Grants Facilitation
KOHORT K Award Program 2024
KOHORT is a 6-month program solely for postdocs and early-stage investigators. It was developed and led by the Grants Facilitation Unit (GFU) within the School of Medicine Office of Research. KOHORT is designed to support School of Medicine-associated investigators by providing a solid foundation in creating, submitting, and receiving a career development award (K01, K08, K23, K99/R00, etc.) from the National Institutes of Health (NIH). It is not suitable for investigators writing research (R-series) proposals for NIH or for people writing career development proposals for other funding agencies or foundations.
Our expectation is that KOHORT participants will use this program to prepare an NIH K application for the October 12, 2025 due date. If you are working on a resubmission or want to submit an NIH Kaward
before October 2025 (e.g., June cycle), contact our team for one-on-one support. KOHORT will consist of highly interactive meetings held on Zoom every other week and involve instruction, participant engagement in peer review, and coaching in small groups. It is important to note that, given the design of the program, KOHORT will require commitment from both scholars and their primary mentors.
Scholars are expected to come to meetings with assigned drafts completed, be actively engaged during meetings, and provide peer-to-peer feedback. Mentors are expected to actively participate with their mentee in KOHORT, which involves: 1) participating in the KOHORT Mentor Orientation on March 13; 2) participating in the KOHORT Kickoff session on March 20; 3) critically reviewing mentee’s proposal and sharing feedback at a writing group session in August; 4) participating in a mock review session with an outside reviewer in September; and 5) reviewing their mentee’s grant application sections throughout the program.
Key Features
- Regular peer feedback
- Drafts due bi-weekly for group discussion
- Group coaching
- NIH-style mock review
Assistance Provided
- Critical review for clarity and coherency
- Feedback from colleagues outside your niche
- Effective communication
- NIH-style mock review
Sections To Be Written
- Biosketch
- Specific aims
- Significance and innovation
- Approach and references
- Candidate background
- Career training plan
- Other NIH form pages
Eligibility
- Postdoctoral scholars
- Clinical fellows
- Junior faculty
Preference is given to investigators associated with UC Davis School of Medicine.
Expectations
Program participants are expected to:
- Devote five hours per week to writing
- Already have a research plan
- Already have a mentor for the K-award
- Submit their proposal within six months of completion of the KOHORT program
Application Process
Please complete an application form (pdf) and email a single PDF of the required materials to Tracy Huff at tahuff@ucdavis.edu by February 6, 2025. All applications will be thoroughly reviewed, and candidates will be informed of their inclusion in the KOHORT program by February 20, 2025. The KOHORT program will begin on March 20, 2025.