NIDA Diversity Scholars Network Program (NDSN) Pre-Application Webinar

Video length: 1:01:00

Transcript

[Isabela Ellenwood]

Good afternoon and good morning to all who are hopping on this webinar. This webinar is being recorded. If you do not consent, please exit the meeting now. Thank you so much for joining the first ever NIDA Diversity Scholars Network Preapplication Webinar. 

My name is Isabella Ellenwood, and I'm a program analyst in the National Institute on Drug Abuse, NIDA's Office of Research Training, Diversity and Disparities. This webinar is being hosted by myself and Dr. Aria Crump, the director of the NIDA Office of Diversity and Health Disparities, and Deputy Director of the Nida Office of Research Training, Diversity and Disparities. 

We would like to give you all a warm welcome and thank you so much for taking the time out in your day to attend this webinar. To kick us off today, we have Dr. Wilson Compton, the director of the NIDA Office of Research Training, Diversity and Disparities, and the Deputy Director of NIDA, who will be providing some welcoming remarks. I will now turn it over to Dr. Wilson Compton.

[Wilson Compton]

Thank you very much, Isabella, and welcome everyone to this webinar, which we hope will equip you with the information you need to apply for this important and powerful tool to help launch carreers of scientists in addiction medicine and addiction sciences broadly. 

I'm very pleased to help introduce this webinar as the Deputy Director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse and the Director of our Office of Research Training Diversity and Disparities. I want to highlight the Diversity Scholars network and some of the background because it's been so successful in helping to launch career of at least now several dozen scientists over the last few years even. 

We have a recent publication in neuropsychopharmacology that documents that about two thirds of the participants in this program will obtain NIH grants in the ensuing few years after they participate, and over 50% obtain a grant within two years. 

So that we think is a very good track record showing that when people are admitted and work hard through the stages of this program, and it is an active program. It's not one that you simply participate in to listen, but it requires a lot of active work in terms of developing an application and then subjecting it to internal and external review to help you make it as competitive as possible when it will be submitted to NIH for support. 

But through this mechanism, we've seen many people have their careers launched, and that's really what's so exciting for Dr. Crump, Miss Ellenwood, and myself, that using this program to see people launch their careers is extraordinarily gratifying to us as well as, of course, to the participants. 

It really is my pleasure to welcome you today, and no matter what your area of science is, whether it's basic science, applied science, translational science, implementation science, or all the other diverse areas that are encompassed by the research that the National Institute on Drug Abuse supports, we are here to help you launch your careers. With that, let me turn it over to Dr. Crump for the next steps, I believe.

[Aria Crump]

Yes. Thanks so much, Wilson. I'm going to turn it back to Isabella to give us information on our housekeeping for the day.

[Isabela Ellenwood]

Thank you, Aria. Thank you so much for that wonderful introduction, Dr. Compton.

Now I'm going to go over some general housekeeping items before we get started. All webinar attendees are muted and may submit questions at any time through the Zoom webinar question and answer feature at the bottom of the window, but will not be able to unmute themselves or come on camera during the duration of the webinar. Dr. Crump and I will be answering questions at the end of the webinar, and they will be posted on the NIDA RTDD website along with the webinar recording and slide deck, and that will happen after this webinar. Next slide. 

Here's our agenda for today in the order that we will be discussing these topics. We will start by sharing a little bit about the NIH and NIDA, then go into the purpose and structure of the NDSN program. We'll then describe the application requirements, the selection process. We'll then learn about how to position yourself to be ready to apply to the program. We'll then discuss NIH grant mechanisms and end with the question and answer session. Next slide. 

We will now get started with the presentation and begin with an overview of NIH and NIDA, and I'm going to turn the mic over to Dr. Crump.

[Aria Crump]

Thank you so much. It's wonderful. I have to add my thanks to everyone who's joined the meeting today. 

I want to just start off by giving you a little bit of background about NIH. With a budget of nearly $48 billion in 2023, we have a very important mission of seeking fundamental knowledge about the nature and behavior of living systems and the application of that knowledge to enhance health, lengthen life, and reduce illness and disability. Please note that over 80% of the funds that go to NIH go to extramural investigators, researchers in the field who submit applications for funding of their research. NIDA's one of the 27 institutes and centers that make up the NIH. NIDA's mission is really focused around understanding the causes of drug use and the causes and consequences of addiction and understanding how to develop that knowledge into strategies to improve health. Keep in mind, as Dr. Compton mentioned, our mission really requires us to embrace very diverse areas of science. It ranges from laboratory science through epidemiologic science, clinical research across a number of fields. 

