Biosketches and Other Supporting Documents

1. Biosketches and Other Supporting Documents …..Who cares about that stuff anyway?

2. Overview: Today’s Topics • Basic Tips • Biosketches • Current and Pending Support/Funding • Other Common Documents • Facilities/Resources • Mentoring Plans • Management Plans • Letters of Commitment/Collaboration and Support

3. Expectations: • Understand purpose and requirements for supporting documents • Identify key points you need to convey through supporting documents • Develop a checklist of supporting documents for your proposal

4. Deliverables-Today • List of documents required and permitted for your proposal • Matrix of key strengths/weaknesses; novel or unique attributes/approaches; and commitments and support required/desired • Preliminary work on biosketch

5. Deliverables-Later this week • Completed biosketch and current/pending support documents • Draft facilities/resources document • Draft letters of commitment, support, and collaboration as appropriate • Drafts of additional supplemental materials as appropriate or required

6. Why do supporting documents matter? • They are your opportunity to present information reviewers will not otherwise see • Carefully presented documents add strength to your proposal and can sway reviewers in your favor

7. Basic Tips • Style and formatting matters • Don’t wait until the last minute • Have a plan: • Identify what you are and are not allowed to submit • Identify key attributes and weaknesses you want to address • Determine how you will convey desired information across all proposal documents

8. Biosketches: • Your opportunity to present your credentials to reviewers who don’t know you • Format depends on the funder. Almost always includes: • Education/Special Training • Appointments/Employment History • Research Accomplishments – pubs, support, and honors • Other common information • Personal statement (NIH, some other fellowships) • Collaborators and Mentoring Activity (NSF, other) • Courses taught (training grants)

9. Things to remember: • Follow the funder’s instructions for format and content • Spelling and grammar count • Customize biosketch for each proposal • Prepare your biosketch with the reviewer in mind…..and know who the reviewer is • Have someone else look at your biosketch before you submit

10. The NSF Biosketch: • 2 page maximum with standard NSF font size/spacing • 5 required sections • Professional Preparation (UG, Grad, Postdoc) • Appointments (reverse chronological order) • Research Products (10 max) • Synergistic Activities • Collaborators and Other Affiliations

11. What NSF wants to know: • Do you have the required academic background and position to do the proposed work? (education and appointments) • Potential conflicts of interest/range of experience (collaborations and affiliations) • Intellectual merit and scholarly value of prior work (publications/products) • Experience related to integration of teaching and research, broadening participation, and sercvice/leadership within your field (synergistic activities)

12. How to pick your ‘products’: • First five should be those most directly tied to the proposed research – pubs or patents • Second five can be combination of most recent, most prestigious, and/or most impressive in terms of co-authors • Should not list pending articles, but you CAN list those with a future publication date

13. Selecting synergistic activities: • Include things most relevant to your proposal that prove your ability to integrate teaching and research, broaden participation, and extend the impact of your work • Curriculum or pedagogy development or teaching awards • Experience with underserved students and/or mentoring • Professional memberships and scholarly leadership roles beyond immediate institution

14. NSF Example:

15. The NIH Biosketch • 4 page maximum • 4 primary sections: • Personal Statement • Positions and Honors • Select Peer-Reviewed Publications (15 max) • Research Support (current/completed; 3 years)

16. What NIH is looking for: • Scholarly credentials (Positions/Honors) • Prior research success (Research Support) • Recognized contributions within the field (Publications) • Demonstrated unique skills, expertise, environment, and experiences that position you for success on THIS project (Personal Statement)

17. How to write a personal statement: • State the goal of the project and what you hope to achieve • Describe your qualifications (academic preparation or prior experiences) and/or unique skills that position you to do work in this content area, on this topic, and/or with this particular audience • Describe experience managing projects and/or working with collaborators • Address any work disruptions or gaps

18. Sample NIH Biosketch:

19. Other Biosketches • NEH- 2 pages • Current and Past Positions. • Education: List degrees, dates awarded, and titles of theses or dissertations. • Awards and Honors: Include dates. • Publications: Include full citations for publications and presentations. • Other Relevant Professional Activities and Accomplishments.

20. Other Biosketches Continued • US Dept of Ed—typically send full CV • Department of Defense—1 page or 2 pages • Department of Energy—1 or 2 pages

21. Current and Pending Support • What to include varies by funder • Typically, you will include the following: • Project Title • Funding Source or sponsorship if unfunded award • Total Award Amount • Award Period • Role on the Project • Person-months/year allocated to the project (total, not just funded effort)

22. What are they trying to find out? • What level of experience have you had recently with grants? • Who else finds your work to be of merit? • How much effort are you currently spending on research and do you have sufficient effort available for the proposed project?

23. Facilities, Equipment, Resources • Allows you to paint a picture of your research environment • Serves as proof that you have or have access to everything you will need to complete the proposed work • MUST tie logically tie your research plan and link to letters of collaboration as appropriate—should not just be a laundry list

24. What to include • Information regarding routine or specialized facilities, instruments, tools, and technical support you will require to complete the project either on site or at a collaborator’s site • Relate each item listed to its use in the proposed research • Include information on effort to be devoted to the project that will NOT be funded by the sponsor

25. Other Supporting Documents • Data Management Plans • How data will be collected, secured, shared, managed, and otherwise accounted for • Post Doc Mentoring Plans • Specific and intentional activities designed to further research skills and job readiness as well as to develop additional domain expertise • Management Plans • Organizational structure of a project, specific roles and responsibilities of each key person, activities planned to coordinate research tasks

26. Letters of Support • Few funders allow generic letters of support (US Dept of Education is exception) • If allowed, letters of support should: • Identify who the supporter is (organization, title, and responsibilities) • Explain what they are supportive of, why this is relevant to their organization, and what the expected significance will be to their organization • Encourage favorable review

27. Letters of Commitment • Should be included (if allowed) when need to prove financial, time, or resource access referenced in a proposal • Letters of support should: • Identify who is committing what to the project (organization name, title/authority, and description of commitment) • Identify role, if any, in the project and/or why this commitment is being made • Encourage favorable review

28. Letters of Collaboration • Should be included (if allowed) for all collaborators as proof of commitment to participate in your project • Letters of collaboration should: • Identify who the collaborator is and the nature of your relationship (organization name, title, and how you have previously worked together or how you know each other) • Identify collaborator’s specific role on the project • Identify synergy of effort/why collaborator is interested in working with you • Encourage favorable review

29. Supporting Document Matrix • Identify documents required and permitted • Identify key strengths (personal, institutional, collaborator), support, collaborations, or commitments you need to highlight • Identify weaknesses (personal or institutional) that need to be addressed

30. Final Comments and Questions Thank you for your attention, and Good Luck!