Proposal Components – OVCRI Research Training Grants

Proposal components tend to vary between the various funding mechanisms and agencies. Below are some of the areas which the Office of Proposal Development has assisted with.

Data Tables

Proposals for training grants, especially the NIH T32 and the NSF NRT, require extensive documentation of student demographics, existing training programs, etc. This documentation, in the form of required tables in the proposal, is significantly more involved than requirements typically seen in standard NIH and NSF research grant proposals. The Office of Proposal Development, working through the Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research and Innovation and with the Graduate College, can help!

If you’d like to read more, the NIH provides information about Data/Training Tables—be sure to read the Introduction to the Data Tables first.

Tips for T32 Proposal Data Collection

Establish Deadlines

Establish a deadline for adding new PIs/departments to the grant—and stick to it. Each new faculty preceptor and/or department means additional data collection efforts for the faculty member (for NIH proposals) and the entire department. Also, establish a deadline by which you will reach out to the PI or unit head for help getting data if you are missing needed information at that point.

Identify Data Resources

Explore and identify campus level or department level resources who can help with data collection.
- Take a look at the Campus Profile data published by the Division of Management Information. DMI also helps with data requests. DMI offers data on undergraduates, graduate students, and postdocs.
- The Survey of Earned Doctorates has national-level data on PhD students which are helpful for NRT tables.
- College IT units might be able to help with data gathering. For LAS units, contact ATLAS, and for Engineering units contact Engineering IT.
- For pre-doctoral tables, you can contact the person in charge of the relevant graduate program (graduate coordinator or similar) as soon as you decide to pursue a training grant.
- If your grant involves funding for undergraduates or postdocs, graduate program coordinators might not be able to provide data relevant to postdocs but could help connect you with someone else in the unit.
- Faculty mentors on the proposal can help, too, by directly providing information about their PhD students and postdocs. Be sure to look at the faculty member’s website, as it might have some or all the information needed for the tables (e.g., NIH tables 2, 3, 4, 5, and 8). Faculty CVs sometimes have the needed information.

Start with Clear Communication

With the PI and a multi-member proposal development team, identify who is responsible for data collection efforts. Establish a process to coordinate communication and document data collection efforts among the team.
Collect and maintain a database of previously submitted T32 proposals, as these might include some of the data you need for the proposal (that is, if departments and years overlap).
In general, contact faculty and departments early and follow up often. During your initial contact, be sure to communicate the benefit of the grant, how much time data gathering is likely to require, what the deadline is, and get information on who the main department contact person would be for the data collection effort. Share the data table shells and instructions and provide examples of completed tables.
Anticipating resubmissions and renewals, consider maintaining a database of data collection resources and contacts for your proposal.

Tips for NIH T32 Tables

Calculating GPAs for Table 6A

GPAs must all be converted to the 4.0 scale, as per NIH training data table instructions. As some international student GPAs do not follow the 1-4 U.S. scale, you or the departmental contact can use this free GPA converter.

Calculating Research Experience

Following are instructions from the NIH for calculating the research experience data:

Mean Months of Prior, Full-Time Research Experience (Range). For each category of entrants as defined in Part I, items four to six, enter the mean number of months of prior, full-time research experience, and range. For many individuals, this value will reflect months of summer research experience or full-time research experience following college. For those with part-time, academic-year research experience for academic credit, convert the part-time experience to full time for reporting here (e.g., 15 hours/week for 8 months = 3 months). Do not include labs associated with a course (e.g., organic chemistry course with lab).

As of now, no departments collect this information directly. One way to get these data is by reviewing student CVs (typically provided at the time student applies to the program) and available via the online system (such as GradApps or Slate) the department uses to keep track of applications to graduate school.

Here is advice from Shawna Smith, MCB Graduate Program Coordinator, about how to calculate research experience from student CVs:

“I took a sample [of student CVs] from each year by selecting a CV from the following categories: BS in the U.S., BS + MS in the U.S.; international BS; international BS + MS. You have to then check the CV for the dates they provided that they worked in a lab. I use that monthly information and apply it to students for each category to collect my low-end/high-end months and the mean. I repeat this calculation for each year.”

