NCI Special Notes

Funded K08 Grants

Submitting an Application

Peer Review Process

Frequently Asked Questions

Policy-Related Application Process/Review Related Policy/Post Award

NCI Staff Contacts

Introduction

The purpose of the Mentored Clinical Scientist Development Award is to support individual candidates with a clinical doctoral degree (e.g., M.D.) or equivalent, to become well-trained laboratory-based cancer researchers. The K08 supports up to five years of combined didactic and mentored research experiences for candidates to acquire the methodological and theoretical research skills needed to become an independent scientist. The mentor should be recognized as an accomplished investigator in the proposed research, and should have a track record of success in training independent investigators. Planning, direction and execution of the program are the responsibility of the candidate and his/her mentor on behalf of the applicant institution. The K08 award is not renewable.

The candidate must be a citizen of the United States, or a non-citizen national, or must have been lawfully admitted for permanent residence and possess an Alien Registration Receipt Card (1-151 or 1-551) or some other verification of legal admission as a permanent resident at the time of the award. Foreign nationals and individuals on temporary or student visas are not eligible.

NCI establishes the upper limits of $75,000 for salary support per year plus fringe benefits, and $30,000 research development expenses such as tuition and fees, supplies, equipment and technical personnel, travel to research meetings or training, and statistical and computational services. Candidates must be able to commit a minimum of 75% full-time professional effort to the conduct of research and research career development. NCI does not permit grant-related income (i.e., fees) from clinical practice, professional consultation, or other comparable activities to be retained by the career award participant.

Program Announcement

Eligibility

The K08 mechanism is used to support the career development and research training of individuals with a health professional doctoral degree (e.g., M.D., D.O., D.V.M., Pharm. D., Ph.D. in nursing) committed to a career in laboratory or field-based research. This award may also be used to support a laboratory focused career development and research training experience in translational research. (Translational research uses knowledge of human biology to develop and test the feasibility of cancer-relevant interventions in humans and/or determines the biological basis for observations made in individuals with cancer or in populations at risk for cancer.)

Data Sharing

Under the NIH Data Sharing Policy ², grantees are expected to engage in a timely release of final data sets that have been generated with NIH support for use by other researchers, provide a Data Sharing Plan that will achieve this objective, OR state why data sharing is not possible or appropriate. No Data Sharing Plan is required for the K08 mechanism because it supports a career development rather than a research grant. It supports salaries and other ancillary costs for individual awardees, but it does not provide support for the generation of research data, directly. With regard to the data generated by awardees working in research environments funded by NIH research grants, it is the responsibility of the institutions that are awarded these research grants to share the data and provide acceptable Data Sharing Plans to the NIH as part of the research application.

