• Home
  • Grants Course

Grants Course

MTR 623 -Writing an NIH Grant

Course Description:

This course will provide a comprehensive overview of the grant writing process. Participants will be provided detailed information on each aspect of NIH grants: fundamentals of good grant writing, general preparation of grant application (e.g. specific aims, research strategy, budgets, analysis of reviews and strategies of rebuttal and re-application), identifying RFAs, study sections, program officers and Scientific Review Officers (SROs), research strategy and detailed descriptions of the different types of funding mechanisms (R01, R21, Ks ). This is a writing course.  This means that you will be drafting, revising, and working one-on-one with your fellow students and the course director to improve your proposal. At the end of the course, participants will have the necessary foundation for a submission consisting of the Specific Aims, Significance, and Innovation.

Credit: 1 course unit, eligible for tuition benefits

Venue: Online

Target audience: Faculty who have not written an NIH grant before or need guidance with submitting a revised application, postdocs, or advanced graduate students. Submit the form below to ensure eligibility. 

Instructor: Ragini Verma, PhD
Time: Wednesdays, 11:00AM-1:00PM
Dates: 1/20/21-4/21/21

To register: Link
 

Questions? Contact Jessica German (jbgerman@upenn.edu) 

 

2017 Grants Course Schedule

February 1, 2017

11:00am – 12:30pm

 Ragini Verma

Grant Writing: How, What, Why, But ...
This lecture will cover all aspects of Research Strategy in detail: writing the specific aims, significance, innovation, structuring the rest of the grant and essential sections
Lecture 1 Presentation

February 8, 2017

11:00am – 12:30pm

 Christos Davatzikos

Handling the Science
This lecture will cover all aspects of Research Strategy in detail: writing the specific aims, significance, innovation, structuring the rest of the grant and essential sections
Lecture 2 Presentation

February 15, 2017

11:00am – 12:30pm

 Taki Shinohara

Conquering the “Effect Size” beast
This lecture will address all the statistical needs of the grant proposal, at the stage of writing, as well as in the analysis
Lecture 3 Presentation

February 22, 2017

11:00am – 12:30pm

Paraskevi Parmpi

Ragini Verma

Its not just about the Science
This will provide a checklist of all the non-Science documents needed for a grant, who to contact for the same, the time frame in which they are needed. Budgets and biosketches will be discussed in detail
Lecture 4 Presentation

March 1, 2017

11:00am – 12:30pm

 Despina Kontos

The art of translational grants
The format of translational grants will be discussed, along with choice of study sections, collaborators. Example proposals will be discussed
Lecture 5 Presentation

March 8, 2017

11:00am – 12:30pm

Walter Witschey

Ted Satterthwaite

 Coming of age: K99/R00
K99/R00 grant submission process will be discussed in detail
Lecture 6a Presentation

Of Ks and R21sK and R21s will be discussed using grant applications as example
Lecture 6b Presentation

March 15, 2017

11:00am – 12:30pm

Ruben Gur

Paul Yushkevich

Unravelling the mystique of R01s
R01 applications will be discussed. A psychopathology - imaging grant and a programming oriented grant will be discussed, to put the R01 application process in perspective
Lecture 7 Presentation

March 22, 2017

11:00am – 12:30pm

 Ragini Verma

Its not you, its me: life after rejection
How to convert a failure into a success, will be the crux of this session. An example grant, along with two reviews and finally the successful grant will be discussed. This will equip the participant in handling the heartbreak of rejection, writing an introduction and the resubmission.
 

March 29, 2017

11:00am – 12:30pm

Dave Mankoff

Lisa Desiderio

Eileen Maloney

The trials and tribulations of clinical trials
The format and planning for clinical trials will be discussed, via specific examples. Study sections and RFAs that need to be targeted will also be discussed
Lecture 9a Presentation

Personnel and resource planning for multicenter grants and clinical trials
Lecture 9b Presentation

April 5, 2017

11:00am – 12:30pm

 Jason Moore

Writing bioinformatics grants
The format of bioinformatics grants, RFAs and specific study section will be discussed
Lecture 10 presentation

April 12, 2017

11:00am – 12:30pm

 Dani Bassett

Grant writing: Life beyond the NIH
Funding opportunities in image analysis and algorithm, with application to neuroscience and clinical problems will be discussed.
Lecture 11 materials

April 19, 2017

10:00am – 12:00pm

Smilow 09-146AB Rm

 Christos Davatzikos
Ruben Gur
Despina Kontos
Dave Mankoff
Taki Shinohara
Ragini Verma
Walter Witschey
Ted Satterthwaite
Paul Yushkevich

Mock Study Section
The proposals of the participants will be reviewed by the panel emulating an NIH study section