Intramural Predoctoral Fellowship Application Instructions
This application form is used by all infectious diseases and immunology graduate training programs (currently
McLaughlin Fellowships and T32 training grants) to evaluate applications for funding submitted by UTMB graduate
students. The programs maintain separate review processes but communicate to ensure the best use of limited funds.
General Instructions and Important Information
It is imperative that you read all instructions carefully and follow them exactly. Failure to follow the application format
and length limits, or failure to submit all required components of the application, including the mentor’s part of the
application, will result in the application being returned without review. Applications are due no later than 5:00 p.m. on
April 25, 2014. This is a strict deadline and applications will be rejected if submitted to McLaughlin.IHII@utmb.edu after
5:00 p.m. on that date.
Students must have passed the PhD Qualifying Exam prior to September 1 of the application year (e.g., Sept. 1, 2014, for
this year’s applications) to be eligible for a fellowship or grant.
Your mentor should fill out their part of the application (see “Mentor Application Instructions for Predoctoral
Fellowships”) and email it to McLaughlin.IHII@utmb.edu no later than 5:00 p.m. on April 25, 2014. Please note that
mentor application requirements have changed from previous years and should be reviewed carefully. Investigators
with limited experience in mentoring trainees are now required to recruit a senior co-mentor for their student
applicant(s). Additional details on this requirement and others are provided in the mentor application instructions.
You, the student, must develop the content of your application independently – it must not be the work of your mentor.
You may receive input from your mentor, of course, but your application must not contain material copied directly from
their or their collaborators’ work (e.g., manuscripts, grant applications, reports).
Appendices are not allowed, except in cases where Internet sites for key references that the applicant, mentor, or key
collaborators have produced are not readily accessible.
Although multiple predoctoral applications may be submitted by applicants from a single lab, only one predoctoral
fellowship can be awarded to any single laboratory each year.
Please note that McLaughlin Predoctoral Fellowships are generally for a two-year period, dependent on submission of a
satisfactory progress report after the first year. However, any student who has already received two years of support
from another source (e.g., a T32 grant or non-McLaughlin fellowship) is only eligible for a one-year fellowship. Previously
funded students must have submitted at least one paper for publication, as primary author, to be eligible to apply.
Application Tips
All format specifications included in the instructions or the application form must be followed exactly.
Spelling and grammar do matter to reviewers, although they understand that some applicants’ first language is not
English. Make sure to have your mentor or others proofread your application before submission.
Prior to preparing your research plan, read the new review criteria below to help you figure out what needs to be
included in your plan in order to receive a good score.
Applicants are strongly encouraged to participate in the 2014 IHII/McLaughlin Colloquium poster session, to be held
April 11, 2014. Many reviewers, including all McLaughlin Committee members, will be judging the posters and will
expect applicants to be presenting. Abstracts for the poster session should be submitted by 5:00 p.m. on March 14,
2014. The abstract submission form is available at www.utmb.edu/mclaughlin.
Review Process
The application review panel will consist of members of the McLaughlin Endowment Committee, with additional ad hoc
reviewers selected by the Committee from UTMB faculty. Committee members or faculty who are a mentor on one or
more of the applications will be excluded from the review and scoring of the applications. All reviewers will review and
score all applications, but each application will have at least a primary and secondary reviewer that will provide written
critiques and lead the review panel discussion. Applications will then be reviewed and scored in a single review session.
Each of the following criteria will be considered in the review process and each of the four categories will be scored.
1. Scientific Significance and Approach
a. Is the proposed research plan of high scientific quality, and does it relate to the applicant fellow’s
training plan?
b. Does the project address an important problem or a critical barrier to progress in the field?
c. Are the hypotheses and Specific Aims well formulated?
d. If the aims of the project are achieved, how will scientific knowledge, technical capability, and/or clinical
practice be improved?
e. Are the overall experimental strategy, methodology, and analyses well-reasoned and appropriate to
accomplish the specific aims of the project?
f. Are potential problems, alternative strategies, and benchmarks for success presented?
2. Student Applicant
a. Is the applicant’s academic record (GRE scores, undergraduate and graduate transcripts, publications,
awards, honors) and research experience of high quality?
b. Does the applicant have the potential to develop as an independent and productive researcher in
biomedical, behavioral or clinical science?
c. Does the applicant have clearly-articulated and significant professional goals?
d. Has the applicant taken full advantage of the available resources and institutional environment to
further his/her professional training?
