Guide to Writing and Submitting Applications
U54 Grants and Fellowships – Guide to Writing and Submitting Applications
HDR@UCR Grant Writing Workshops:
- A Powerpoint presentation from the grant-writing workshop held on October 7, 2019 can be downloaded here.
- Click here for a recording of our last grant-writing workshop held on May 14, 2020.
- To learn more about Community Engaged Research methods used in Health Disparities Research, we hosted an introductory workshop on May 27, 2020. Click here for a recording of the event.
Grants and Fellowships: Applicant qualifications and review criteria
All awards are for a one-year (18 months for FIRST awards) non-renewable term; no-cost extensions are possible. Any studies requiring human subjects protocols should have a general outline of the protocol included as an appendix; although IRB approval is not required prior to submission, approval by the UCR IRB is required before any human subjects work can begin.
- Continuity Collaborative Fellowship: The goal of the Continuity Collaborative Fellowships are to build continuity of project researchers for research and database management in ongoing community-based research. Applicants must be an enrolled UCR graduate student or postdoctoral fellow in a UCR faculty lab. The applicant must include a letter from the sponsoring faculty member (who must be a full time UCR faculty member) that also includes background on the project and future goals, Applicants, including are also required to include plans for applying to appropriate extramural agencies that offer funding in their health disparities research fields.
Review criteria: Applications will be evaluated based on the scientific merit of the project, relevance to health disparities research, and the proposed plan for future grant support.
- Fostering Interdisciplinary Research - early STage (FIRST) Pilot Grants: These grants are aimed at new or developing new investigators, so applicants must be senior postdoctoral fellows (including Project Scientists) or newly appointed full time junior faculty (including Clinical Professor, Health Sciences appointments, and pre-tenure ladder-rank faculty). Clinical faculty are especially encouraged to apply. We follow the NIH policy for Early Stage Investigators: A PI who has completed their terminal research degree or end of post-graduate clinical training, whichever is later, within the past 10 years, and who has not previously competed successfully as PI for a substantial NIH independent research award. Thus, recipients of postdoctoral fellowship awards, career development awards, and other research foundation awards are still eligible for FIRST awards. All FIRST award applications will also identify a senior faculty sponsor, who must also provide a letter of support with a proposed mentoring program.
Review criteria: Applicants will be evaluated based on the scientific merit of the proposal, relevance to health disparities research, community engagement plan, the career potential of the applicant, and the quality of the mentoring program proposed by the faculty sponsor.
- Pilot Interdisciplinary Collaborative (PIC) Research Awards: Eligible applicants include interdisciplinary Research Working Groups (IRWGs), who are composed of collaborating UCR faculty organized around an interdisciplinary health disparities theme. Awards are made to the IRWG, not to one member of the group, though one person will need to be identified as the contact PI. Proposals should also include a plan for future funding, especially from NIH.
Review criteria: Applications will be evaluated based on the collaborative potential of the IRWG, the scientific merit of the research proposal, relevance to health disparities research, community engagement plan, and the plan for future extramural funding.
General grant writing suggestions (“grantsmanship”)
In general, it is best to conform strictly to the format guidelines (see application template), so that reviewers can find key elements quickly. Illustrations should be numbered and have clearly written figure legends in the same font size as the proposal (Arial 11pt), and color can often enhance the readability of the figures. However, any figures must fit within the overall page limit, and cannot be added in any appendix or supplemental material.
Hypothesis testing/premise assessment: the best proposals usually provide a clearly stated hypothesis/premise, and a plan for testing the hypothesis, including a description of how quantitative and/or qualitative data will be collected and analyzed, based on literature and previous work a statement of expected results and outcomes, as well as a discussion of the impact of the results on addressing health disparities.
We will schedule informal workshops before each submission deadline to provide guidance and to answer questions. Pre-submission inquiries are welcome; we are happy to help with formulating your research plan and proposal writing.