The NIH has launched a new FOA called the Stephen I. Katz Early Stage Investigator Research Project Grant (Open Mike blog post). PAR-21-038 is the one for pre-clinical, PAR-21-039 is the one for clinical work. These are for Early Stage Investigators only and have special receipt dates (e.g. January 26, 2021; May 26, 2021; September […]
Happy 2021!!!!!
As we turn our backs on 2020, a real jackass of a year, I wish you all good fortune. May your grant applications be funded, your papers be published and your exciting new science keep you jumping to see new data every week. I’m not a big fan of huge sweeping goals and resolutions, personally. […]
Why do we participate in manuscript review?
Why indeed. I have several motivations, deployed variably and therefore, my answers to his question about a journal-less world vary. First and foremost I review manuscripts as a reciprocal professional obligation, motivated by the desire I have to get my papers published. It is distasteful free-rider behavior to not review at least as often as […]
Updating the Erosion of the Purchase Power of the Modular NIH R01
I last updated this topic in mid 2018 using finalized BRDPI inflation adjustment numbers from 2016 and projections out to 2018. The latest numbers get us finalized values to 2019 and projections beyond that. There have been some minor changes from the last set of projections so it’s worth doing another update. As you can […]
Black PIs working on the “right” topics are at a further NIH funding disadvantage
One of the potential takeaway messages from the Hoppe et al 2019 finding, and the Open Mike blogpost, is that if Black PIs want to have a better success rate for their applications, perhaps they should work on the right topics. The “right” topics, meaning the ones that enjoy the highest success rates. After all, […]
Historical success rates predict current attitudes, redux
It is hard to overstate the problem that plummeting success rates at the NIH have caused for biomedical science careers. We have expectations for junior faculty that were developed in the 1980s and maybe into the 90s. Attitudes that are firmly entrenched in our senior faculty who got their first awards in the 1980s or […]
The cumulative probability of getting NIH grants
One of the career strategies we have discussed numerous times in various contexts is how many grant applications one should be submitting to the NIH. I have been a consistent advocate for …more. This is a recognition that success rates on a per-application basis have been below 20% for most of my career. Obviously this […]
Raging at the descriptive as if it is prescriptive
A quick google search turns up this definition of prescriptive: “relating to the imposition or enforcement of a rule or method.” Another one brings up this definition, and refinement, for descriptive: “describing or classifying in an objective and nonjudgmental way….. describing accents, forms, structures, and usage without making value judgments.“ We have tread this duality […]
Stupid JIF tricks, take eleven
As my longer term Readers are well aware, my laboratory does not play in the Glam arena. We publish in society type journals and not usually the fancier ones, either. This is a category thing, in addition to my stubbornness. I have occasionally pointed out how my papers that were rejected summarily by the fancier […]
End of Year Funds in 2020
As you know, the end of the Federal fiscal year can be a fun time for hopeful NIH grant applicants. This is when your favorite ICs are counting up the beans and making sure they use all of their appropriated money. This means that they often pick up some grants with scores that otherwise looked […]