We're interested, of course, in prevention and treatment services. We're interested in translation and DNI research as well. Importantly, NIDA's interest crosses all substances. The one caveat I'll throw out there is that if your research is alcohol only, that really falls under the mission of NIAAA. But if you're focused on a combination of substances, as we know, polysubstance use is often the norm, NIDA is certainly a good home as well as we support a lot of research around nicotine addiction. That in mind, I wanted to encourage everyone to take a look at the strategic plan for NIDA for 2022 to 2026. 

This particular slide illustrates the various areas that we've been talking about that are priority areas of research for NIDA. Notice in the center of this framework here are cross-cutting areas that are particularly of interest to NIDA, such as work on health disparities, data science, personalized interventions, and sex and gender differences.

[Aria Crump]

I want to make sure that everyone knows how they can learn more about NIDA. There's a strategic plan, which is a very important tool, but there are also pages on our website that I'd like to refer you to such as the ones on this slide here. Please note that all the slides as Isabella said are going to be available to you, are available to you now actually on our website. You have access to all of these links to learn about NIDA's budget, to learn about our strategic programs, and also importantly about our Office of Research, Training, Diversity, and Disparities. Now it was noted that within this office there's a subcomponent that focuses on diversity and health disparities. The mission of our ODHD is really about advancing science by making sure that our workforce is a diverse work. We really want to know that we are supporting scientists who can contribute to all areas and who represent the populations that our scientists supposed to serve. 

That said, here are some of the programs that are supported and not all. This is just a sampling of the programs supported through the ODHD. You're hearing today about the NIDA Diversity Scholars Network, but we also have a summer research internship program that supports career development for undergraduate students. We also have a NIDA Diversity Scholars Travel Award program that defrays the cost of meeting attendance for very early career investigators. We encourage you to check out our newsletter. The link is also on the slides, so that you can subscribe and learn more about the work of our office. At this time, I'm going to turn the meeting back to Miss Ellenwood to talk about the purpose and structure of the NDSN program.

[Isabela Ellenwood]

Thank you, Dr. Crump. As she mentioned, I'm going to discuss the purpose and structure of the NDSN program.

The goal of NDSN is to enhance the funding success of early career investigators from diverse backgrounds, including those from under represented groups. The program provides workshops, coaching, and other resources to scholars to assist them with developing a competitive grant application to then submit to NIH. A highlight of the program is the mock review that takes place at the end of the year, and we'll discuss that a bit more later today. Next slide. 

This slide illustrates the well known issue, that there is a lack of diversity in many STEM fields. As you can see at the undergraduate stage, there are the most minorities. As you go further along in the career stages, you can see a significant drop in both non minority and minority scientists. But as you can see, there's a very low number of minorities as you go down, and especially at Professor level. The NDSN program aims to address this concern and hopes to increase the attrition of underrepresented minorities in science careers along the career trajectory though, slide. As Dr. Crump mentioned, at the beginning of the Webinar, we have data that shows the probability of funding success after participating in the NDSN program.

This slide was taken from that publication by Dr. Albert Able at all. It shows that the data on the percentage of the NDSN scholars at 59 participants from 2016-2021 a little over half received funding within the first two years of completing the program and 69% by four years out, which is very promising data to us that the NDSN program is fulfilling its goals. Next slide. 

The NIDA NDSN program implemented a new model back in 2016 to provide support to underrepresented minority early career investigators by equipping them to navigate the competitive NIH grant process. This diagram here shows the three different parts to the NDSN program that take place throughout the year. The part 1 meeting, which is virtual, consists of presentations on demystifying the NIH branch process, the fundamentals of grant writing, and one on one meetings with your NIDA program officer and coach. Part 2, which is also virtual, includes much collaborating and networking with current scholars and past NDSN program participants and they're able to hear from NIH staff on the peer review process. Part 3 is a meeting that is a two-day workshop and that's in person. NIDA will provide reimbursement for travel and lodging for all travelers. Day 1 is a mock review meeting and scholars are able to be a fly on the wall and actually listen to their grant application they worked on all year be reviewed by actual experienced study section reviewers. On day 2, there's a debrief with reviewers with additional career development professional development talks. Next slide. This is the 2024 program timeline. As Dr. Crump mentioned, the application is now live on our website along with these slides so you will have access to this as of right now. The letter of interest that's due by January 12th, 2024. Participants will be notified of their acceptance by February 9th, 2024. The part 1 meeting will take place in March of 2024. The final draft applications to be reviewed during the Mac review are due to Nighta by August 2nd, 2024 and then the part 2 meeting will take place in June 2024 and finally, the part 3 meeting will occur in September of 2024. Slide. 

