NIH Mentored Career Development
Awards (K Series)
Part 1
Thomas Mitchell, MPH
Department of Epidemiology & Biostatistics
University of California San Francisco
Types of Mentored Career
Development Awards

There are a number of different mentored
K awards that individuals with a research
or health professional doctorate should
consider.

Most of these awards support individuals
after they have completed training and are
transitioning to a faculty position.
Key Features of
Mentored K Awards
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3 – 5 years in length
Provide substantial salary support but limited
research funding.
Contain both a training plan and a research
plan.
Includes a team of mentors, co-mentors,
advisors, etc.
Goal: transition to research “independence”.
Selected NIH K Award
Mechanisms
Mentored
K01
K08
K07
K12
K23
K25
K99
Independent
K02
K22
R00
Mid-Career
K24
Types of Mentored Career
Development Awards

K01
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Mentored Research Scientist Development
Award: provides for an intensive, supervised
career development experience in the
biomedical, behavioral, or clinical sciences
leading to research independence.
Some NIH institutes use this award for individuals
who propose to train in a new field.
 Other NIH institutes use this award to increase
research workforce in particular types of research.

Types of Mentored Career
Development Awards (cont’d)
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K22 (example for NIAID*)
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Career Transition Award: Provides 2 years of
funding, once the candidate (postdoctoral
fellow) has attained a full-time faculty position
(to be achieved within 12 months of the
award).
*K22s differ widely across NIH Institutes
Types of Mentored Career
Development Awards (cont’d)
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K08
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Mentored Clinical Scientist Development
Award: development of the independent
clinical research scientist.
K12
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Mentored Clinical Scientist Development
Program Award: support for an institution for
the development of independent clinical
scientists.
Types of Mentored Career
Development Awards (cont’d)

K23
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Mentored Patient-Oriented Research Career
Development Award: Development of the
independent research scientist in a clinical arena.
K25

Mentored Quantitative Research Development
Award: To foster interdisciplinary collaboration in
biomedical research by supporting career
development experiences for scientists with
quantitative and engineering backgrounds.
Newest Types of Mentored
Career Development Awards

K99/R00
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NIH Pathway to Independence (PI) Award:
Provides an opportunity for promising postdoctoral scientists to receive both mentored
and independent research support from the
same award.
Amount of
Funding
per year
Salary
Support
Research/
Training
K01
K08
K23
$50K $150K
($75K)
$20K $50K
($25K)
$75K $105K
($75K)
$20K $90K
($25K)
$75K $180K
($75K)
$25K $50K
($25K)
General Tips on Mentored
K Awards

Understand the intent of the mentored K
award.
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To help promising new investigators achieve
research independence (i.e., to compete
successfully for R01 funding).
Therefore, preparing for the R01 grant
application you will submit at the end of the K
award should be the organizing principle of
the K grant application.
General Tips on Mentored
K Awards (cont’d)
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Make a compelling argument why you need a K
award
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Explain exactly how additional training and mentored
research experience will enable you to compete
successfully for R01 funding.
Be specific: give concrete examples of areas where
you need additional training or experience in order to
conduct the proposed research or areas where you
are deficient that are directly related to your research
career goals.
General Tips on Mentored
K Awards (cont’d)

Develop a career development training plan that
is uniquely suited to you.
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Given your previous training and research
experience, and your short- and long-term career
goals, propose a mix of didactic training and “handson” research experience that make perfect sense for
you (and only you).
Degree-granting programs (e.g., MPH, MAS) are
appropriate for candidates with little or no previous
formal training in research, but even these programs
should be “customized” whenever possible.
General Tips on Mentored
K Awards (cont’d)
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For candidates with substantial previous
formal training in research, a plan that
emphasizes “hands-on” research
experience is appropriate.
Reviewers expect you to fully exploit the
training resources available to you.
Writing a competitive mentored
K award grant application
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4 main sections of the grant application:
The Candidate
 Statements by Mentors, Co-Mentors, and
Collaborators
 Environment and Institutional Commitment to
Candidate
 Research Plan
Plus: 3-5 letters of recommendation
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The Candidate
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2. Candidate’s background
3. Career goals and objectives
4. Career development activities
during award period
5. Training in the responsible conduct of
research
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Suggested length: 2-3 pages – remember, Sections 2
– 5 plus the Research Strategy section (Section 11)
combined cannot exceed 12 pages.
The Candidate: Review Criteria
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Quality of the candidate’s academic and
clinical record.
Potential to develop as an outstanding
independent researcher.
Likelihood that the career development
plan will contribute substantially to the
scientific development of the candidate.
Review Criteria (cont’d)
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Appropriateness of the content and
duration of the proposed didactic and
research phases of the award.
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Consistency of the career development
plan with the candidate’s career goals and
prior research experience.
2. Candidate’s Background

Suggested length: Less than 1 page.
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Using your NIH biosketch as your guide, provide
a personal narrative of your professional career.

