Applying for NIH Funding, Part 2

My F31 application is ready to submit!

Today I completed revising all of my F31 application materials. I’ll submit them to my department’s grants administrator on Monday (July 26), who will take a week to review them and submit them to the university’s central grants office, who will take another week to review and submit them to the NIH. So, the real deadline turned out to be two weeks before August 9.

This isn’t to say my work is over. There will probably be things that they ask me to change, and I also need to prod my recommenders to submit their letters before the deadline. But the bulk of it is done.

But what did it cost?

Time

Throughout this process, I tracked how much time I spent on preparing the application materials. I started 53 days ago, and over this time I spent a total of 65 hours on the application¹. Much of this time was in the evenings when I probably wouldn’t have otherwise been doing research, but there were several days when I went home early from the lab to write.

I probably would have had to spend more time than 65 hours, if not for the fact that I already had a lot of stuff written for my Ph.D. qualifying exam that I could adapt for the F31.

I also estimate that my advisor spent a total of 2 hours reading my materials and meeting with me to give feedback². Likewise, our lab manager probably spent around the same amount of time. I don’t know how much time the grant manager will spend on my application, but apparently this sort of thing is a full-time job for her.

Compare this to the “Burden Statement” on the NIH ASSIST website, which says,

Public reporting burden for this collection of information is estimated to average 12.5 hours per response, including the time for reviewing instructions, searching existing data sources, gathering and maintaining the data needed, and completing and reviewing the collection of information.

Clearly this is laughably inaccurate. Anecdotally, most people spend between 50 – 100 hours per F31 application.

Money (opportunity cost)

In order to have time to do this application, I had to turn down summer tutoring opportunities that would have paid me $2800.³

Next Steps

Once this all gets submitted to the NIH, I’ll get reviews back in a few months. If they want to fund me, they’ll submit an additional request for “Just-In-Time” information. I’m not exactly sure what this is, but I think it’s stuff like making sure conflict-of-interest statements are up to date.

If they don’t think my application is good enough, they’ll probably give me the chance to revise and resubmit. Then I’ll have to go through this application process all over again. Fun!

Once the process is over, I’ll share some of the materials so that others can see what they’re like. For now, I need to keep them confidential.

Anyway, I should have more time for blogging again soon. Stay tuned!

1. This doesn’t include experiments to generate the preliminary data, just stuff that’s specific to the F31.

2. I would have liked more of this. I was basically on my own; I even had to write most of the “sponsor statement” myself.

3. Or approximately 70% of a Dead Child.