Next, I'll discuss the application information and selection process. Next slide. To be eligible for the NDSN program at the time of applying, you must be a doctoral level investigator and within 10 years of receiving your terminal degree. You must also have at least two full years of research experience after receiving your terminal degree. At least two published or impressed first author papers within the last three years and no prior NIH research or career development awards. The applicant should also be planning to submit a grant application to NIDA upon completing the program. US citizenship or permanent residency status are required. If you have any questions about that, you can email me at my email address on the slide. Next slide. 

If you're interested in applying to the program, the first step would be to send an email to this email address listed here, the NIDA training mailbox and which is nida_training@nih.gov. The subject line should read the NDSN letter of interest with the following attachments to the email. The first will be a candidate statement. The second will be specific aims and an abbreviated research strategy and the third will be your CB. We're going to talk a little bit about that next slide.

The candidate statements should describe your background, your expertise in training, your career plans, why you're applying to be an NDSN scholar, and how your research relates to the NIDA strategic plan. You are welcome, but not required, to also share information about your previous research and scholarship achievements, your contribution to the field, any diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility related activities you may have been involved with, any factors that might have affected your productivity, and how your research goals and backgrounds align with NIDA's interest diversity. But again, those are not required. Next slide. 

You might be wondering how selections are going to be made for the NIDA Diversity Scholars Network Program? An internal committee at NIDA will select between 12 and 15 scholars to participate in the program. The decisions will be based on the overall strength of the candidate, whether or not the candidate is well positioned to submit a competitive research application and the priority of the research project proposed. Again, you will be notified by February 9, 2024 whether you have been accepted. Next slide. 

Next, Dr. Crump will be discussing how to make sure you're ready for the program. Dr. Crump.

[Aria Crump]

Thanks so much. Are you ready to apply? 

You should have an affiliation with an institution so that you're able to actually submit a grant application at the time that you apply for the NDSN program. You should commit an adequate amount of time to complete your grant application that's going to be assessed during the mock review. The thing that's key here is that we typically tell scholars that you should plan about nine months to prepare that application and right now we're about nine months out from that receipt date for the mock review application. Really, you should already have that spark right now thinking about, oh yeah, I've been wanting to study this and have some thoughts about how that application might come together. We ideally would like to see that you've started a draft once you're early in the program. Again, because we'd like for you to be able to pull together a complete grant application by the beginning of August. 

As a scholar, we ask that you fully participate in all of the aspects of the program. If you are in a position where you're really divided in a lot of different directions and you don't really have time to pull together a grant application this year, it's probably not quite ready to apply. You should feel confident about your topic. You may be one of these folks whose has interests that are very broad and you'd like to be doing everything. For this program, we really want you to hone in on a particular area at the time that you're submitting your letter of interest and a scholar should have identified at least a one announcement that would be appropriate based on your own research, your own background, and discussions with your current mentors and others that you consult with. 

We're asking that applicants reach out to NIDA PO and share a concept paper prior to submitting a letter of interest. A concept paper can just be a one page that describes what the focus of the research is, what the need is, if it's related to a career development award. You may want to put in the gaps that you're trying to fill in terms of your training and your career goals. But basically, you're putting together a one page or it can even be just a specific aims page that you share with the PO. How are you supposed to contact a PO? Well, first off, as I've mentioned, we really want you to reach out to a PO prior to submitting your letter of interest and get some feedback. You can ask a PO for feedback on the fit of your idea, for NIDA's mission, and you can also ask about the fit of your research concept with the program announcement that you've identified. 

Those are very important steps to take prior to submitting that letter. If you want to understand more about what a PO can do for you, you can click this link here, which is about staff roles. I just wanted to also share that POs may seem like scary people, but we're here to help and this is the way our system is organized to be able to provide consultation to external applicants. We're very fortunate that we're able to do that prior to your submission, so we strongly encourage you to take advantage of that opportunity. 