3. Training Environment
a. Are the mentor’s (and co-mentor’s, if applicable) research qualifications (including successful
competition for research support) and track record of mentoring appropriate for the proposed
fellowship?
b. Is there (1) evidence of a match between the research interests of the applicant fellow and the mentor
(including an understanding of the applicant’s research training needs) and (2) a demonstrated ability
and commitment of the mentor(s) to assist in meeting those needs?
c. Are the qualifications of any collaborator(s) and/or consultant(s), including their complementary
expertise and previous experience in fostering the training of fellows, appropriate for the proposed
research project?
d. Will the scientific environment in which the student will work contribute to the probability of success?
e. Are the institutional resources available to the student and mentor adequate for the project proposed?
f. Will the project benefit from unique features of the scientific environment, subject populations, or
collaborative arrangements?
g. Is the proposed training plan consistent with the applicant's stage of research development?
h. Will the training plan provide the applicant with individualized and supervised experiences that will
develop research skills needed for his/her independent and productive research career?
4. Summary of Overall Impact
a. Will the fellowship enhance the applicant’s potential for, and commitment to, a productive independent
scientific research career?
b. What is the likelihood for the applicant and project to impact the research field(s) involved?
Detailed Application Instructions
Item 1: Title of project should not exceed 81 characters, including spaces. Choose a title that is specific and descriptive,
rather than general.
Items 2-8: Self-explanatory.
Item 9: Describe your research experience, scientific meetings attended, abstracts, publications, etc., and explain their
relevance to your application.
Item 10: List any awards you have received and their relevance to your application. Also, list lab rotations and give the
name of the lab PI and the duration of time spent with him or her. Include any accomplishments achieved under their
direction.
Item 11: Please indicate all intra- and extramural fellowship sources that have provided support for you at UTMB,
including dates and durations.
Item 12: Please complete the requested essay. It will help reviewers to determine your commitment to infectious
disease research.
Item 13 (if applicable): Please indicate if this application is a resubmission. If so, please provide the title of your original
application and supply the requested introduction to your revised application.
Item 14: Insert your primary mentor’s NIH biosketch. This biosketch must include research support information.
Item 14a (if applicable): Insert co-mentor’s NIH biosketch.
Item 15: Insert undergraduate and graduate transcripts. Scans of official documents are sufficient.
Item 16: Insert scan of official GRE scores.
Item 17: RESEARCH PLAN
You must use the Word document titled “FY14ResearchPlan” to input the following sections of your research plan. The
reason this specific document must be used is that it strictly limits the length of each section as follows:
Items 17a (Specific Aims) and 17b (Background and Significance), combined: ½ page
Item 17c (Preliminary Studies): ¼ page
Item 17d (Research Design and Methods): 1 ¼ pages
This gives you a total of two pages with .5” margins for your entire plan, including figures and/or tables. The font must
be 11pt Arial and the entire document should be single spaced. Insert your title and name where specified. Your
sections must fit completely within their assigned boxes.
The research plan should include sufficient information needed for evaluation of the project, independent of any other
document. Be specific and informative, and avoid redundancies.
Item 17a: Specific Aims – State concisely and realistically what the research described in this application is
intended to accomplish and/or what hypothesis is to be tested. List the broad, long-term objectives and what
the specific research proposed in this application is intended to accomplish.
Item 17b: Background and Significance – Briefly sketch the relevant background leading to the present
application, critically evaluate existing knowledge, and specifically identify the gaps that the project is intended
to fill. State concisely the importance and health relevance of the research described in this application by
relating the specific aims to the broad, long-term objectives. Clearly identify the relevance of the research to
infection and/or immunity and, if relevant, to emerging and reemerging infectious diseases and biodefense.
Item 17c: Preliminary Studies – Use this section to provide an account of preliminary studies pertinent to the
application information and/or any other information that will help establish the experience and competence of
the applicant to pursue the proposed project. The Internet sites of key complete references should be included
in Item 18.
Item 17d: Research Design and Methods – Discuss concisely the experimental design to be used to accomplish
the specific aims of the project. Include how the data will be collected, analyzed and interpreted. Discuss the
potential difficulties and limitations of the proposed procedures and alternative approaches to achieve the aims.
It is recognized that key preliminary data may not have been produced by the applicant; if this is the case, please
indicate.
Item 18: Literature cited should include critical citations referred to in section 17 (a – d), including Internet URLs for up
to three key citations from applicant or mentor. There is no page limit for this section, but be succinct.
Submission Instructions
Combine application and all required documents into a single PDF file.
Your PDF file should be named as follows: [Last name][First initial]-predoc.pdf
Examples: DoeJ-predoc.pdf, SmithM-predoc.pdf, JonesC-predoc.pdf
Submit your PDF file no later than 5:00 p.m. on Friday, April 25, 2014, to McLaughlin.IHII@utmb.edu.