Writing for Impact: Succeeding with the NSF Application

Writing for Impact:Succeeding with the NSF Application

Who we are and why we’re here Jen Wilson NSF Fellow 2010 BE Writing Fellow 2013 B.S. Biomed Eng – UVA, 2010 Lauffenburger & Fraenkel Labs Tony Kulesa NSF Fellow 2012 BE Writing Fellow 2013 B.S. Biomed Eng, Math, Chinese – Rutgers, 2012 Blainey Lab

The NSF as an example An excellent application to any one of these fellowships has the same general properties

Tonight’s plan Where to start with the NSF fellowship? What is the goal? How is it judged? • Strategies for writing the personal statement • Choosing relevant experiences • Weaving your story • Strategies for writing the research proposal • Significance • Feasibility • Impact

The NSF is Investing in You to make an Impact “It’s hard to believe how these [NSF studies] are important to our national security or national interest” - Congressman Bill Posey

How does the NSF define impact? Sustainand strengthen the Nation’s science, mathematics, and engineering Promote the use of those capabilities in service to society NSF Vision Statement NSF GRFP program solicitation To support individuals with the demonstrated potential to be high achieving To develop a globally-engaged workforce … to ensure the Nation’s leadership in … research and innovation “Leaders in their chosen fields”

How does the NSF evaluate impact? “Intellectual Merit” “Broader Impacts”

How do youdemonstrate impact?Use the criteria Advances understanding Creative & original Qualified Well-reasoned proposal; feasible Potential for institutional support

Impact affects both parts of the application Personal Statement Research Proposal

Writing for impact in your personal statement Advances understanding In your chosen career, how can you advance a field, or make an impact on society? Creative & original Qualified Why you? How are you qualified and how feasible are your plans? Well-reasoned proposal; feasible Potential for institutional support

Building impact: Selecting experiences Policy internship program Engineering student council Undergraduate research

Building impact:Casting relevant experiences Policy internship program As an intern at the Amazon Conservation Team, I studied programs that conserved traditional medicine. My analysis contributed to the growth of their programs.

Building impact:Casting relevant experiences Policy internship program As an intern at the Amazon Conservation Team, I studied programs that conserved traditional medicine. My analysis contributed to the growth of their programs. As an intern at the Amazon Conservation Team (ACT), I analyzed five prominent medicinal conservation programs, summarized effective strategies and created a summary of recommendations for the program officers. In the fall, I published this work in an undergraduate research journal. Show, don’t tell

Building impact:Casting relevant experiences Policy internship program As an intern at the Amazon Conservation Team, I studied programs that conserved traditional medicine. My analysis contributed to the growth of their programs. As an intern at the Amazon Conservation Team (ACT), I analyzed five prominent medicinal conservation programs, summarized effective strategies and created a summary of recommendations for the program officers. In the fall, I published this work in an undergraduate research journal. Advances understanding Unique & Original Qualified

Building impact:Casting relevant experiences Engineering student council I served as treasurer and learned the importance of strategically funding groups to make a difference. Later as President, I helped make collaborations between groups to publish a journal.

Building impact:Casting relevant experiences Engineering student council I served as treasurer and learned the importance of strategically funding groups to make a difference. Later as President, I helped make collaborations between groups to publish a journal. As treasurer, I managed a budget of over $40,000 and oversaw a grant program that enabled student groups to initiate new programs and travel opportunities. Later, as President, I leveraged my experiences to bring together two student groups for the purposes of publishing the first ever Spectra, an engineering-specific, undergraduate research journal.

Building impact:Casting relevant experiences Engineering student council I served as treasurer and learned the importance of strategically funding groups to make a difference. Later as President, I helped make collaborations between groups to publish a journal. As treasurer, I managed a budget of over $40,000 and oversaw a grant program that enabled student groups to initiate new programs and travel opportunities. Later, as President, I leveraged my experiences to bring together two student groups for the purposes of publishing the first ever Spectra, an engineering-specific, undergraduate research journal. Advances understanding Unique & Original Qualified

Putting it together:Combining experiences to make a point At the University of Virginia, through the competitive Policy Internship Program, I met and questioned the leaders of science and technology policy. Conversations with Dr. Bement, director of the National Science Foundation, and Dr. Wulf, president-emeritus of the National Academy of the Sciences demonstrated that scientific research can solve societal problems by informing public policy. As President of Engineering Student Council, I have created collaborations to empower developing engineering student organizations. These collaborations have lead to the first-ever publication of The Spectra, an undergraduate engineering research journal. Through these activities, I have recognized the importance of scientific leadership.