Grant #	PI Name	Project Title	Org Name
5K08CA114395-02	AMIN, HESHAM M	Role of Jak3 in Anaplastic Large Cell Lymphoma	UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS MD ANDERSON CAN CTR
5K08CA118416-02	ARMANIOS, MARY Y.	Telomere Shortening and Stem Cell Maintenance	JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY
5K08CA123100-02	ATTIYEH, EDWARD F	Discovery of Chromosome Arm 11q Tumor Suppressor Genes in Neuroblastoma	CHILDREN'S HOSPITAL OF PHILADELPHIA
5K08CA100138-06	BECKER, MICHAEL WILLIAM	The Variable Expression of CD33 on Leukemic Stem Cells	UNIVERSITY OF ROCHESTER
1K08CA118178-01A2	BEIERLE, ELIZABETH A	Focal Adhesion Kinase (FAK) in Human Neuroblastoma	UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA
1K08CA122833-01A1	BEROUKHIM, RAMEEN	High-resolution genome-wide mapping of structural mutations in prostate cancer	DANA-FARBER CANCER INSTITUTE
5K08CA103868-03	BRAUN, BENJAMIN	In Vivo Analysis of Oncogenic Kras in Leukemogenesis	UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA SAN FRANCISCO
5K08CA090431-05	BROSE, MARCIA S	Brca1 Deletion in Murine Cells and Mammary Tissue	UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA
5K08CA104882-04	BROWN, VALERIE I	ROLE OF mTOR INHIBITORS AND IL7 IN LYMPHOID MALIGNANCIES	CHILDREN'S HOSPITAL OF PHILADELPHIA
7K08CA116429-02	CAMPS, MANEL	Creation of AlkB Mutants for Protection of Bone Marrow	UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA SANTA CRUZ
5K08CA103859-03	CARLSON, STEPHANIE K	Image-guided Gene and Virotherapy for Pancreatic Cancer	MAYO CLINIC COLL OF MEDICINE, ROCHESTER
5K08CA090468-05	CHENG, JONATHAN D	Therapeutic Inhibition of Fibroblast Activation Protein	FOX CHASE CANCER CENTER
5K08CA120544-02	CHIANG, MARK Y	Significance of mutations in human NOTCH1 in T cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia	UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA
1K08CA128565-01	CHIEN, ANDY J	Investigation of the Wnt/PCP pathway in human malignant melanoma	UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON
5K08CA113452-03	CLARK, PETER E	TRAIL Mediated Apoptosis in Renal Cell Carcinoma	VANDERBILT UNIVERSITY
5K08CA118428-02	CLINES, GREGORY A	Molecular actions of tumor-derived endothelin-1 in the bone microenvironment	UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA CHARLOTTESVILLE
1K08CA127143-01	COHEN, ADAM D	Targeting GITR for Tumor Immunotherapy	SLOAN-KETTERING INSTITUTE FOR CANCER RES
5K08CA093425-06	CORN, PAUL G	Regulation of the von Hippel-Lindau Protein	UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS MD ANDERSON CAN CTR
7K08CA100400-04	DAVIS, IAN J	MiT Transcription Factor Family in Pediatric Solid Tumor	UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA CHAPEL HILL
5K08CA098419-06	DEBNATH, JAYANTA	Oncogenes and Luminal Apoptosis Within Mammary Acini	UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA SAN FRANCISCO
5K08CA098034-04	DEMORE, NANCY K	Genetic Regulation of Human Breast Cancer Dormancy	UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA CHAPEL HILL
1K08CA111404-01A1	DORNFELD, KENNETH J	Mitochondrial Oxidative Stress in Thymineless Death	UNIVERSITY OF IOWA
5K08CA096948-05	DRAKE, CHARLES G	Regulation of the Immune Response to Prostate Cancer	JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY
5K08CA108748-03	DRAPKIN, RONNY I	BACH1 Function in DNA Repair and Mammary Oncogenesis	DANA-FARBER CANCER INSTITUTE
5K08CA100526-05	EDINGER, AIMEE L	Regulation of nutrient access by growth factors and mTOR	UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA IRVINE
5K08CA120060-02	ENGELMAN, JEFFREY A	Molecular mechanisms of PI3K activation in non-small cell lung cancer	MASSACHUSETTS GENERAL HOSPITAL
5K08CA102159-05	GILLETTE, MICHAEL A	Serum Proteomic Biomarker Discovery in Lung Cancer	DANA-FARBER CANCER INSTITUTE
