Yes, there are F31 Sample Applications and Summary Statements on NIAID’s Sample Applications & More webpage.
It depends. Reviewers will criticize an application that has insufficient mentorship, but on the other hand, it is possible to have too many mentors! You should have enough mentors to cover all areas of expertise in your research and career development plan. When you have multiple mentors, you should explain how they will work together to support your career development.
No. When you apply for a fellowship award, your Specific Aims cannot be identical to or significantly overlap with your mentor’s awards or applications. This policy is both to prevent NIH from paying for the same research twice and ensure that fellowship and career development applicants develop their own research plans.
No. Once you have completed all the requirements for your degree, you cannot draw any funds from the F31 award.
No, the ability to draw funds from an F31 grant prior to the start date listed in the Notice of Award, known as pre-award costs, is limited. Stipends and tuition and fees may not be charged to a fellowship award until a fellow has activated the award and the appropriate paperwork has been submitted to NIH. Therefore, these costs may never be charged as pre-award to an individual fellowship.
No, you may not have two applications with duplicate or highly overlapping aims under review at NIH at the same time. This means you may not submit applications with highly overlapping aims to two different funding opportunities or for different activity codes at the same time (e.g., K22 and K99, or R36 and F31). For more information about overlap, refer to Evaluation of Unallowable Resubmission and Overlapping Applications.
Yes, the career development plan is nearly as important as your Research Plan. Your career development plan should meet your personal career goals; it should not be a cookie cutter document that could apply to any trainee. It should enable you to build all the skills needed to complete your Research Plan. This may include both classroom or workshop participation and hands-on learning. You will also need to demonstrate to reviewers that your mentors are actively involved and support your career development.
Yes, NIH requires all trainees, fellows, participants, and scholars receiving support through any NIH training, career development award (individual or institutional), research education grant, and dissertation research grant to receive instruction in the responsible conduct of research. All applications must include a plan to provide such instruction. For additional information, refer to Guidance on Training in the Responsible Conduct of Research.
No, as described in the NIH Grants Policy Statement, Section 11.2.9 Allowable and Unallowable Costs, fellowship recipients do not receive salaries or fringe benefits but do receive a stipend to help defray living expenses during the research training experience, which is based on educational level and experience. NIH also awards an institutional allowance to the sponsoring institution to help support the costs of health insurance and other training related expenses. For details, check Salary Cap, Stipends, & Training Funds.
Yes, National Research Service Award (NRSA) childcare costs apply to full-time fellowship positions and full-time predoctoral and postdoctoral trainees. The childcare cost is restricted for this specific purpose and cannot be rebudgeted without prior written approval from the NIH awarding institute or center (IC). For more information, check Childcare Costs Frequently Asked Questions.
No, NIH Grants Policy Statement, Section 11.2.9.9 Rebudgeting of Funds states that individual fellowship awards are formula based, generally restricted for the specific budget category of the award and cannot be rebudgeted without prior written approval from the NIH awarding IC.
Yes, you will need to get new reference letters for your resubmission. You can use the same individuals for references, but new reference letters must be included in the fellowship resubmission. For more information, check Reference Letters.
Yes, at the time of the award, you must be either a citizen or non-citizen national of the United States or must have been lawfully admitted to the United States for Permanent Residence. Individuals on temporary or student visas are not eligible to apply for Kirschstein-NRSA individual fellowships. A fellowship application can be submitted while an application for citizenship or permanent residency is pending, but an award will not be made until citizenship or permanent residency is certified.