How important is mentor funding source for F30?

[Green Plant]

How much would a mentor (sponsor) not having an NIH R01 grant hurt an F30 application? My mentor receives funding largely from her clinical department (she is in a surgical department with a chair that gives a good portion of departmental funds toward her lab). She does not have any R01s from the NIH branch that I will be submitting an F30 for - will this significantly hurt my application? Is there anything I can do to overcome this?

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[eteshoe]

Does your mentor have any external funds (other NIH institutes, DoD, foundations, etc)?

My mentor didn't have an R01 from the institute that I got my F30 from but he had a DoD grant from a related topic (he had some R01's from some different institutes). I also had letters of support from some of my committee members that did have R01 from the institute I applied to and I believe that was helpful (I didn't need co-sponsors or anything like that).

As long as your PI has the funds to run the lab and buy the reagents/instruments/etc to keep the lab running and you have access to core facilities or whatever will be necessary to carry out what you're proposing, then I think that should be fine.

 

[Fencer]

If you can, add a co-mentor with NIH funding... Unfortunately, it might be seen as a weakness.

 

[Green Plant]

Does your mentor have any external funds (other NIH institutes, DoD, foundations, etc)?

My mentor didn't have an R01 from the institute that I got my F30 from but he had a DoD grant from a related topic (he had some R01's from some different institutes). I also had letters of support from some of my committee members that did have R01 from the institute I applied to and I believe that was helpful (I didn't need co-sponsors or anything like that).

As long as your PI has the funds to run the lab and buy the reagents/instruments/etc to keep the lab running and you have access to core facilities or whatever will be necessary to carry out what you're proposing, then I think that should be fine.

She has funding from several private foundation grants but the majority of her funding is from the clinical department. Do you think if I get a letter from the department chair stating that there is funding available for my mentor that it would help? I have not put my committee together yet so I still need to get on that..

 

[eteshoe]

She has funding from several private foundation grants but the majority of her funding is from the clinical department. Do you think if I get a letter from the department chair stating that there is funding available for my mentor that it would help? I have not put my committee together yet so I still need to get on that..

That's a bit tricky. In my case my PI was already an established investigator w/ 20+ yrs of experience of getting NIH funding so it was expected that they understood the grant and project management aspect of science/publishing. I could see that if your mentor mostly had funding from her clinical department, it could point to her more junior status as an investigator (may not be true but it's an assumption that can be made). The fact that she does have foundation grants is at least useful in highlighting her grantsmanship skills.

I don't know how useful a letter from the department chair would be in this case. Like @Fencer mentioned adding a co-sponsor w/ the appropriate established record and funding could be useful (e.g. having someone that can work well w/ your current PI to provide insight, experience, reagents, etc). If you're aiming for the Dec. 8th cycle, I would get that situation taken care of ASAP since you'll need several documents from the co-sponsor and your mentor will need to mention it in their support letter for you. It's all about how the situation can be spun in a positive light for your training situation.