Showing potential:Combining experiences to make a point At the University of Virginia, through the competitive Policy Internship Program, I met and questioned the leaders of science and technology policy. Conversations with Dr. Bement, director of the National Science Foundation, and Dr. Wulf, president-emeritus of the National Academy of the Sciences demonstrated that scientific research can solve societal problems by informing public policy. As President of Engineering Student Council, I have created collaborations to empower developing engineering student organizations. These collaborations have lead to the first-ever publication of The Spectra, an undergraduate engineering research journal. Through these activities, I have recognized the importance of scientific leadership. Advances Understanding Qualifications

Feasibility & institutional support Undergraduate research In future work, I am especially interested in continuing to use my computational and systems biology skills to investigate signaling abnormalities in cancer. While studying relevant biomarkers in angiogenesis I became interested in signaling kinetics associated with matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs) and how activity of these enzymes leads to pathologies in cancer. I want to understand the signaling dysfunction leading to tumor proliferation and invasion by applying computational methods. I met with Dr. Lauffenburger in November to discuss the Biological Engineering Department at MIT and believe it is a strong match given my research interests. I am proposing to work specifically with Drs. Lauffenburger, Griffith and Imperiali because of their expertise in computational modeling, tissue engineering and chemistry. This group is particularly attractive to me and I know I would thrive under their apprenticeship.

Feasibility & institutional support Undergraduate research In future work, I am especially interested in continuing to use my computational and systems biology skills to investigate signaling abnormalities in cancer. While studying relevant biomarkers in angiogenesis I became interested in signaling kinetics associated with matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs) and how activity of these enzymes leads to pathologies in cancer. I want to understand the signaling dysfunction leading to tumor proliferation and invasion by applying computational methods. I met with Dr. Lauffenburger in November to discuss the Biological Engineering Department at MIT and believe it is a strong match given my research interests. I am proposing to work specifically with Drs. Lauffenburger, Griffith and Imperiali because of their expertise in computational modeling, tissue engineering and chemistry. This group is particularly attractive to me and I know I would thrive under their apprenticeship. Qualified Feasible Potential for institutional support

Writing for impact in your research proposal Advances understanding Can you find a meaningful and impactful project? Creative & original Qualified Can you think through a feasible approach to accomplishing it? Well-reasoned proposal; feasible Potential for institutional support

Writing for impact in your research proposal – interpreting criteria Advances understanding Can you find a meaningful and impactful project? Creative & original Qualified Can you think through a feasible approach to accomplishing it? • Demonstrating your potential as a scientist to • Find good problems • Come up with feasible approaches • Translate your findings into impact Well-reasoned proposal; feasible Potential for institutional support

The research proposal has a standard format Title and keywords Approach and expected results - methods with enough detail to show well thought out - the expected results and contingency plans - institutional resources - advising/lab opportunities General background - establish significance of problem Specific background - current work/approaches - where is the gap? Impact - intellectual merits - significance of problem - broader impacts - dissemination - education Your plan (summary) - what is new/creative? - how will it impact the problem/gap? 2-3 specific research objectives - stand alone, but synergize References

Establishing significance of your work Title and keywords Approach and expected results - methods with enough detail to show well thought out - the expected results and contingency plans - institutional resources - advising/lab opportunities General background - establish significance of problem Specific background - current work/approaches - where is the gap? Impact - intellectual merits - significance of problem - broader impacts - dissemination - education Your plan (summary) - what is new/creative? - how will it impact the problem/gap? 2-3 specific research objectives - stand alone, but synergize References

Establishing significance – general to specific As the use of enzymatic reaction pathways becomes increasingly important for drug synthesis, biofuels, and other applications, controlling and optimizing enzymatic systems represents a crucial engineering challenge. Nucleic acid scaffolds have emerged as a powerful method to organize enzymes on the nanoscale due to their programmable geometry and addressability. In preliminary studies, scaffolding enzymes on DNA or RNA has demonstrated dramatic increases in reaction catalysis for a variety of systems. For example, one study achieved a 50 fold increase in output of a hydrogen producing pathway by organizing enzymes on rationally designed RNA scaffolds [3]. While recent studies are a promising proof of concept, the general principles that guide the design of a scaffolded system of enzymes remain unknown.

Establishing significance – general to specific As the use of enzymatic reaction pathways becomes increasingly important for drug synthesis, biofuels, and other applications, controlling and optimizing enzymatic systems represents a crucial engineering challenge. Nucleic acid scaffolds have emerged as a powerful method to organize enzymes on the nanoscale due to their programmable geometry and addressability. In preliminary studies, scaffolding enzymes on DNA or RNA has demonstrated dramatic increases in reaction catalysis for a variety of systems. For example, one study achieved a 50 fold increase in output of a hydrogen producing pathway by organizing enzymes on rationally designed RNA scaffolds [3]. While recent studies are a promising proof of concept, the general principles that guide the design of a scaffolded system of enzymes remain unknown. General background – establishing need for field More specifically, introducing the technology What has been done already? The gap in current knowledge?

