F30 questions

[MDPhDyeah]

I searched around and couldn't seem to find what I was looking for. I've run into a couple of questions as I'm just starting filling out my F30.

If there are any reviewers around: How important is it that my long-term career goals are focussed on the field of the institute to which I am applying. For example, if I am apply to the cancer institute but intend to do neuro research in the future is this a problem? Do institutes want to just fund people who will ultimately be working in their field?

I also stumbled upon this PDF of advice on the F31: www.pitt.edu/~gsiegle/Siegle-f31hints-BehaviorTherapist10_fordistrib.pdf which they say is applicable for the F30 too. They seem to strongly suggest that some part of my proposed training be spent in clinic seeing patients with the specific disease I am researching. Is this actually something that is important? I've read through reviewers' guidelines for the F30 and really can't seem to find anything saying that this is important. They also seem to suggest that to get this award I really need to be doing something "beyond" the normal training as a PhD at my institution. Whrether it be specializing in some unusual technique or doing special training/classes to get special skills other people might not acquire during a PhD. Is there truth to any of this? I've seen parts of a couple successful applications from my school and didn't really notice this being a part of their proposed time.

I'm a little confused on the required 3-5 letters of reference too. Again, I have some old copies of applications but it seems like their PhD mentor was one of their letters of reference which from the application does not look like is possible. Who do most people use? I know my program director, and my undergrad research advisor will be writing ones but where do I go from here? I will have several "co-sponsors" supporting my application but I'm not clear if they are allowed to write letters of reference either. Who does everyone end up using?

On your biosketch how did you list oral presentations and/or poster presentations? I see in the example they give they seem to use the "Abstracts" section for these but I wanted to make sure this is the correct way.

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[Medicalgesia]

I searched around and couldn't seem to find what I was looking for. I've run into a couple of questions as I'm just starting filling out my F30.

I'm a little confused on the required 3-5 letters of reference too. Again, I have some old copies of applications but it seems like their PhD mentor was one of their letters of reference which from the application does not look like is possible. Who do most people use? I know my program director, and my undergrad research advisor will be writing ones but where do I go from here? I will have several "co-sponsors" supporting my application but I'm not clear if they are allowed to write letters of reference either. Who does everyone end up using?

On your biosketch how did you list oral presentations and/or poster presentations? I see in the example they give they seem to use the "Abstracts" section for these but I wanted to make sure this is the correct way.

re: your specific points. your sponsor (or co-sponsor) do not write true recommendation/reference letters. your "sponsor" should be your main PhD advisor/mentor/s. i'm confused how you will have "several" sponsors. regardless, your sponsor will write the "sponsor information" section, where they can detail your training plan, and somewhere within this they can basically include personal comments about you - essentially a reference letter on steroids.

what you're calling reference letters are actually called "referee letters" for this application. specifically, your sponsor cannot write one of these. as sponsor usually means your main phd advisor, you have to get a handful of other people who can write you a good letter (thus i think it would hurt you to have "several" co-sponsors, as this would preclude them from writing you separate letters). for my referee letters, i submitted from various sources - faculty who can speak well about me from clinical, classroom, and research perspectives.

for the biosketch, do what you want for abstracts. certainly doesn't hurt unless you have 27 publications and you have no room, then obviously omit presentation abstracts.

 

[MDPhDyeah]

Thanks for the reply. I may have misunderstood our game plan. I think it may be that I will have a single co-sponsor- the reason being that my PI is relatively new and doesn't have much of a track record with students whereas my "co-sponsor" is much further into his career and more established in the field.

Maybe this was my failure during medical school but I really don't have anyone at my school who has seen more than one side of me (academic, clinical or research). I didn't really spend any time networking. Oh well, I'll do what I can here. If anyone has been in a similar situation it would to be great to hear what you did.

Thanks again.