rocketman said:
Thanks for the responses. I have gathered information from a variety of sources, but sometimes it is hard to get a clear answer.
My main question is whether an F30 (or any NIH fellowship) would provide any type of funding for the first two years of medical school. The information I have read and received indicates that you cannot even apply for an F30 until you are actually attending medical school. This seems to imply that it does NOT fund the first two years, but I don't want to jump to conclusions.
Some schools that offer MD/PhD programs do not supply stipends or tuition remission for the first two years of medical school. I'm wondering if any NIH fellowships do supply funds for this time period. Does anyone have experience with this? Thanks.
I'm a PhD (not an MD) and had F31 funding when I was in graduate school. I recognize that the F30, by design, is different. However, there are are certain aspects of navigating the NIH system that are pretty universal.
Primarily, the logistics of applying for, getting, and actually physically receiving the funding are fairly complicated. You should anticipate
at a minimum 8-9 months between the grant submission and the receipt of the funding. Basically, your grant goes in, is assigned a study section, and then several months pass before it is peer-reviewed. At that point, you'll get your priority score, and will then have to wait to get your summary statement (the actual reviews). Assuming that you have a score in the fundable range, you will then have to wait a couple of months for your grant to go through "council" which is an internal review by the institute officials. Following that,it has to pass across several desks for rubber stamping. Finally, the money is sent to your institution.
So, with all else being equal (which it may not be), even if you were to submit in December of your first year, you shouldn't expect to receive any funding until the summer before your 2nd year. And if you need to revise and resubmit (which is becoming increasingly common given the governmental budget problems), I would add at least another 8 months to the process.
I'm not saying this to discourage you, but I think it's important to be realistic about the NIH system. I'm a full-time researcher now, and believe that the F31 experience was extremely informative in terms of learning how to navigate through NIH at an early stage in my career, and in understanding what a soft money research career will actually be like. This kind of inefficient system has a lot more implications when you're waiting (and waiting) to hear back about an R01 that essentially determines whether you will have a job or not. So if you invest time in grantsmanship development now, you will only be better prepared down the road.
Good luck in your endeavors!