Grant News and Tips

NRSA Fellowships

The Ruth L. Kirschstein National Research Service Award (NRSA) for Individual Predoctoral Fellows in Nursing Research (F31) is an excellent opportunity for doctoral students, particularly those in the B.S.N. to Ph.D. program, who want to become nurse researchers.

Applicants propose a training program and dissertation research project that will serve as a foundation for an ongoing program of research. Fellows work with a mentor who is an established investigator in their chosen area of research.

Funding is usually for 2-3 years but may be up to 5 years. Applications are accepted 3 times a year; the next deadline is Dec. 8. See the NINR web site for more information.

Are You an ESI?

If you received your Ph.D. within the past ten years and have not previously received a substantial NIH research grant, you may qualify as an Early Stage Investigator when you apply for an NIH R01 research grant. An ESI is a subset of the New Investigator category.

The benefit of being flagged as an ESI is that reviewers are instructed to focus more on the research portion of your application and less on your track record. The idea is to encourage researchers to seek NIH funding early on in their careers.

To be recognized as an ESI, you must log into eRA Commons and update your Personal Profile before submitting your R01 application.

For more information, visit the NIH web site.

Creating PDF documents

Most grant mechanisms have by now transitioned to PDF, which means converting your documents before they are uploaded into the application.

When creating a PDF document, please be sure to use appropriate software, as NIH systems will not be able to read a scanned file.

Many applications, such as Word and Excel, have a built-in PDF function. Ask your co-investigators to send you original document files that you can convert to PDF instead of printed hard copies.

When naming PDF documents, use short but meaningful names, using only letters and numbers with no other characters or spaces.

Other Support

Along with the excitement of hearing that your grant will probably be funded comes the daunting task of providing “Other Support” information for all of the Key Personnel listed on your grant.

While there is no form, there is a speci­fic format, which can be found on the NIH website. The following information is required from each person for all active or pending funded projects: grant ID number; name of P.I., source of funding; title of project or subproject; dates (entire period of support); ANNUAL DIRECT costs (this is NOT the total amount of the award!); effort (in person-months); major goals (in ONE sentence).

At the end of your list of projects is a single summary “Overlap” statement. There are two kinds of overlap: scientific overlap, in which the same research would potentially be funded by two different grants; and commitment overlap (you cannot be committed more than 100%, or 12 person-months).

It’s a good idea to keep this informa­tion on hand for every grant you are on so it’s available when you or someone else needs it. For multiyear grants, update the information every year, as adjustments may be made in the annual direct cost or in your effort.

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