5K08CA104032-03	GOGA, ANDREI	CDK Inhibition in Cancer	UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA SAN FRANCISCO
1K08CA126983-01	goldkorn, amir	Targeting Cancer with Telomerase Interference	UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
7K08CA106597-02	GREENBERG, ROGER A	Chromatin structure and BRCA1 Checkpoint Function	UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA
5K08CA109124-02	GRIM, JONATHAN E	Mechanisms of tumor suppression by Fbw7	FRED HUTCHINSON CANCER RESEARCH CENTER
5K08CA122835-02	HEZEL, ARAM F	Genomic Instability and The Roles of P53 and P19arf in Pancreatic Cancer	MASSACHUSETTS GENERAL HOSPITAL
1K08CA114028-01A1	HINGORANI, SUNIL R	Molecular and Cellular Origins of Pancreatic Cancer	FRED HUTCHINSON CANCER RESEARCH CENTER
5K08CA116003-02	HOANG, BANG H	Secreted Wnt Inhibitors in the Biology of Osteosarcoma	UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA IRVINE
5K08CA113766-02	HOCHWALD, STEVEN N	FAK and IGF-1R interaction in pancreatic cancer survival	UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA
5K08CA107077-03	HUANG, JIANZHONG	The role of angiopoietins in Wilms tumor	COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY HEALTH SCIENCES
5K08CA118730-02	HUGHES, DENNIS P	Ras-mediated erbB signaling in Osteosarcoma	UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS MD ANDERSON CAN CTR
5K08CA101958-05	HUGHES, STEVEN J	Apoptosis in Barretts Metaplasia and Esophageal Cancer	UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH AT PITTSBURGH
5K08CA104890-04	HURWITZ, MICHAEL E	Screening of Synthetic Lethality with C. elegans Rb	MASSACHUSETTS GENERAL HOSPITAL
5K08CA106610-04	IACOBUZIO-DONAHUE, CHRISTINE A	TARGETS OF METASTATIC PANCREATIC CANCER	JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY
5K08CA092013-06	INCE, TAN A	Development of Tumor Specific Transcript Panels	BRIGHAM AND WOMEN'S HOSPITAL
5K08CA107231-02	IRIE, HANNA Y	Role of IGF-I Receptor Signaling Pathways in Cell Survival and Migration	HARVARD UNIVERSITY (MEDICAL SCHOOL)
5K08CA096879-06	Ji, Hanlee	Genetics/microsatellite instability in tumor suppressors	STANFORD UNIVERSITY
1K08CA124804-01A1	KESARI, SANTOSH	Role of Olig Genes in Human Gliomagenesis	DANA-FARBER CANCER INSTITUTE
5K08CA098240-04	KIM, HONG JIN	NF-kB targets in the chemoresistance of GI malignancies	UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA CHAPEL HILL
5K08CA097203-04	KIM, WILLIAM Y	Imaging VHL-Associated Tumors with Labile O2 Biosensors	UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA CHAPEL HILL
7K08CA114176-03	KIRSCH, DAVID G	Imaging Lung Cancer in Mice To Improve Radiation Therapy	DUKE UNIVERSITY
5K08CA090876-05	KLEER, CELINA G	Role of LIBC in Inflammatory Breast Cancer Phenotype	UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN AT ANN ARBOR
5K08CA096876-06	KOON, HENRY B	NPM-ALK & CD30 Signaling in Anaplastic Cell Lymphoma	BETH ISRAEL DEACONESS MEDICAL CENTER
1K08CA122191-01A1	Kumar, Ashish	Molecular Pathogenesis of MLL-Fusion Gene Leukemia	UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA TWIN CITIES
5K08CA119105-02	Lauchle, Jennifer O	Modeling Multi-step Leukemogenesis Nf1 and Kras Mutant Mice	UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA SAN FRANCISCO
5K08CA113434-02	LEE, BENJAMIN H	Murine models of activated FLT3 receptor tyrosine kinase	BRIGHAM AND WOMEN'S HOSPITAL
5K08CA111819-02	LEONIS, MIKE A	The Ron Receptor Tyrosine Kinase in Hepatic Tumorigenesis	CHILDREN'S HOSPITAL MED CTR (CINCINNATI)
5K08CA096755-07	LESSNICK, STEPHEN L	Tumor Suppressors in Ewing's Sarcoma	UNIVERSITY OF UTAH
5K08CA102548-05	LETAI, ANTHONY G	Controlling the BCL-2 Pathway of Mitochondrial Apoptosis	DANA-FARBER CANCER INSTITUTE
