A New/Early Stage Investigators’ Guide: Tools and Tips for NIH Funding and Advancing Your Science

Many early career faculty members have successfully competed for fellowships and grants in the past, but the transition to an independently funded position often brings unanticipated challenges in grant preparation and submission. There can be an information dissemination gap in academic research when preparing early career investigators for their new role, especially when it comes to funding. Many questions can be left unanswered: How to write a competitive proposal, where to find relevant funding opportunities, what to do before and after proposal submission? 

In my career as a researcher and program manager for biomedical research grant programs in government agencies like the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and private science philanthropy organizations such as the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, I've learned a few helpful pointers for those who are just starting their research careers. Read on for some quick tips that can benefit early stage researchers as they navigate the pursuit of research funding and move their science forward. Note: this guide is specific to NIH, but most of the tips can be applied to other funding organizations. If you are more of a visual person you can view these tips in presentation form.

KEY POINTS

• Use the NIH Matchmaker tool to find the relevant program officers.
• Subscribe to the NIH guide listserv.
• Attend an NIH regional seminar.
• Contact program officers to discuss your aims before writing your proposal and after the review.
• Apply to the NIH Early Career Review Program to gain grant review experience.
• Use the NIH Assisted Referral Tool to figure out which study section is right for your proposal.
• Seek out awards targeted at early career investigators, e.g. NIH K awards and others. 
• Establish a mentorship team.
• Get feedback on your proposal before submission. 
• Maintain a webpage, a professional Twitter account, and an updated LinkedIn profile.

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FUNDING

Several new funding opportunity announcements (FOA) and policy and program notices (NOT) are released each month. Some will be a perfect or near-perfect fit for your work, but you’ll never know about them if you aren’t checking the NIH website regularly or aren’t subscribed to the right listserv(s). These are some sources to check.

• Subscribe to the NIH guide listserv.
• Every once in a while, search grants.gov or sign up for the listserv to see what pops up. The site searches across all US federal agencies. You may find an institute or agency that normally doesn’t fund your type of work now has a special funding opportunity that is a fit for you.
• There is a grant.gov mobile app.
• Follow @NIHFunding and @NIHgrants on Twitter, and look for NIH Institute specific social media feeds such as @NIAIDFunding. Here is a list of all the NIH social media feeds and listservs.
• Subscribe to the funding announcement listservs of other funding agencies. (e.g. NSF’s listserv).
• Consider attending an NIH regional seminar in your area on funding and grants administration.
• Familiarize yourself with the grant lifecycle and the many types of NIH funding mechanisms. 
• Do a realistic cost-benefit analysis of certain types of grants. Consider the time to prepare a proposal, with the success rates of some grant mechanisms (e.g. R21 < 6% vs R01 < 19%), with the length of time of support (e.g. R01 = 5 yrs vs R21 = 2 yrs). Read more about comparing research grant projects.
• Unsolicited, investigator-initiated proposals are the majority of what NIH funds. Submit proposals for your original research ideas rather than waiting for specific FOAs. Read more about unsolicited, investigator-initiated proposals.
• Regularly check your institution’s Sponsored Research Office (a.k.a. Office of Research, Office of Grants Management and Research, etc.) website/listserv for funding opportunities.
• Make friends with your Office of Sponsored Research. Let them know who you are, what you do, and to keep you in mind when they encounter funding opportunities that fit you.
• If your institution subscribes to funding database services such as GrantForward or JanusView that aggregate funding opportunities, call for papers, etc., sign up and utilize it.
• Submit your application to your institution early. Your institution will have an earlier internal deadline than the NIH FOA to identify issues and facilitate a smooth and timely submission.
• Look for private philanthropic funding (e.g. list 1, list 2, list 3), corporations, and other government agencies (e.g. DoE, DoD, USDA, NSF, ONR, etc.).
• Caveat: Some institutions limit the funds from private foundations because most do not pay full overhead costs. Understand your institution’s policies before applying.
• Apply to funding opportunities specifically directed at new/early stage scientists (e.g. NIH Career Development (K) and New Innovator, NSF CAREER, Searle Scholars, and many others).
• For some circumstances, you can get an extension on NIH early stage investigator (ESI) status. Read about the benefits of having an ESI status. 

GRANT WRITING & SUBMISSION

The best ideas die in review if they aren’t communicated well in the grant application. There are lots of articles with tips on good grant writing, but what should you be doing before and after submission?

