Address the review criteria

Reviewers are asked to review five components of your application. One of these five components is your Training Potential (for F-awards) or Career Development Plan (for K-awards). Under the Application Review Information of your Funding Opportunity Announcement (under Section V), there are a list of questions that reviewers will use to assess your application. Read through these questions and make sure that you clearly address all of them to maximize your review score.

(F-awards)

Are the proposed research project and training plan likely to provide the applicant with the requisite individualized and mentored experiences in order to obtain appropriate skills for a research career?
Does the training plan take advantage of the applicant’s strengths and address gaps in needed skills? Does the training plan document a clear need for, and value of, the proposed training?
Does the proposed training have the potential to serve as a sound foundation that will clearly enhance the applicant’s ability to develop into a productive researcher?

(K-awards)

Are the content and duration of the proposed components of the career development plan appropriate and well-justified for the candidate’s current stage of scientific and professional development and proposed research career goals?
To what extent does the proposed career development plan enhance or augment the applicant’s research training and skills acquisition to date?
Is the proposed career development plan likely to contribute substantially to the scientific and professional development of the candidate, and facilitate his/her successful transition to independence?
To what extent are the plans for evaluating the K99 awardee’s progress adequate and appropriate for guiding the applicant towards a successful transition to the independent phase of the award?
Is the timeline planned for transition to the independent phase of the award appropriate for the candidate’s current stage of scientific and professional development, anticipated productivity, and the career development proposed for the K99 phase of the award?

2. Generate an informative timeline

*The timeline I included at the end of my Candidate Information and Goals for Career Development Section (K-award).*

The reviewers will fly through this document. Make it easy for them to assess your grant with a timeline.

For the third section (i.e. activities planned under this award or candidate’s plan for career development), I would highly recommend creating a comprehensive and thoughtful timeline to quickly showcase all the training you have planned to achieve your academic goals. A timeline is really the easiest way to describe (year by year) the activities you have planned under an F- or K-award. Feel free to use the above timeline as a template and modify as needed. I chose to highlight three categories: courses, meetings, and career milestones. However, other categories that I have seen in other timelines include: research goals, professional development milestones, and clinical activities.

3. Make your research story unique by incorporating an intersection

One way to make you and your research unique is by placing yourself at the intersection of two great opportunities… this could be the intersection between two different disciplines or two different technologies. For individuals applying for a K99, often this intersection is based on the expertise of their PhD work and their early Postdoc work. For example, in my K99, I describe myself as being at the intersection between the disciplines of developmental neurobiology (my PhD work) and biochemistry (my postdoc work). I made the argument that my expertise in developmental neurobiology would be enhanced with further training in biochemical techniques and provide me with additional opportunities to understand the developmental signaling pathways I study.

4. Illustrate how the training (funded by the NIH) will enhance both your science and your career.

At all times, you need to remember that the NIH funds TRAINING. Thus, in this document the goal is to not only describe how awesome you are in science, but how much more awesome you can become with additional training.

In the grant writing academy, we emphasize this with the simple equation: A + B = C.
In this equation, A represents is the person you are now (described in section 1), B is your training plan (described in section 3), and C is your future self (described in the goals in section 2).

Career development activities that you can incorporate into your training plan

On campus seminars

Biology (https://biology.stanford.edu/events/series/department-seminars)
Biochemistry (https://biochemistry.stanford.edu/events2)
Canary Center at Stanford for Cancer Early Detection (https://canarycenter.stanford.edu/seminars/early-detection/2019.html)
Cancer Biology (https://med.stanford.edu/cancerbiology/events/SeminarSeries.html)
Cardiovascular Science (http://med.stanford.edu/cvi/mission/frontiers-in-cv-science.html)
Chemical and Systems Biology (https://chemsysbio.stanford.edu/category/events/)
Molecular and Cellular Physiology (https://med.stanford.edu/mcp/seminars-events/mcp-seminarseries.html)
Neurosciences Institute (https://neuroscience.stanford.edu/events/series/seminar-series-2019)
Regenerative Medicine (https://med.stanford.edu/stemcell.html)

On campus courses and workshops in grant writing, scientific management, and bioethics

Grant writing academy (https://grantwriting.stanford.edu/events/2)
Grant writing support for both K-series and R-series awards provided by the Stanford Medicine Office of Faculty Development and Diversity (http://med.stanford.edu/facultydiversity/faculty-development/workshops/grant-writing.html#r-_series_grant_applicationwriting)
Mentoring in research workshop (https://postdocs.stanford.edu/events/series/mentoring-research)
Preparing for faculty careers workshop (https://postdocs.stanford.edu/events/series/preparing-faculty-careers)
Scientific management series classes (https://postdocs.stanford.edu/events/series/scientific-management-series)
Responsible conduct of research course (MED255) (https://med.stanford.edu/bioethics/education/rcr/Med255Schedule.html)

Off campus courses and workshops in grant writing, scientific management, and bioethics

Cold Spring Harbor scientific writing retreat (https://meetings.cshl.edu/courses.aspx?course=C-WRITE&year=19)

On campus academic classes

Biosciences mini courses (https://biosciences.stanford.edu/current-students/curriculum-and-requirements/mini-courses-overview/)

Conferences

Cold Spring Harbor meetings and conferences (https://meetings.cshl.edu/meetingshome.aspx)
Gordon research conferences (https://www.grc.org/find-a-conference/)
Keystone research conferences (http://www.keystonesymposia.org/index.cfm?e=Web.Meeting.List&tab1)
EMBO workshops, conferences, and practical courses (https://www.embo.org/events)

additional Resources

Books

Hollenbach, Andrew. A Practical Guide to Writing a Ruth L. Kirschstein NRSA Grant. Amsterdam: Academic Press, 2014. [ISBN 978-0-12-420187-3]
Chapter 3: Who are you? The fellowship applicant.
This chapter covers a lot of sections, but included is the a very nice description of how to write the applicant’s background section (aka. previous research experience), goals for fellowship training, and activities planned under this award.
Russell, Stephen W. and David C. Morrison. The Grant Application Writer’s Workbook: National Institutes of Health Version. Los Olivos, CA: Grant Writers’ Seminars and Workshops, LLC, 2016. www.grantcentral.com

Videos from the Stanford Grant Writing Academy (some of these require a SUNet login for viewing)

Tips for personalizing your training plan (5.5 minutes) by Trisha Stankiewicz
Designing your training (22 min) by Dr. Sophie Kleppner
A presentation from the 2019 Stanford Science and Art of Grant Writing Symposium. Introduces the idea of design thinking to design your training.