How do you know who the right PO is to reach out to? There are a lot of different ways. I'll put out four or five actually. First, if you've identified a funding announcement that looks like a great fit for your work. If you go to Section 7 of part two of the funding announcement, you'll see a list of scientific contacts. You can start there with the PO who's listed for NIDA, and that person may or may not be the best person to consult with about your scientific agenda, but that person can put you in touch with someone. 

The second option is to use the matchmaker tool, which is a part of the NIH RePORT system. RePORT stands for Research Portfolio Online Reporting Tools. This is a link here that you can go to to check out the matchmaker. You can drop abstract into the box and press "Submit" and it will give you a list of potential POs. The POs that are listed are those who are most likely to be a good match for your science. Option 3 is to take a look at the NIDA website. On the NIDA website, there are scientific contacts that are listed within each of the divisions. If you know what is the likely division that your work would fall under, you can take a look there. 

Then the fourth option is to send an email to the same email box we mentioned before, nida_training@nida.nih.gov and you can share what your research interest is as a part of that email and express that you'd help identifying a program official. The fifth way that I'll just throw out there is if you are at a scientific meeting, be on the lookout for program officials. A lot of times we're there, we're listening to grantees, we're meeting with grantees, and we'd love to hear from you so be on the lookout for us there as well.

[Aria Crump]

Next, I wanted to talk a little bit about the grant mechanisms. 

We've asked you to come to us with an idea about what your science will be and what your mechanism will be. I'm going to take a few moments just to do an overview of NIH grant mechanisms before we take Q&As about the NDSN program. Thank you for those of you have already submitted questions, we will get back to them. We're just trying to get through the presentation. 

First off, I wanted to make sure everyone's on the same page in terms of NIH basics, so please bear with me if some of this is already known to you. We throw around a lot of acronyms at NIH and some that you really want to know and I'm going to use in the next few minutes are NOFO for notice of funding opportunity, NOSI for notice of special interest, RFA for requests for applications, and PA for program announcement. PA's come in different varieties. They may be PAS or PAR, but notice they're all program announcements. 

Please know that whenever you're applying for a grant, you're starting with a specific RFA or PA. That NIH uses NOSI or notices of special interest to describe a particular topic area that they're looking for new research projects in. It's useful to look for information from institutes about where they want to see new science being developed. Keep in mind that NOSI's point to specific RFAs or PAs and that you can choose one of those RFAs or PAs and indicate that you're applying with research related to a particular NOSI. Prospective grant *** have to pick an appropriate RFA or PA. What I mean by that is that each RFA or PA will have a designation of whether it is for clinical trials, whether no clinical trials are allowed, whether clinical trials are optional, whether it's for basic experimental studies with humans. When you submit your application, you have to make sure that the type of research that you're proposing aligns with that particular announcement. There's a link here that gives you more information about how that works. But in the meantime as I go through different funding mechanisms, you'll notice that I put down multiple different announcements and those are different based on whether they allow clinical trials or have some other variation of allowing clinical trials. 

First off, the research project grant R01, everybody knows the NIH R01, it's a mainstay of NIH, it has been for a long time. The most commonly used grant program. It's got a lot of flexibilities in terms of the type of research. But the expectation is that there's a specific circumscribed research project. Not always, but often there's an expectation that there's going to be preliminary data that supports the project. These are generally awarded for 3-5 years and the budget that can be requested can go up to $500,000 in direct cost in a single year as without permission to come in with the application. On the right hand side of the slide, you'll see some examples. This isn't by any stretch of the imagination, all the different options for R01s, but these are just ones I wanted to highlight. Note that the top box shows the parent R01 notices and these are current, they get updated typically every three years. You have to make sure you're applying to a current notice. But there's some specialty R01s as well, such as the R01 for new and at risk investigators to enhance research workforce diversity, there's the reWARD R01 and the Katz ESI R01. I encourage you, if you're interested in this mechanism, to look closely at those and discuss with your PO whether that's a good fit for you. The small grant program is the R03 program. These are funds for a short period of time to conduct, as it suggests a small project. These could be secondary data analysis, they could be developmental research, very specific purpose. They generally allow up to $50,000 in direct costs. Again, there may be variation. You always have to review the program announcement to make sure you understand the parameters around cost and certainly around eligibility as well. But for this one, the focus is there's a parent grant so that there's a wide range of research that can be submitted under the parent grant. 

