NIH Grant Writing Mentoring Program 2024-2025

The Office of Research (OR) is announcing the 2024-25 NIH Grant Writing Mentoring Program. NIH has over 25 institutes and centers and a $40 billion grant budget. NIH funds different categories of young and senior investigator awards in health, behavioral sciences, bioengineering, population health, nursing, and various other categories to support your career growth and research.

The program will feature individual one-on-one meetings with Dr. Dinender Singla and Dr. Nichole Lighthall, OR faculty fellows. These fellows are experienced researchers and well-funded with NIH grants that last more than 20 years.

These fellows will nurture the grant ideas, support creating the grant, discuss readiness, brainstorm ideas to generate novelty and innovation in the grant, and provide direct mentoring while developing a white paper. We’ve crafted a roadmap detailing the essential stages of one-on-one mentorship activities and provided a tentative timeline to ensure structured progress. The main steps of individual mentoring activities and a tentative timeline are outlined below. The timeline of the individual mentoring will depend on the NIH institute deadlines.

Eligible faculty members are encouraged to register by filling out the following online form by 1/10/25.

 1. Meeting with OR Fellows: Nichole Lighthall/Dinender Singla (Readiness / Q&A) (January) 

• • Discussion on NIH grant target, brainstorming of ideas, how to write for reviewers etc. 
  • Feedback on draft Specific Aims and Aims page (enough support to prepare the pitch to NIH grant development panel)
  • If available, meet at your office and/or lab

2. College-level committee of experienced NIH-funded faculty (February/March)

• • Pitch Aims to 4–6-member panel (15 min) 
  • Q&A/Feedback (25 minutes, verbal during, written after)  

3. Post-pitch mentoring and revision of pitch (OR Fellows + help from ResDev) (March/April) 

• • Revise your Aims based on the feedback

4. Program Officer (PO) feedback (March/April) 

• • Email 1 or more POs and schedule video chat meeting(s). Make a presentation(s) for feedback on Aims and fit with the program.

• Identify appropriate institute and study section for proposal and address feedback on Aims

5. First Draft Submission for review (April/May, exact date TBD) – PI paired with 2 panelists 

• • Feedback in two weeks 
  • Revision after feedback 
  • Second Draft and revision if needed (Note: If you need multiple feedback on the draft, you may have to submit earlier than April; this depends on the agency deadline) 

6. Final Draft submission for review (May/June, this depends on agency deadline) 

• • two panelists to review and provide feedback in a week (additional reviews by OR Fellows and ResDev when possible) 
  • PI to revise the final proposal and submit for Cycle II due date (~early June-early July)

Questions? Please contact: Dinender Singla and Nichole Lighthall

PROPOSAL SUBMISSION DEADLINES CLOSE TO UPCOMING UCF HOLIDAYS

Faculty please be advised of the following due date implications for external proposals with deadlines in proximity to or during upcoming UCF holidays.

• Veterans Day: Monday, November 11th
  • Skip this day when calculating CHPS’s 7-day and OR’s 5-day submission deadlines.

 

• Thanksgiving: Wednesday, November 27th through Friday, November 29th
  • Submit by 8 AM Wednesday, November 20th for any deadlines during Thanksgiving break.

 

• Winter Break: Thursday, December 19th through Wednesday, January 1st
  • Submit by 8 AM Thursday, December 12 for any deadlines during the winter break.
  • For proposals with sponsor deadlines directly following Winter Break, it is encouraged to complete the internal review process by Wednesday, December 18th.

2024-25 DoD Young Investigator Award Mentoring Program

Every year, DoD agencies (Air Force Office of Scientific Research, Army Research Office, Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, and Office of Naval Research) provide funding to eligible outstanding early career faculty members to support their research.

The program will feature individual one-on-one meetings with Dr. Michael Macedonia (AVP for Research) and Dr. Vladimir Boginski (OR faculty fellow) to discuss the readiness, ideas and brainstorming of ideas, and direct mentoring during the development of a white paper. The main steps and tentative timeline of the individual mentoring activities are outlined below. Please note that the timeline may vary depending on each individual faculty member’s target DoD agency (e.g., AFOSR, ONR, ARO, DARPA, etc.), as they may have different submission deadlines for their Early Career/Young Investigator programs.

Eligible faculty members are encouraged to register by filling out the following online form by October 31, 2024: https://bit.ly/4eJjW4l

1. Meeting with M.M. and V.B. (Readiness / Q&A) (November)

1. • Continual feedback on draft pitch and summary (support to prepare the pitch to the panel)

2. Pitch presentation to a committee of past DoD Young Investigator award recipients + a few experienced DoD-funded faculty (November/December/January).

2. • Pitch to 4–6-member panel (15 min)
   • Q&A/Feedback (25 minutes, verbal during, written after)

3. Post-pitch mentoring and revision of pitch (V.B., M.M. + help from ResDev) (December/January)
4. Program Manager Stage (January/February)

4. • Identify the appropriate program manager
   • Communicate with them (email/phone)
   • Possible meeting (travel)

5. First Draft Submission for panel review (February/March) – PI paired with 2 panelists

5. • Feedback in two weeks
   • Revision after feedback
   • Second Draft and revision if needed

(Note: If you need multiple feedback on the draft, or if your target DoD agency has an early deadline for full proposal submission, you may have to submit your draft earlier)

6. Final Draft submission for review (February/March/April)

6. • 2 panelists to review and feedback in a week (additional reviews by V.B., M.M., and ResDev when possible)
   • PI to revise the final proposal and submit it to the respective agency.

Note: Contingent on the successful completion of the entire program, eligible faculty may qualify for a travel grant program from OR to cover travel expenses up to $1000 for a visit to DoD PM(s). Matching funds from the participant’s unit will be strongly encouraged, but not required.

Faculty who are no longer eligible for DoD young investigator awards but are interested in writing DoD proposals can also participate in the mentoring program. However, they may not receive travel support from OR.

Nuts & Bolts Faculty Development Series

The CHPS Office of Research extends thanks to everyone who was able to join the October Nuts & Bolts Session on Internal Faculty Awards. A recording of the session is available here and the passcode is Xy6Q+6AN for anyone who missed this session or who would like to revisit the content.

A Handout document is provided here to summarize available awards, review procedures & Helpful Hints for preparing award applications.

FACULTY RESEARCH SUPPORT

CHPS Student Support Initiative (Fall 2024/Spring 2025)
Up to $3K provided for OPS Under/Graduate Student Support to complete data collection, data analysis, manuscript preparation, and/or grant proposal preparation activities.
Full RFA Details | Application Link

CHPS Student Conference Travel Initiative
Funding is available to cover Registration, Airfare, Hotel & Per Diem for students to deliver peer-reviewed presentations at professional conferences.
Application Link

CHPS Faculty Research Development Initiative
Funding is available for faculty to pursue advanced learning in research methods and/or research proposal development. Funding can support program registration and/or travel to participate in research development programs/conferences.
Application Link