Dates and Deadlines

  • December 1, 2023: Pre-application letters of intent due (optional but encouraged)
  • January 17, 2024: K12 full applications due
  • TBD: selected K12 scholars announced
  • May 1, 2024: BIRCWH K12 funding begins
  • July 1, 2024: CTSI K12 funding begins

Applicants are encouraged to meet with CTSI K12 Program Director Lesley Inker, MD, MS, or Elizabeth Leary, PhD, K12 Program Manager, to discuss their proposal or ask questions. Click here to view scheduled drop-in sessions to review applications.

Questions? Please contact: Tufts.MC.Research.Career.Awards@tuftsmedicine.org

For applicants whose proposals include implementation science, we encourage you to reach out to Alyssa Cabrera, Senior Project Manager at Tufts CTSI (alyssa.b.cabrera@tuftsmedicine.org), Denise Daudelin, Director of Research Process Improvement at Tufts CTSI (ddaudelin@tuftsmedicalcenter.org), or Rachel Gold, Director of Dissemination and Implementation Core at Tufts CTSI (Rachel.Gold@kpchr.org) to discuss the application.

Pre-Application

Please email Tufts.MC.Research.Career.Awards@tuftsmedicine.org by 5:00 PM on December 1st, 2023 to confirm your intent to apply.

While not required, prospective applicants are encouraged to complete an optional pre-application/letter of intent by no later than 5:00 PM on December 1st, 2023, including:

  1. Cover Sheet/Letter of Intent (Word)
  2. One-page draft specific aims
  3. Most recent biosketch
  4. Personal data form (PDF)

Please submit documents 1-3 as a single PDF and 4 as an attachment to Tufts.MC.Research.Career.Awards@tuftsmedicine.org.

Full Application

Prospective applicants must complete a full application by no later than 5:00PM on January 17th, 2024 including:

  1. Cover Sheet/Letter of Intent (Word)
  2. A table of contents
  3. A biosketch in the current NIH format (no more than five pages)
  4. A completed personal data form
  5. Candidate Information and Goals for Career Development (#’s 5-7 not to exceed more than six pages)
    Candidate’s Background

    • Describe the candidate’s commitment to a translational research career. Describe all the candidate’s professional responsibilities in the grantee institution and elsewhere and describe their relationship to the proposed activities on the career award.
    • Describe prior training and how it relates to the objectives and long-term career plans of the candidate.
    • Describe the candidate’s research efforts to this point in the candidate’s research career, including any publications, prior research interests and experience.
    • Provide evidence of the candidate’s potential to develop into an independent investigator.
    • Describe the “distance travelled” to the candidate’s current research activities, addressing the barriers the candidate has overcome in life (academic or otherwise) to get where they are today”
  6. Career Goals and Objectives (#’s 4-6 not to exceed more than six pages)
    Describe a systematic plan that: (1) shows a logical progression from prior research and training experiences to the research and career development experiences that will occur during the career award period and then to independent investigator status; (2) justifies the need for further career development to become an independent investigator; and (3) utilizes the relevant research and educational resources of the institution.
  7. Career Development/Training Activities during the award period (not to exceed more than six pages):
    The candidate and the mentor are jointly responsible for the preparation of the career development plan. A timeline is often helpful. The sponsor/mentor may form a mentoring team (or an advisory committee) to assist with the development of the program of study or to monitor the candidate’s progress through the career development program. The didactic (if any) and the research aspects of the plan must be designed to develop the necessary knowledge and research skills in scientific areas relevant to the candidate’s career goals. The candidate must demonstrate they have received training or will participate in courses such as: data management, epidemiology, study design (including statistics), hypothesis development, drug development, etc. The candidate must include a course in the responsible conduct of research that includes training in the legal and ethical issues associated with research on human subjects. Describe the professional responsibilities/activities including other research projects) beyond the minimum required nine person-months (75% full-time research effort) commitment to the K12 award. Explain how these responsibilities/activities will help ensure career progression to achieve independence as an investigator conducting patient-oriented research. (Items 4, 5, and 6 combined should be no more than six pages.)
  8. Mentoring (no more than one page): The candidate must indicate in their application who will serve as their primary mentor and who will serve as their secondary mentor(s). Mentoring plan should include a table listing mentors, consultants and their roles. Applicants who cannot identify mentors from within their department are encouraged to speak with a member of the K leadership within the program in the preparation of their application. The selection of interdisciplinary mentors is strongly encouraged.
  9. For candidates resubmitting an application: (no more than one page) Summary of responses to previous review.
  10. Specific Aims(no more than one page)
  11. Budget and budget justification (see budget instructions, updated on 12/18/2023)
  12. Research Proposal (no more than six pages): Describe the primary research project to be conducted during the award period.
  13. If applying to CTSI K12 please add: Translational Science Justification(one page) Please describe how both this research and your planned research career align with a clinical translational science focus.
  14. If applying to BIRCHW K12 please add: Sex and Gender Studies Justification(one page) Please describe how both this research and your planned research career align with a sex and gender studies focus.
  15. Letters of support from mentors: All applications must contain letters of support from the candidate’s mentors. The mentors must be engaged actively as an independent investigator with expertise in the scholar’s area of interest. The proposed mentors must have prior experience in providing research training and a list of prior mentees should be included if appropriate. The letter from the mentors must state their credentials to qualify as a sponsor. The letter of support will state how the applicant will benefit from inclusion in this program as well as the mentor’s commitment to participate in the program. Primary mentors must also acknowledge their willingness to participate in a mentor training.
  16. Mentors’ and collaborators’ biosketches. All applications must contain biosketches from the primary and secondary mentor(s) and any significant collaborators/consultants.
  17. One institutionalletter of support from the candidate’s Dean, Department Chair, or Division/Section Chief. This letter should confirm the candidate meets all eligibility requirements, including citizenship status (citizens, non-citizen national, or permanent resident [see Section 11.2.2.4]) at the time of appointment. It should also confirm the department’s commitment to 75% time devoted to research related activities related to the funded K12 award, and commitment to supporting the difference (if any) in salary and fringe between the award and 75% of the candidate’s actual salary/fringe, not using federal dollars. The Departmental letter should indicate the commitment to the growth candidate’s long term research career. This could indicate past and current research support provided to the candidate by the department or institution. Funding priority will give to those candidates for whom a commitment of support is indicated by their Department/School for an additional year following completion of this K12 toward independent research support. If the candidate is a postdoctoral fellow and does not have an academic appointment in their home institution/school at the time of application, the institutional letter of support should also indicate that the candidate will be advanced to a faculty position within one year of funding.

Please submit documents as a single PDF in the above order in NIH style format (Arial 11 font with 0.5 margins, single spacing) to Tufts.MC.Research.Career.Awards@tuftsmedicine.org.