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Members Academy News: August 2004
Applying for allergy fellowship research awards
By Chyh-Woei (Charles) Lee, MD, FIT Committee Vice ChairFellows-in-training (FITs) may apply for several research awards. Preparing these applications provides an excellent opportunity for FITs to learn how to write proposals. These awards also provide academic recognition for research efforts and offer significant financial support.
The following approach may be useful when applying for the research awards:
Talk to your mentor, principal investigator, and/or program director about your interest in applying. They are your best allies, and you will need their letters of recommendation when you apply.
Develop specific aims for your project with your principal investigator and delineate how you are going to achieve those aims. Put these specific aims in writing to help you focus your efforts.
Start early and give yourself sufficient time to plan, write and review the application. Writing a proposal takes a lot of time, particularly for those who have never written a proposal before. For example, some award limits the research proposal to just a few pages including references. Although this may seem like a short application, writing everything including hypothesis, significance, preliminary data, study design, methods and references in three pages is not an easy task.
Keep the reviewers in mind when you write the proposal. One of the main factors reviewers consider in judging the overall merits of a proposal is whether you can do what you propose. Be sure to clearly focus your specific aims.
5. Review your proposal carefully. In addition to having your principal investigator review your writing, you should ask someone who is not involved in your project to review it. Such a reviewer will provide a more objective critique of your application.
6. Share your ideas with other fellows. FITs who have previously applied for research grants are an excellent source of advice. You can obtain information about contacting fellows in the FIT directory.The AAAAI Web site, www.aaaai.org, includes funding information about research projects related to allergy/immunology. The information provided is intended to illustrate the broad range of awards available, as well as to present their specific objectives, eligibility criteria and deadlines. Visit the Web site and choose the Members Center, then click on the Grants & Awards section.
The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) Web site, www.niaid.nih.gov, also has a special tutorial section called “All About Grants.” Although the Web site is targeted at investigators who are applying for the K and R grants, fellows-in-training will find many of the recommendations helpful.
I encourage you to apply to the allergy fellowship research awards. Talk to your advisors, plan for the project, and send in your proposal.
Congratulations to the six recipients of the 2004 GlaxoSmithKline Allergy Fellowship Award: Patty Peng-Jung Chi, MD, University of California, San Francisco; Debby A. Lin, MD, Brigham and Women’s Hospital; Huifang Lu, MD, PhD, Baylor College of Medicine; Sameer K. Mathur, MD, PhD, University of Wisconsin-Madison; Douglas R. McDonald, MD, Children’s Hospital, Boston; Suzan Pae, MD, University of California-San Diego.
Congratulations also to the recipients of the 2004 AAAAI/Fujisawa Healthcare Allergic Skin Diseases Research Award: Antonella Cianferoni, MD, Children’s Hospital, Boston; and Jianfeng Meng, MD, MPH, MSc, National Jewish Medical and Research Center.
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