Roughly using this formula, PIs can review the CVs of ~10 students from each of the following categories for the year in question to get an average of the mean months of research experience for:

Students with a BS from the U.S.
Students with a BS and MS from the U.S.
Students with an international BS.
Students with an international BS and MS.

Then apply the average for each of those categories, for applicants in that year, to the other students from that same category for that year. For example, if the first 10 applicants with a BS from the U.S. from 2016 have an average of 24 months of research experience in the lab, use the 24 months for all other applicants with a BS from the U.S. from that same year. To get the months of research experience from the CV of the students, use the guidance from the NIH for calculating the research experience data, provided above.

Diversity and Inclusion

Several training grants ask for the incorporation of strategies and programmatic activities designed to promote the recruitment and successful mentoring of a diverse group of trainees. We encourage you to think of novel strategies relevant to the training program being designed; in addition, here is information about ongoing campus and department-level programs and initiatives.

Responsible Conduct of Research

The responsible conduct of research (RCR) is essential to good science. RCR promotes the aims of scientific inquiry, fosters a research environment that enables scientists to work together toward common goals, and promotes public confidence in scientific knowledge and progress for the public good. RCR training is required by funding agencies including NIH, NSF, USDA, and others as part of training programs. View the Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research and Innovation’s Research Integrity and Ethics webpage for more information and resources.

Institutional Letter of Support

Both NIH and NSF training grant proposals often ask for a letter of support from a senior administration official at the institution to show the support from the department/college/university that will be made available to the training program.

For example, here is an excerpt from an NSF NRT solicitation of instructions for such a letter: “One support letter …. is required from the appropriate senior university administrator at the lead institution and should describe institutional support for the traineeship program and how successful programmatic elements and any associated institutional policies and infrastructure will be sustained after award closure.”

And, see here for an example of NIH instructions for such a letter in a specific solicitation. Be sure to review your solicitation for specific requirements and page limits. If you would like to obtain financial commitments for the training program, contact your college dean and department head early, and the deans and department heads of other faculty on the training program, to obtain these and describe these in the letter. However, in the letter, do not quantify or attach specific dollar amounts to any support described, as that would be considered cost-sharing subject to audit by the sponsor. See also the OVCRI policy. In addition, OPD can provide a budget template for keeping track of financial commitments.

As the requirements for the content of the letter could vary from one solicitation to another, contact OPD if you would like assistance with drafting such a letter. OPD can also assist with routing the letter for signature(s) to the relevant senior administrative official(s). Please send us a final draft of your letter three weeks in advance of when you would like to have the signed letter.

Biosketches

The biosketch requirements for training grants are similar to other grants. One exception is the NIH asks for a modified personal statement for training grants which provides information on their student mentoring experiences.

NIH—Biosketch Format Pages, Instructions, and Samples

Training Grant Preparation Timeline

1. Review solicitation for specific requirements.

2. Contact unit grants office, program officer, and/or OPD for proposal development help.

3. Contact relevant faculty and ask for willingness to participate in the training program.

4. Request biosketches from faculty (note: even if they have a recent biosketch, training grants require additional information in the personal statement on mentoring experience and activities). Also, request relevant data for tables.

5. Contact units for data for the tables.

6. Collect any additional data you think might speak to the quality of training and diversity, such as time to degree (for all and separately for those from underrepresented groups), graduation rate (for all and separately for those from underrepresented groups).

7. Have a kickoff meeting with the team and schedule additional working meetings to design the program and draft text for the narrative and other sections of the proposal.

8. Contact departments/colleges for commitments, and once these are in place contact OVCRI for discussion of support.

9. Prepare budget and budget justification (including NIH budget and internal commitments budget).

10. After internal commitments are final, use the OVCRI template for the internal commitment letter and route for relevant signatures.

11. Draft letter of institutional support and finalize once internal commitments are complete.

12. Identify signing authority for a letter to sponsor and route for signature(s). Allow three weeks for this.

13. Finalize data tables and be sure to check that text in the narrative is consistent with the tables.

14. Finalize narrative and document, including adding in summaries based on data tables, and upload to the agency portal (e.g., research.gov, ASSIST).

15. Complete and route the MyProposals form.

16. Submit the proposal to SPA, allowing five full days for review.

17. Edit proposal components.