Explain why you made key career choices (e.g.,
to pursue specific kinds of training opportunities
or research projects).
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OK to use 1st person (“I”).
2. Candidate’s Background
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Give examples of the opportunities you’ve had
to engage in research (basic or clinical), as
evidence of your long-standing commitment to
research.
Highlight early evidence of productivity (e.g.,
pursuing a specific question, analyzing data,
presenting or publishing your results).
Describe any formal research training (e.g.,
TICR, MPH).
2. Candidate’s Background
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Tip: Begin this section with a summary statement regarding your
long-term research career goals.
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Example: “ My goal is to become an independent clinical investigator
and leader in the study of diffuse lung disease. To continue my
progress towards this goal, I am proposing an observational
prospective study addressing specific hypothesis surrounding the
role of gastroesophageal reflux in Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis
(IPF), a timely and important topic. Specifically, I am interested in
studying 3 primary topics: (1) the clinical characteristics of reflux in
patients with IPF, (2) the biomarkers of reflux and microaspiration in
patients with IPF, and (3) the impact of reflux and microaspiration on
outcomes in patients with IPF. The knowledge and experience
gained from this proposal will allow me to successfully compete for
R01 funding to validate these findings in a multicenter trial utilizing
the resources of the NIH-funded IPFNet.
3. Career Goals and Objectives
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Suggested length: 1 - 2 paragraphs
The research plan you propose should include
some specific “challenges,” for which you need
additional training and/or experience to
accomplish successfully.
These “deficits” in your training/experience then
become the focus of your career development
training plan.
3. Career Goals and Objectives
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Describe the specific areas where you have deficiencies
(e.g., primary data collection, biostatistics, qualitative
research methods).
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Example: I have made progress in developing my clinical research
skills, but there are three important areas where I require additional
training, mentoring, and experience: (1) multi-disciplinary
collaboration with clinical and basic scientists, (2) the design and
implementation of prospective study design with involvement in the
IPFnet, and (3) advanced study design and biostatistical
methodology. In the following section, I present a detailed career
development plan designed to enable me to acquire the additional
training and mentored research experience I need to address these
deficiencies and compete successfully for R01 funding, thereby
achieving independence as a clinical investigator.
4. Career Development Activities
During Award Period
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Suggested length: 1 - 2 pages.
List the specific training areas you will pursue to acquire
the new set of skills you need.
Explain why gaining additional training and mentored
research experience in these areas will be critical to
achieving your short-term and long-term career
development goals.
Describe in detail how you will gain this training, such as
through specific courses, individualized tutorials, or
practical experience gained from conducting the
research.
See Examples 1 and 2.
5.
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Training in the Responsible Conduct of
Research
Format: To ensure general proficiency, I will take the UCSF course “Responsible Conduct of Research” (EPI 201),
which is designed to address the requirements of NIH for education of investigators about ethical issues in human
subject research. It consists of 7 hours of lecture during which trainees learn through case discussions how to
identify and resolve common ethical dilemmas that arise in clinical research, how research on human subjects is
regulated by the federal government, and what constitutes research misconduct. Notably, this course requires
trainees to present and resolve ethical considerations in their own research proposals. Finally, this formal
coursework will be supplemented by an on-line course on human subjects training required by the UCSF
Committee on Human Research (CHR).
Subject matter: In the UCSF Responsible Conduct of Research Course (EPI 201), trainees learn how to identify
and resolve common ethical dilemmas that arise in clinical research, how research on human subjects is
regulated by the federal government, and what constitutes research misconduct. The on-line trainings by the
UCSF CHR includes an overview of the regulations that govern human subjects research, as well as training
modules of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act as it applies to research. I will continue to
update my training in research ethics annually.
Faculty participation: Dr. Bernard Lo, UCSF Professor of Medicine, is the course director for the UCSF
Responsible Conduct of Research Course (EPI 201). Dr. Lo is also the Director of the UCSF Program in Medical
Ethics and is a renowned biomedical ethicist who wrote the required text for the UCSF Responsible Conduct of
Research Course (EPI 201) (Ethical Issues in Clinical Research: A Practical Guide by Bernard Lo, Lippincott
Williams & Wilkins, 2009).
Duration on instruction: I will have over nine hours of training in the EPI 201 course (Tuesdays 9-10:15am for
seven weeks)
Frequency of instruction: I will receive my most intensive instruction in responsible conduct of research during
the first two years of this proposal. However, I will continue to receive guidance from my mentors and scientific
advisors throughout all five years of this proposal.