5K08CA095600-05	LEVIS, MARK J	Targeting FLT3 as a Novel Specific Therapy for Leukemia	JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY
5K08CA120349-02	LIEDTKE, MICHAELA	Deregulation of Ras Signaling in MLL-Induced Leukemia	STANFORD UNIVERSITY
5K08CA106868-04	LIU, J REBECCA	Role of Phapl in apoptosome regulation in ovarian cancer	UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN AT ANN ARBOR
5K08CA102545-03	Ma, Patrick C	Studies of Alternations of c-MET in SCLC	CASE WESTERN RESERVE UNIVERSITY
5K08CA097185-05	MA, YUPO	Role of Hsal 2 in Ovarian Cancer	NEVADA CANCER INSTITUTE
5K08CA109158-03	MADISON, DANA L	Transcriptional Repression by CtBP at the p21 Promoter	OREGON HEALTH & SCIENCE UNIVERSITY
5K08CA097986-05	MCALLISTER-LUCAS, LINDA M	Bimp3 in Antigen Receptor Signaling and MALT Lymphoma	UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN AT ANN ARBOR
5K08CA096775-05	MCKEE, MARK	CEA directed cancer treatment with gene-modified T cells	UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO
5K08CA101800-05	Minella, Alexander C	Mechanisms of cyclin E associated tumorigenesis	FRED HUTCHINSON CANCER RESEARCH CENTER
5K08CA112449-03	MORRELL, GLEN R	Improved Magnetic Resonance Imaging of Breast Cancer	UNIVERSITY OF UTAH
5K08CA111733-03	Mosse, YAEL P	GENOMICS OF HUMAN NEUROBLASTOMA	CHILDREN'S HOSPITAL OF PHILADELPHIA
5K08CA094877-05	MUNSHI, HIDAYATULLAH G	Cadherin-mediated regulation of MMPs in Oral Cancer	NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY
5K08CA115476-03	NAKAMURA, JEAN LEE	The role of mTOR in Ras mediated gliomagenesis	UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA SAN FRANCISCO
5K08CA095448-04	PAGEL, JOHN M	Radioimmunotherapy of CD20+ Lymphomas & CD45+Leukemias	FRED HUTCHINSON CANCER RESEARCH CENTER
5K08CA118260-02	Palomba, MARIA L	CD20 DNA VACCINATION FOR B-CELL LYMPHOMA	SLOAN-KETTERING INSTITUTE FOR CANCER RES
5K08CA097980-03	PAO, WILLIAM	Elucidating Mechanisms of Lung Tumor Regression	SLOAN-KETTERING INSTITUTE FOR CANCER RES
1K08CA129547-01	PARK, CHRISTOPHER Y	Functional role of microRNA in acute myeloid leukemia stem cells and their normal	STANFORD UNIVERSITY
5K08CA103858-04	PARSONS, CHRISTOPHER H	An Animal Model for Kaposi's Sarcoma	MEDICAL UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH CAROLINA
5K08CA102606-04	PERALES, MIGUEL-ANGEL	Optimizing T cell Immunity to Cancer Vaccines	SLOAN-KETTERING INSTITUTE FOR CANCER RES
5K08CA101875-04	PINZONE, JOSEPH J	BP1 and Nuclear Hormone Signaling in Breast Cancer	OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY
5K08CA111399-03	Raffel, Glen D	Mouse model of infant acute megakaryocytic leukemia.	BETH ISRAEL DEACONESS MEDICAL CENTER
5K08CA100339-06	RAMASWAMY, SRIDHAR	Molecular Signatures of Cancer Metastasis	MASSACHUSETTS GENERAL HOSPITAL
5K08CA090450-05	RANHEIM, ERIK A	Dissection of the Anti-tumor Immune Response	UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN MADISON
5K08CA098410-06	RATHMELL, WENDY K	Functional and Tissue Specific Effects of VHL Mutations	UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA CHAPEL HILL
5K08CA102154-03	ROSENTHAL, EBEN L	Tumor Stromal Interactions in Head and Neck Cancer	UNIVERSITY OF ALABAMA AT BIRMINGHAM
5K08CA102602-05	SABEL, MICHAEL SCOTT	Neoadjuvant Cytokine Immunotherapy by PLA Microspheres	UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN AT ANN ARBOR
5K08CA112325-04	SCAGLIONI, PIER P	Post-transcriptional regulation of PML function	UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS SW MED CTR/DALLAS
5K08CA104082-04	SCANDURA, JOSEPH M	p57KIP2 in Hematopoiesis and Leukemogenesis	WEILL MEDICAL COLLEGE OF CORNELL UNIV
5K08CA111634-03	SHAW, ALICE T	Ras Signaling in Development and Cancer	MASSACHUSETTS GENERAL HOSPITAL