• The science is the most important element. Good, exciting, well-planned-out science and an important scientific question that is clearly explained will help to drive a good review. 
• Read the FOA carefully. Be sure to address all aspects of the review criteria in your proposal as this is what reviewers will use to score your proposal.
• Contact program officers (POs) any time you have a good idea that you want to explore and get guidance as to where it would fit best. Email them to set up a phone conversation to get general feedback on your ideas. Even without an active funding opportunity, it’s worth looking at organizational charts to figure out which program officers oversee research portfolios that align with your research and initiate a conversation to get advice on what funding opportunities might be appropriate. You are strongly encouraged to make this step a priority.
• Use the NIH Matchmaker tool to find program officers that manage portfolios similar to your investigator-initiated proposal ideas. It’s also a tool for finding collaborators (and competitors).
• Use your colleagues to troubleshoot your ideas and get feedback on your proposal, especially individuals who have served on the study sections your proposal may be reviewed by.
• Have your aims reviewed by at least two trusted (preferably senior) researchers, one in the field and one external. Aims that are not clear and succinct start off at a disadvantage in review.
• Send your specific aims to a program officer for high-level feedback and guidance before starting to write your proposal. If an FOA encourages letters of intent (LOI), then send it and include your specific aims to open a dialog with a program officer and avoid common pitfalls.
• Consider using NCBI My Bibliography tool and/or ORCiD for your publications.
• Collaborate. Contemporary research is interdisciplinary and often requires collaboration.
• Consider multi-center, multi-project grant mechanisms. Find teams at your institution that are applying to these projects and try to join the team if your expertise fits. Contact your Sponsored Research Office to find out what projects are in the works.
• Consider including collaborators that add value and complementary expertise to your proposal.

GRANT REVIEW

Why spend your time reviewing grants when you should be writing them? There are a number of benefits. Seasoned investigators will tell you that review is where you really learn how to write successful grant proposals. The challenge is that early career investigators who are not yet established are not often invited to participate in grant reviews. Here are some tips for getting review experience.

• Contact your program officer after your proposal has been reviewed and you have received your summary statement. If your proposal is scored near or below the published pay line percentile, contact your program officer about addressing reviewer comments and to discuss options for resubmission.
• Paste your abstracts into the NIH Assisted Referral Tool to find the best matching study section to submit your investigator-initiated grant application to. Also, use it to find study sections that fit your expertise, then email your CV to the Scientific Review Officers (SRO) to volunteer as a reviewer.
• Gain review experience through the NIH Early Career Review (ECR) Program.
• Other agencies don’t have specific ECR programs but encourage early career reviewers.
• Look out for non-federal opportunities to serve as a reviewer (e.g. societies, private foundations, or institutional awards). These reviews often use NIH’s review format as a basis for their process. 

PROMOTE YOUR WORK

Scientists cannot live by peer-reviewed publications alone. You may find it beneficial to promote your work. The many reasons why are beyond the scope of this post. But one reason is that it’s one of the ways institutions find you for invitations to participate in conferences, workshops, or as a reviewer. If a funder invites you to participate in a workshop, it might be wise to do your best to attend, within limits. This is your chance to communicate the value of your work and why it should be funded.

• Maintain a lab webpage, professional Twitter account, updated LinkedIn profile, etc., with your research interests and expertise clearly stated.
• Seek out opportunities to give presentations and accept speaking invitations when you can.
• Attend conferences and workshops annually, within reason.
• Seek out collaborations that will enrich your lab’s expertise.
• Network.

OTHER TIPS

• Establish a diverse mentoring team. Seek out senior investigators in your department and in other departments or institutions as mentors who will give you constructive criticism and advice.
• Participate in early career training/mentoring programs like FRED, ACT, Keystone Fellows, NextProf, etc.
• Respond to NIH guide requests for information (RFI). If a funding agency is seeking information relevant to your field, it’s in your interest to potentially influence policies and activities. 
• Become a reviewer for journal articles. Journals are always looking for reviewers. Send them your CV and tell the editor that you are interested in reviewing manuscripts for them. 
• Seek out program officers prior to national meetings and arrange to meet with them.
• Join supportive ESI communities that share resources (e.g. @NewPI_Slack, @FuturePI_Slack, and ECR Central).
• Invite members of the standing study sections that review your grants to give talks to your department/lab, so they can get to know your work and you as a person, PI, and scientist.
• Share this information with other early career researchers, postdocs, and graduate students. 

DISCLAIMER

These are my personal observations while working at the NIH and nothing contained within should be viewed as prescriptive of or an endorsement by the NIH or NIH staff. These suggestions have pluses, minuses, and caveats. Seek out multiple sources of advice and weigh the potential pros and cons. This is not a comprehensive list. This is a compilation of common issues that many NIH staff have observed as areas for improvement for new and early stage investigators looking for funding.

LINKS TO OTHER RESOURCES

• NIH grant writing tip sheet | NIH grant application preparation | Other NIH tips for applicants | NIH All About Grants Podcasts | NIH peer review videos | NIAID grant writing info | NIAID information for new investigators | NSF guide to proposal writing | NIH Open Mike Blog 

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I would like to acknowledge and thank the following individuals for providing valuable suggestions, insights, and editing. Shannon Hughes (NCI), Sean Hanlon (NCI), Anthony Dickherber (NCI), Jerry SH Lee (USC), Michelle Berny-Lang (NCI), Michael Espey (NCI), Rao Divi (NCI), Andrea Stith (UCSB), Joanna Watson (NCI), Rashada Alexander (NIGMS), Lisa Abegglen (University of Utah), Karmella Haynes (ASU), Courtney Coombes (NHLBI), Christine Piggee (NIH), Cindy Roy (NIDDK).