I've also put a couple of other examples that again, have more specialized purpose. One, the Aid science track award for research transition. The second, the imaging science track award for research transition. Again, there are different links there based on whether that particular announcement allows clinical trials. Then the next mechanism is the R21. If you know the R01 and the R03, you maybe know the R21 as well. This is for exploratory and developmental research. These are typically limited to two years. The budgets do not exceed or cannot exceed $275,000 in direct costs over a two year period. Again, there's a parent grant opportunity so that there's a lot of flexibility around the type of research you can propose. But then there are also some specific program announcements and RF Phase that are linked to the R21 and I've given a couple of examples here. 

Next is the R34 planning grant. Now one really important thing to know about the planning grant is that there is not a parent R34 that NIDA participates in. However, NIDA does have several R34 announcements that it publishes. What is R34? It really has multiple functions. Quite often, it's used as a planning grant to prepare for future projects such as a clinical trial. These are limited to three years. The direct costs are limited to $450,000 over the three year period. Again, there's some examples on the right side of the slide of specific R34 that NIDA actually has published because again there's no general parent R34 announcement that NIDA participates in.

Next I wanted to mention that there are other funding opportunities, other mechanisms that you might not know of, but they're out there and they're available for those who are interested and have the right type of projects in mind. 

The three that I'm just going to pull out right now are the DP1, Directors Pioneer Award, DP2 New Innovator Award, and R16 Research Excellence Award. You have to pay careful attention to particularly for the R16. But any announcement. Pay careful attention to eligibility criteria. R16 focuses on specific types of institutions that are less well represented with NIH funding, they have less funding for research. The issue here is that these should not be forgotten. They can easily be forgotten because they're not the usual suspects. On the right hand side of the slide, there are some examples. Once again, Racial Equity Initiative, Visionary Award, the Abner Award for Research on Substance Use Disorders in HIV, and as I mentioned, for R16, the Support for Research Excellence Award. I wanted to just make a note that we are not encouraging individuals interested in the DP1 and the DP2 to apply for NDSN, and that's because the review process for that particular mechanism is very different from the review process, and it's not one that we're able to mimic as a part of our mock review. I just wanted to make sure that you're aware of that. 

Next, we've talked about the Research awards. I want to take a moment to talk about research career development awards. These are known as K awards. There are a number that NIDA participates in that are mentored career development awards. The K01 is a basic generic K01. The K08 and K23 are more specialized. The K08 for clinical scientists, the K23 for patient oriented research, and the K25 is also more specialized, more focused on quantitative research. There's also the K99/R00, which is the pathway to independence award, which is really a transition award. It really gives to advanced post docs, you have to have four or fewer years post doctoral experience, and it allows you to gain additional training as an advanced post doc in preparation for moving to a tenure track or tenure track equivalent position and beginning your research program. I just wanted to make sure that we had a chance to share that these are also announcements that are available. The Mosaic K99 is a special K99 that focuses on supporting diverse candidates. Brain Initiative K99 and Heal career development awards are also available. Please take a look if you may be interested in work related to the NIH Brain Initiative or the NIH Heal Initiative. That was a mouthful. 

I really gave you a lot of information, a whole lot to think about and to work on. But I wanted to share with you that if you have an idea of what the mechanism is that you're interested in, you can very easily see what all the different announcements are that NIDA participates in connected to that mechanism. If you go to the NIH guide for grants and contracts, you're able to select NIDA as an organization and select the activity code that is a good fit for your work and do a search all active funding opportunities and notices and you can see what is NIDA participating in. 

That's really important because I couldn't possibly cover all of the active NIDA programs that we have right now in this presentation. Once you identify a program announcement or RFA that looks like a great fit for you, reach out to a program official and start that discussion. I'd like to just also say whether or not you decide to apply for NDSN and whether or not you're ready for an NDSN experience, please do take this advice and reach out to program. This is exactly how you get your research program going. Next, I started off this section talking about NOFOs versus NOSIs. 

I just want to remind everyone that a NOFO Notice of Funding Opportunity is a formal announcement that's inviting grant awards. So a NOFO would be RFA or PA. A NOSI is an NIH guide notice, so it starts with the letters NOT and it's a notice that describes research interests of a particular IC. Both of these are going to be published in the NIH Guide for Grants and Contracts. The reason I wanted to revisit this idea of NOSIs is because we are starting to use NOSIs more and more to let the research field know what directions we would like to see research going in and what types of projects are becoming a particular priority for us. I've listed here some examples of NIDA NOSI topics. There's the zylzene topic, ending the HIV epidemic, reducing stigma related to drug use in human service settings, et cetera. If you identify a NOSI, keep in mind you can look at that NOSI and it will give you a list of PAR's or PAs or RFAs that you can apply to, and cite that NOSI to say, hey, I'm actually responding to NIDA's interest in this area. A few more NIH resources. We are absolutely under the umbrella of NIH and there are so many resources to help scholars who are learning the ins and outs of NIH really get up to speed. 