Establishing significance – addressing the criteria As the use of enzymatic reaction pathways becomes increasingly important for drug synthesis, biofuels, and other applications, controlling and optimizing enzymatic systems represents a crucial engineering challenge. Nucleic acid scaffolds have emerged as a powerful method to organize enzymes on the nanoscale due to their programmable geometry and addressability. In preliminary studies, scaffolding enzymes on DNA or RNA has demonstrated dramatic increases in reaction catalysis for a variety of systems. For example, one study achieved a 50 fold increase in output of a hydrogen producing pathway by organizing enzymes on rationally designed RNA scaffolds [3]. While recent studies are a promising proof of concept, the general principles that guide the design of a scaffolded system of enzymes remain unknown. Advances understanding Unique & original

Demonstrating thinking and feasibility of your approach Title and keywords Approach and expected results - methods with enough detail to show well thought out - the expected results and contingency plans - institutional resources - advising/lab opportunities General background - establish significance of problem Specific background - current work/approaches - where is the gap? Impact - intellectual merits - significance of problem - broader impacts - dissemination - education Your plan (summary) - what is new/creative? - how will it impact the problem/gap? 2-3 specific research objectives - stand alone, but synergize References

Demonstrating thinking and feasibility This enzyme pair is a simple, well characterized system which has been used in preliminary experimental studies by Fu et al at the Woodbury and Yan labs at ASU [4]. By choosing this system, the model will be verifiable by replicating data from Fu et al in [4]. Further verification can be performed with this system in collaboration with the Woodbury and Yan groups at ASU, built on the existing relationship between these labs and Mark Bathe at MIT.

Demonstrating thinking and feasibility – addressing the criteria This enzyme pair is a simple, well characterized system which has been used in preliminary experimental studies by Fu et al at the Woodbury and Yan labs at ASU [4]. By choosing this system, the model will be verifiable by replicating data from Fu et al in [4]. Further verification can be performed with this system in collaboration with the Woodbury and Yan groups at ASU, built on the existing relationship between these labs and Mark Bathe at MIT. Feasible Potential for institutional support

Demonstrating thinking and feasibility of your approach Title and keywords Approach and expected results - methods with enough detail to show well thought out - the expected results and contingency plans - institutional resources - advising/lab opportunities General background - establish significance of problem Specific background - current work/approaches - where is the gap? Impact - intellectual merits - significance of problem - broader impacts - dissemination - education Your plan (summary) - what is new/creative? - how will it impact the problem/gap? 2-3 specific research objectives - stand alone, but synergize References

Addressing broader impacts I will make any software and findings available to the community at large through a web site to catalyze development of new scaffolded multi-enzyme systems which are experimentally difficult to characterize and optimize. I will also work with the MIT UROP program, MIT Biomod and the MIT Biological Engineering REU program to educate and involve undergraduates in this emerging field. This work can also be used to build computer based teaching examples for the MIT Educational Studies Program to increase awareness of biotechnology and DNA nanotechnology at the high school level, and if possible, MIT edX, which provides free online courses to interested students worldwide.

Addressing broader impacts I will make any software and findings available to the community at large through a web site to catalyze development of new scaffolded multi-enzyme systems which are experimentally difficult to characterize and optimize. I will also work with the MIT UROP program, MIT Biomod and the MIT Biological Engineering REU program to educate and involve undergraduates in this emerging field. This work can also be used to build computer based teaching examples for the MIT Educational Studies Program to increase awareness of biotechnology and DNA nanotechnology at the high school level, and if possible, MIT edX, which provides free online courses to interested students worldwide. Advancing Understanding Creative & Original Feasible Potential for institutional support

FinalTips • Bold statements that you want the reviewer to see and remember • Make sure to have older students /post docs/faculty vet your proposal • Or help you brainstorm ideas • Read the solicitation carefully and use the NSF language as possible • Make it easy for reviewers to copy/paste • Stay away from controversial research topics

The same strategy applies when writing any fellowship • Research the organization • What are their goals? Why are they funding the fellowship? • What specific language do they use? • Tailor your experiences • Show, don’t tell that you’re qualified • Quality over quantity • Specifically address as much as of the evaluation criteria as possible in everything you write • Feasible and well thought out ideas • Be specific and show your thinking

Writing for Impact: Succeeding with the NSF Application