In 2025, CSDE is once again hosting its annual Grant Writing Summer Program (GWSP) to assist scholars in preparing applications to the National Institutes of Health (NIH).
Applying to the GWSP is open to CSDE affiliates (UW and external) as well as to local post-docs writing K awards with one or more CSDE affiliates on their mentoring team. If accepted, the program is free for applicants in these groups.
Other researchers in the Seattle area are also eligible to apply and may be accepted if space is available. The program fee is $7,500 for these applicants.
Current graduate students are not eligible to apply.
Applicants will be asked to upload: (1) Biosketch or CV; (2) Draft Specific Aims; and (3) a letter of support from their Chair/Supervisor/Unit Head. NIH Biosketch format can be found here. If you already have one for another purpose, you do not need to tailor it to this one. A full academic CV is also fine. Specific Aims can be in draft form and still in flux, but they should be developed enough for us to get a sense of your project and its broad feasibility and relevance to CSDE’s areas of interest. More info is here. The purpose of the chair letter is simply to ensure that they support your effort to obtain NIH research funding, as not all positions are set up for this; for faculty in hard money positions (e.g. in Arts and Sciences), it is especially important for your chair to indicate that you are eligible for course buyouts, if this will be part of your proposal.
Application review will begin on May 9. Applications will continue to be accepted on a rolling basis until May 23.
Questions? See our FAQs below, or contact Steve Goodreau (goodreau@uw.edu), CSDE Development Core Director.
FAQs
- If you have any questions, please contact Steve Goodreau prior to applying (goodreau@uw.edu).
- Each participant is paired with a Senior Mentor
- We hold 6-8 working-group meetings between mid-June and mid-September. (These are scheduled collectively once the participant list is set). These will be in person in Raitt Hall. Although there will be a hybrid option for travelers to use occasionally, participants are expected to attend most sessions in person.
- Sessions include:
- Introductions to different NIH grant mechanisms, with a focus on Rs and Ks.
- Introductions to the application and funding process
- Workshopping different components of the written application (specific aims, significance, innovation, approach)
- Overviews of supporting materials (budgets, facilities, letters of support)
- Sessions will serve as deadlines for component parts of the application
- Between sessions, each participant’s writing will be reviewed by their Senior Mentor, the program director, and a peer reviewer
- Each participant will conduct the peer review for one other participant
- Mentorship
- Constructive criticism
- Camaraderie
- Structure and timeline to yield a finished product
- Scientific consultations about methods and approach and grant-development support
- Improved grant application quality and greater chance of funding success
- Any CSDE affiliate is eligible to apply, including those at any campus of UW and our external affiliates.
- Post-docs are eligible to apply only if they are planning a training program involving a CSDE affiliate on their mentoring team.
- Other researchers in the local area are allowed to apply, but will be expected to pay a $7,500 fee to attend if accepted.
- Applicants from collaborative teams, anticipating a multiple PI arrangement, are encouraged. Only two members per team are allowed to participate in the program.
- Current graduate students are not allowed to apply.
- Applicants prepare a draft, one-page Specific Aims statement and include it in their application material. Guidance on writing Specific Aims is available here.
- Applicants prepare an NIH biosketch.
- If you’re looking to create a bio sketch, we recommend using SciENV: Science Experts Network Curriculum Vitae: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sciencv/ . At this site you can create an NIH or NSF bio sketches and generate different versions for different projects.
- Applicants request a letter of support from their supervisor.
- If enrolled, participants must attend each meeting, produce written products by the time of each meeting, and actively participate in discussions about proposal development.
- Participants must share drafts of different sections of their proposal at or before designated deadlines.
- Participants must be willing to receive and incorporate feedback from seasoned grant writers and senior mentors.
- Participants must be committed to working on their proposal development between meetings throughout the summer. CSDE staff and senior mentors will be available and on-call for commenting throughout the summer.
- Participants are expected to submit their application to NIH within a year of the program.
- Participants are strongly encouraged to submit their final proposals to NIH through CSDE. Participants who are required to run their grants elsewhere are eligible to apply, but please inform us in your application.
- Letter of support from a chair, supervisor or unit head indicating support for the applicant’s participation in the program. This explicit support ensures shared understanding that the applicant will be in a position to submit a grant of this type in the future.
- We encourage applicants to obtain a promise of matching support from their chair/supervisor. This might include some summer salary, research funding, or undergraduate or graduate student RA time. This support will go directly from the unit to the participant, without CSDE’s involvement. The presence of this match may be considered in our review, although we encourage everyone considering an application to move forward with or without one.
- CSDE contributes roughly $7,500 per participant to run the program and units may consider this as an approximate guide in developing their match.
- Complete the application form here, including
- your Specific Aims page,
- your NIH biosketch,
- a letter from your chair/supervisor/unit head documenting their support for your participation in the summer workshop
- Guidance on Preparing Specific Aims is here and here. Examples of Specific Aims are available from Steve Goodreau (goodreau@uw.edu).
- Guidance on preparing a biosketch is here.
- NB: Expectations will change depending on the mechanism you are applying for; check the parent announcement for your mechanism [contact Patrick Allen (pjallen@uw.edu) if you need assistance with this]. The main requests (“parent announcements”) for proposals for NIH’s main funding mechanisms, which include all of the official rules for submission, can be found at:
- Take time to visit a relevant NIH institute’s main pages to understand their funding priorities and foci.
- Questions? Please contact Steve Goodreau (goodreau@uw.edu).
- Priority is given to CSDE affiliates, especially new faculty or early-stage investigators (those seeking their first major external grant).
- Other criteria include quality of proposed research questions and their significance to population science, the career stage of the applicant, the likelihood that the proposed work will lead to a fully drafted application, the feasibility of the proposed work, the applicant’s ability to conduct the work, and the indication that a chair or supervisor is providing matching support for the participant.
Contact us
We encourage prospective applicants to contact us with questions about eligibility, expectations, or other concerns. Steve Goodreau is directing this summer’s program and can be reached at: goodreau@uw.edu .