This is a list, please do, take on your own time take a look at the resources on these pages which are very helpful for new investigators.

I have come to the end of my section and I thank everyone for your patience and continued interest in this program and I'd like to turn it back over to Isabella to lead us in Q&A.

[Isabela Ellenwood]

Thank you, Aria. Next, we're going to go through the Q&A portion of the session. 

I'm going to read aloud some of the questions that I see in the Q&A and then myself and Dr. Kant will answer as many as we can. But just a reminder, any that we don't answer or all that we're answering will be posted on our website after the webinar, so you can have a record of all the questions and responses to them. 

So the first question that I see is a potential candidate may have identified a potential mentor or mentors in their areas of research, someone with experience, expertise in the topic, or study population and setting. Does the NDSN program allow candidates to propose such mentors, or do you plan on assigning a new mentor for the program? So at the beginning of the program, you will be matched with an external addiction scientist, who we call a coach and that person will work with throughout the year. And we do allow scholars who are accepted in the program to propose a coach that they would love to work with, although we can't guarantee that we'll get that person for you depending on their availability and other factors. But we do require that the candidate does not already know that person or is already working with that person. So you can let us know that there is someone you'd like to be matched with, but there's no guarantee. 

Another question is, how many candidates are you looking to recruit for the 2024 cohort? And we are accepting between 12 and 15. Another question we have is, is it a guarantee that someone research funding maybe for an R34 at the end of the program? Is that one of the deliverables for the program, such that all candidates are able to secure funding for research at the end of the program? And the answer is no. There is no guarantee that someone will secure research funding at the end of the program. It is not a deliverable to secure funding, however, it is expected that you apply for independent funding within a year of participating in the program. 

Another question that we have is, is this application available to those not in NIDA but in another institute? The answer to that would be, we are expecting that in your letter of interest, your proposal, your research strategy does fall within night's research priorities. That is a requirement to be eligible for NDSN. Aria, did you want to add anything?

[Aria Crump]

Yeah. I would like to discourage everyone thinking of themselves as belonging to a certain institute. What I mean by that is there's a lot of overlap between various institutes and the type of science that we have an interest in. And it's actually very common for applicants to submit an application and have what's called a dual assignment to institutes so that there's a primary and a secondary. And if the primary does not fund that application, the secondary has the opportunity to do that. I'm sharing that because I would very strongly recommend that as you think about developing your research career, you think about diversifying if you have the opportunity to do that. I think that it gives you more stability as a scientist if you think that way. That said that we would not support anyone through NDSN if the research that is being proposed does not fall within the mission of NIDA.

[Isabela Ellenwood]

Thanks Aria. 

The next question is, US citizenship is required for these application and that is correct. US citizenship is required although if you have any questions specific to your situation, you can reach out to me. 

The next question is, is clinical fellowship regarded as a terminal degree? And I'll turn that over to Aria.

[Aria Crump]

So I'm assuming that this is asked because of the 10 year statement that we ask that you be within 10 years of a terminal degree. And the terminal degree is really the degree itself. So the typically a doctorate, whether it's a medical doctor et cetera. That is your most current terminal degree.

[Isabela Ellenwood]

Thank you. And next question, does a diversity supplement count as a prior care development award in that? The answer is no, you can have had a diversity supplement and still be eligible to apply for the NDSN program. 

The next question is, does the loan repayment disqualify one from participating if you've received the LRP? And I'll let Aria answer that one.

[Aria Crump]

Love that question. If you have received an LRP, congratulations I'm so glad you know about that program and applied, it does not disqualify you from participation in NDSN.

[Isabela Ellenwood]

Thank you. Next question is, I got a K99 R00 grant from NIDA. Do I qualify for this program? And Aria congratulations for that. And you would not qualify for this program because that award does assist you with reaching independence and so you would not be qualified for NDSN. And I don't know if you want to add anything. 

[OVERLAPPING] Next question is, just to be clear, we have to be two plus years outside of our degree. What if someone receives the PhD this year but have another degree such as the JD? Should I just wait until next year, or would that be long enough? And I'll give Aria that question.

