How to Prepare Your NIA Proposal Vincent Lau, Ph.D. VP of Research and Graduate Education Chief Science Officer

Key Areas for You to Pay Close Attention  Follow instructions closely, use the forms provided.  Use (acquire) a current version of Adobe Acrobat Distiller.  Do not exceed the page limit and font size.  Proof-read before you submit.  Submit your application before 9/17/2012, 11:59 pm EDT.

The Cover Page  Be sure to provide full information as requested.  A maximum grant period of one year and a maximum budget of $10,000 can be requested.  Mark ONE disciplinary Section you selected in the LOI.  You should follow your institutional (OCG) requirements.  All signatures should be original and may be scanned.  The approval signatures certify that all the information contained in the NIA application is truthful, accurate, and the proposed research is aligned with your University and College missions.

About the Principal Investigator  You are an active individual member of AACP and your College is a Regular Institutional Member.  You should be a university-appointed, regular, full-time assistant professor.  Co-PI designation is acceptable, both have to be qualified.  Senior faculty is encouraged to serve as a mentor, not as a Co-PI or Co-I. The proposed project must be yours.  Research or clinical-track faculty needs to submit a support letter from your Dean or Chair to describe your faculty role, how your current position is funded, and whether your research time spent on this project is salary covered (the letter should be included under Other Supporting Documents following the Research Narrative).

The Budget  It is advisable to work with your College or University Grants Office for budget planning.  Salary and other compensations to the PI are not allowed.  Computers, electronics, major equipment, or travel to meetings are not allowed.  Excessive publication costs or professional society membership fees are not allowed.  All budget requests should be directly associated with research data collection and benefit your timely execution of the proposed study. Intramural matching funds are permissible.  Provide justifications in the research narrative for items that are not self-explanatory or obvious to the reviewers.

Your Biographical Sketch  Provide as much information about yourself within the space that will allow the reviewers to evaluate your qualifications for performing the proposed research project.  If you have a long list of peer-reviewed past publications, list only the significant ones that are directly related to this project.  According to the eligibility clause, we assume that if successful, this application would be your first funded extramural award as a PI. Be sure to indicate any active (including the intramurals) or submitted pending grant information.

The Research Narrative  Keep in mind about how you should allocate your narrative space according to the evaluation criteria.  Be succinct. Ask your colleagues to read your proposal.  Is your research idea innovative, going to achieve significant impact on further advancing pharmacy- related research, education, and practice?  What approaches and methods would you use to study your research aims? Are they valid? How would you analyze and interpret your results? Do you have the skills and past experience in carrying out these studies?  Have you considered any limitations and alternatives?

The Research Narrative (cont.)  Are the proposed timeline and budget reasonable and justified?  How would you use your findings and what are your future plans for continuing this research project?  How important is this NIA to your early-stage career development in terms of scholarship as well as to becoming an effective pharmacy educator and research investigator?  Use only pertinent references to demonstrate that you had excellent understanding about the research topic, the methods, and how you want to approach your project.

Checklist  Is your proposal well-organized, tightly connected, and error-free?  Will your proposal excite the reviewers and can your project advance knowledge to a higher level in your field?  Would you expect high scores from reviewers on significance, innovation, approach, investigator, and environment?  Has your proposal been evaluated by a mentor or experienced colleagues using the same criteria?  If your research involves animal or human subject, have you started the process for IACUC or IRB review and approval?

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