Include a complete bibliography not counted in page limits. Applicants must request 2 letters of recommendation. Advisor Letter of Recommendation Describes progress, evaluates research abilities and assures the availability of adequate funding to support trainee research supply funds are not available from the Training Grant.
The letter should also explain amount of advisor input to the trainee application. Secondary recommenders can include a previous lab rotation supervisor or a former employer.
Selected applicants will be invited to present their research as part of the application process in August. The following tips have been written specifically for the Cell and Molecular Biology Training Grant, but they apply to any training grant application or postdoctoral fellowship application, and in large part to a research grant application. The proposal should be hypothesis-driven. The aims of your proposal should clearly follow from your hypotheses. Begin writing with the hypotheses and let the experiments follow from that, rather than the other way round.
Why is it important? What central idea will it test? How will the results you obtain allow you to test your hypothesis?
One of the biggest mistakes people make is providing a list of experiments but not tying it to a specific hypothesis. Consider alternatives. If the central aim of your proposal gives no results, is your research project down the tubes? While no one can anticipate the outcome of every experiment, if there is a reasonable chance of your major aim not working a mouse with no phenotype, a mass-spec pulldown that produces no interacting proteins, etc.
Be sure your aims are realistic. You could propose 20 knock-out mice to test an interesting idea, but unless your advisor is planning to provide you with an army of technicians, reviewers will know that you do not understand the practical limitations. Remember also that this is a 1- or 2-year training grant. Projects that would take three people four years to complete are unrealistic, whereas a project that will be finished within six months shows that you have not considered the length of the grant.
The proposal should reflect what is possible for a dedicated graduate student, not resemble an R01 proposal for a lab. Write for a general audience. Your reviewers may know your field intimately, but more likely than not, they will know the area only superficially.
It is your job to explain to the reviewer why the field is important and why the hypotheses you propose will provide important insight. It is a very good idea to give your proposal and practice your presentation to someone outside your field and ask them if there are areas that they find confusing. Write and present clearly. When reviewers have to work through a lot of proposals, and often are rushed for time, they will be much less sympathetic to a poorly written or poorly organized proposal, no matter how brilliant the ideas.
Minimize jargon. While it might seem that you will impress a reviewer with your wonderful knowledge of a field by using technical terms, it will only alienate a reviewer. If you have to use words specific to your field, then be sure that they are clearly explained. If you use acronyms, be sure they are explained and do not use more than are necessary. The goal of the program is to provide trainees with research opportunities of a cross-disciplinary nature at the molecular and cellular level in the PhD-degree-granting programs of five participating departments:.
The Cell and Molecular Biology Training Program currently has funding for up to 20 trainee positions. Students are appointed for up to 2 years of support, pending continued National Institutes of Health NIH funding and satisfactory progress in their graduate studies. The minimum appointment is for 12 months of continuous support. The positions are awarded by a Selection Committee consisting of faculty representatives from participating graduate programs.
Eligible students complete a written application and finalists are invited to give a short presentation of their research. We welcome applications from under-represented minority students, first generation students, students from a disadvantaged background and students with disabilities.
The Cell and Molecular Biology Training Program supports a stipend at the NIH-mandated rate in addition to tuition and health insurance as long as sufficient funds are available.
Other elective fees are the responsibility of the trainee and are not paid by the Cell and Molecular Biology Training Program. Requestforms for travel funds are available online. Travel funds are available each year on a 1st-come, 1st-served basis.
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