[Aria Crump]

I'm happy to take that one. The intention saying that you have at least two years is that you've had enough time to really get your career on the road. And so it's really not about anything more than the fact that you have been working in research for two years and therefore are probably in position. We probably have publications, you probably have had a chance to network with other scientists and to receive post doctoral degree mentoring and guidance and job opportunities and really just be in a position to put that NIH application in successfully. And so to answer this specifically, yeah, if you're two years past your degree that would qualify you to submit an application as as an investigator, that's perfectly fine. You do not need to wait.

[Isabela Ellenwood]

Thank you. What are the font and margin requirements formatting guidelines for the two page candidate statement? And for that one, you would use the same font and margin requirements as you would if you were submitting an NIH grant application and you can find that information online on the NIH website. 

The next question is, K awardees are ineligible even if they have not secured our funding. Correct, and that is correct if you've received a K award by the time of application, then you are not eligible to apply to NDSN.

[Aria Crump]

And Isabella, can I just jump in there and say.

[Isabela Ellenwood]

Sure.

[Aria Crump]

Once again, if you have received a K congratulations hats off to you. I think that a part of why that's the case is that you really have had the opportunity to go through a lot of these steps that we're helping applicants through. And you've done it successfully. And so we really do want to encourage you to reach out to us if you have other, how should I put this, if we can be of service or assistance to you in other ways and definitely stay in contact with your NIDA PO. But this particular program is not the best fit for your situation.

[Isabela Ellenwood]

Thank you, Aria. Thanks for adding that. 

The next question is, if we're thinking of applying for our first NIH grant for the February 16th deadline, can we still apply to and participate in the program? So if you're planning to apply for grants in February 16th, then it would probably not be the best use of your time to apply for NDSN for the 2024 program. Mostly because you would have just gotten your acceptance in the program and you wouldn't have nearly started doing anything yet with the program. So in that case, you can either wait to get your summary statement and if you want to resubmit that grant or if you're awarded, you might not need to use NDSN but you can definitely apply for the 2025 program if you're planning on submitting February 16th, or you can just do a later deadline in the year.

[Aria Crump]

And can I jump in and say, I really love that question. And the way and absolutely what Isabella said is 100% right. A part of why I love that question is because it's a tough one, because you have no guarantee when you put that application in what's going to happen. What I would say is to add to what Isabella said is that it really doesn't serve you well. I would argue unless you're putting in something for a totally unrelated application, because you've really already done everything you needed to do to develop that application. And so I would argue that it makes more sense to just as Isabella suggested, wait and see what happens and best wishes to you. Hopefully things come out the first time, which they actually do sometimes.

[Isabela Ellenwood]

Thanks Aria. And the next question, just to be triple sure, our first year postdocs and eligible since two years are expected and the answer is yes, that is correct, they are not eligible. The next question is can the grant application we prepare for be the diversity R1 for new and at risk investigators? And the answer is yes. We actually encourage that announcement and are very glad that you are considering applying to that one and we allow that one for the program. The next question is SBIR and STTR are part of this, and I'll let Aria answer that one.

[Aria Crump]

I'm just taking a step back. That is a great question. To my knowledge, I don't believe we have had applicants for NDSN who've been looking to submit for SBARSTTR. I would argue that it's not a good idea to apply for NDSN, mainly because the review panels for SBAR are very different. The expectations around commercialization are not something that we're really emphasizing and I would be concerned that it wouldn't provide the type of experience that would fully meet your needs. That said, I do understand if someone would like to have a conversation with us about that, if you're really, really interested in it's something that we don't have a firm policy on. I would be certainly open to having a conversation about that.

[Isabela Ellenwood]

Thank you Aria. There is a question to confirm there are no letters needed for the application and I'm going to assume that means like letters of recommendation and those are not required for the letter of interest process. You were just required to have a candidate statement, your specific aims and abbreviated research strategy and then your CV. The next question, if we have submitted a career development award but not funded, can we still apply for NDSN and use the same research project that we used in the application? I will let Aria answer that one.

[Aria Crump]

Absolutely. If you have applied and were not successful and you feel that this particular experience as we've described it would be a benefit to you and you meet all the other eligibility criteria, you're more than welcome to submit a letter of interest.

[Isabela Ellenwood]

Thank you. The next question is, are candidates who previously received funding through T32 or the K12 mechanisms eligible to apply? I'll throw that one back at Aria again.