7K08CA101954-02	SLOAN, ANDREW E	Chemokine Secreting Dendritic Cells for Glioma Immunotherapy	CASE WESTERN RESERVE UNIVERSITY
5K08CA105064-04	Song, Wenru	A Pull-Push Strategy for Lymphoma Immunotherapy	BAYLOR RESEARCH INSTITUTE
5K08CA100094-04	STAVELEY-O'CARROLL, KEVIN F	Tumor Antigen Presentation in Mice Developing Cancer	PENNSYLVANIA STATE UNIV HERSHEY MED CTR
5K08CA098444-05	STEGMAIER, KIMBERLY	Chemical Genomics Approach to Leukemia Differentiation	DANA-FARBER CANCER INSTITUTE
5K08CA098096-05	SWEET-CORDERO, Eric Alejandro	Tumor progression in a mouse model of lung cancer	STANFORD UNIVERSITY
5K08CA096610-05	SWISHER, ELIZABETH	Genetic and Epigenetic Markers in Ovarian Cancer	UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON
5K08CA104631-03	TRASK, DOUGLAS K	Reactive Oxygen Species Inhibition of Oral Cancer Growth	UNIVERSITY OF IOWA
5K08CA095532-05	TSAO, HENSIN	Nucleotide Excision Repair in Cutaneous Melanoma	MASSACHUSETTS GENERAL HOSPITAL
5K08CA116612-02	TSE, ARCHIE N	Targeting Cell Cycle Checkpoints in Cancer Therapeutics	SLOAN-KETTERING INSTITUTE FOR CANCER RES
5K08CA121912-02	TYKODI, SCOTT S	Targeting Novel T Cell Antigens on Renal Cell Carcinoma	FRED HUTCHINSON CANCER RESEARCH CENTER
5K08CA090403-05	UPPALURI, RAVINDRA	IFN Gamma Induced Angiostatic Chemokines	WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY
5K08CA093554-06	VOSS, STEPHAN D	Neuroblastoma-Specific MRI Contrast Agents	CHILDREN'S HOSPITAL BOSTON
1K08CA124484-01A1	WEIDHAAS, JOANNE B	Defining the Genetic Basis of the Radioresponse Using a C. elegans Tissue Model	YALE UNIVERSITY
5K08CA111827-03	WENG, WEN-KAI	Mechanism of Antibody Therapy in Human B Cell Lymphoma	STANFORD UNIVERSITY
5K08CA093655-06	WULF, GERBURG M	Role of the Prolylisomerase Pin1 in Oncogenesis	BETH ISRAEL DEACONESS MEDICAL CENTER
5K08CA098403-04	YIM, JOHN H	Role of IRF-1 in Tumor Suppression of Breast Cancer	UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH AT PITTSBURGH
5K08CA098394-04	ZINKEL, SANDRA S	Bid Function in Myeloid Homeostasis and Leukemogenesis	VANDERBILT UNIVERSITY
5K08CA101934-05	Zweidler-McKay, Patrick A	Notch-Mediated Apoptosis in Human B Cell Malignancies	UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS MD ANDERSON CAN CTR
5K07CA111952-02	VACHANI, ANIL	Molecular epidemiology of lung cancer	UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA
5K07CA094984-05	VELIE, ELLEN M	Energy Balance and Breast Cancer in Black & White Women	MICHIGAN STATE UNIVERSITY
5K07CA111948-03	VISVANATHAN, KALA	K07 Preventive Oncology Academic Award	JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY
5K07CA117979-02	Viswanathan, Akila	Inflamation and the Risk of Endometrial Cancer	DANA-FARBER CANCER INSTITUTE
5K07CA100213-05	WINICKOFF, JONATHAN P	Changing Pediatric Practice to Address Parental Smoking	MASSACHUSETTS GENERAL HOSPITAL
5K07CA096746-05	WOLFE, JOANNE E	Improving Care for Children with Advanced Cancer	DANA-FARBER CANCER INSTITUTE
5K07CA113643-02	WRIGHT, JULIE A	Pediatric Behavioral Informatics to Prevent Cancer	BOSTON MEDICAL CENTER
1K07CA122461-01A1	YASMEEN, SHAGUFTA	Comorbidities and Breast Cancer among Elderly Women in the State of California	UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA DAVIS
1K07CA125586-01A1	Yen, Tina W	Lymphedema incidence and risk factors among older breast cancer patients	MEDICAL COLLEGE OF WISCONSIN
5K07CA100380-05	ZEBRACK, BRADLEY J	Quality of Life Assessment in Childhood Cancer Survivors	UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
5K07CA106730-03	ZEIGLER-JOHNSON, CHARNITA M	Prostate cancer and genes of the one-carbon cycle	UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA
5K07CA102592-03	ZICK, SUZANNA M	Ginger for Chemoprevention of Colorectal Cancer	UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN AT ANN ARBOR