[Aria Crump]

Yeah, absolutely. The matter that we're really focused on is we want to empower scholars who have never successfully gone through the grant submission process themselves. As a T32 or a K12 scholar, you're not the person who developed the application, submitted the application, and went through the process, absolutely. If you feel that this would be a benefit to you, please do submit.

[Isabela Ellenwood]

Thank you. Let's see. Next question, we had a couple that were similar. Should we wait to apply during our second year of our post doc.? I'll give that to Aria. 

[Aria Crump]

I would really refer you back to the are you ready slide. What I mean by that is there are two issues. There's eligibility and there are you ready. Did that light bulb go off? Are you ready with that idea? Are you ready to sit down today and start writing and start sharing and start conferencing with mentors and with colleagues, and with consultants, and are you ready for that journey? I think that is really the sign of being ready. But the other issue is during the second year of your post doc, have you already had two years past your terminal degree? When you say during the second year, I tend to think that I want to say make sure that you have actually completed two years past that terminal degree before you step into that, because that is really our eligibility requirement.

[Isabela Ellenwood]

Thanks Aria. The next question, is there any specific funding mechanism type example R1 versus R3 applicants are expected to apply for? The answer is no. You're not expected to apply to a specific mechanism. You just need to be positioned to submit a research grant or a mentored career development award within a year of participating in the program.

[Aria Crump]

I'll just add that as I mentioned during the presentation, it's best that you're not putting in for a DP type award. It's a very different animal from the other mechanisms.

[Isabela Ellenwood]

Thank you. Then is there a point where you're too advanced for this program? I'll let Aria answer that.

[Aria Crump]

Yeah, so that's a great question. My response is we ask that you be within 10 years of a terminal degree. I really do think being too advanced for the program is about what you know, and who you know and where you are in your own professional journey. I think someone is too advanced for this program potentially if, you have all the connections you feel like you need. You have all the knowledge of NIH systems and you have resources to support a successful application, and everything that I'm talking about today, it sounds like, I can easily learn that from the web, or I have already learned that this is nothing new to me. I think if you have that feeling based on what you've heard today, I'm happy to talk to you about whether you might be too advance. I think it's a fair question because we're asking you to spend a good bit of time engaged in the program, and so I wouldn't want anyone for that to feel like that time is not well spent.

[Isabela Ellenwood]

Thank you Aria. If I have submitted a previous K to another institute and I'm yet to know if it was awarded, can I still apply for the NDSN program? I'll let Aria answer that.

[Aria Crump]

Again I think the real question is, whenever you say another institute, I ask, I immediately think about the science. You're more than welcome to submit to the NDSN program if you feel like it would be a benefit to you if you meet the eligibility criteria and if you're planning to submit application that has science that fits within NIDAs mission.

[Isabela Ellenwood]

Thank you. If a researcher has recently submitted a career development grant application to NIDA, which has not yet been reviewed, would they still be eligible to apply to this program? If so, would you suggest the researchers speak with the PO about their career development application, or potentially about pursuing an R21 or R34 application? I'll let Aria answer that one.

[Aria Crump]

I've lost track of that. Can you read it one more time?

[Isabela Ellenwood]

Oh, sure.

[Aria Crump]

Go ahead as I'm catching up?

[Isabela Ellenwood]

Sure. If a researcher has recently submitted a career development grant application to NIDA, which has not yet been reviewed, would they still be eligible to apply to this program? If so, would you suggest the researchers speak with the PO about their career development application or potentially about pursuing an R21 or R34 type of grant?

[Aria Crump]

Yeah, this is related to the last question to me, is this really a good use of your time, and can you really be fully engaged in the process if you've already submitted and you don't really have something new that you're trying to put together. I would encourage you to reach out to us if you have specific questions that we can help you with offline. But I have a tendency to think that it may not be a great fit if you're really not actively in the process of developing or an application.

[Isabela Ellenwood]

It is now 2:30 PM Eastern Time. So unfortunately, we didn't get to answer all the questions live. But as you mentioned, we are going to respond to all questions asked in the Q&A, and we'll be posting them on our NIDA ORTDD website, and the link to that site is in the chat, and you can also just Google it along with the webinar and the slides. I just want to thank everybody for your time and for joining our first ever NDSN preapplication webinar. We hope to receive applications from you and wish you the best of luck. Thank you so much and take care. Bye.

[Aria Crump]

Thank you everyone.