Submitting an Application

In submitting a competing K08 Award, the applicant must use the PHS 398 Form (Revised 9/2004) ³, and should download the instructions and the Research Career Development Award form files. Refer to Section III of the instructions, "Preparing an Individual CDA Application". It is suggested that you print, if possible, the pages of PHS 398 Form (Revised 9/2004) ³ and carefully review all pages, especially the section titled "NOTABLE CHANGES MADE TO PHS 398. This section contains information to facilitate the completion of your application.

The PHS 398 Form (Revised 9/2004) ³ is also available at most institutional offices of sponsored research and from the Division of Extramural Outreach and Information Resources, Office of Extramural Research, NIH, Phone (301) 435-0714, Fax (301) 480-0525, E-mail: GrantsInfo@nih.gov.

Application Receipt Dates and Review Schedule

If the application receipt date falls on a weekend, the application must be postmarked by the application receipt date and received at the Center for Scientific Review (CSR) by the following Monday.

If the application receipt date falls on a holiday, (but not on a weekend), the application must be postmarked by the application receipt date and received at CSR by the following day.

* Start dates are determined by the availability of NCI funds and may not occur until well after the earliest possible start date.

Upon receipt, competing applications will be reviewed both by the Center for Scientific Review (CSR) and the National Cancer Institute (NCI) for completeness and for conformance to all eligibility requirements and special provisions and requirements. Incomplete applications will be returned to the applicant without further consideration.

Those applications judged to be complete and eligible will be evaluated, according to the review criteria listed in the Program Announcement by a peer review group convened by the Division of Extramural Activities of the NCI. A second level of review will be conducted by the National Cancer Advisory Board that will ensure that the application meets the broad program needs and priorities of the NCI and the National Cancer Program before an award can be made.

For review criteria for the K08 grant mechanism, see the REVIEW CRITERIA section of the Program Announcement: PA-06-512 MENTORED CLINICAL SCIENTIST DEVELOPMENT AWARD (K08) ¹.

Policy-Related

1.Do I have to be a U.S. citizen to receive a career award?
At the time of award, you must be a U.S. citizen, U.S. noncitizen national, or have been lawfully admitted into the U.S. as a permanent resident. Please see the bottom of the Research Career Development Award Table of Contents Substitute Form Page 3, which can be downloaded in MS Word or PDF format. You are required to use this Substitute page to indicate your citizenship status. No award can be made until this is confirmed.

2. Can I apply for a research grant from the PHS and still keep my career development award?
Yes, however the rules regarding salaries have changed as of 2/1/04 (NOT-OD-04-007 ⁴). Please contact NCI Staff ⁵ for your particular situation.

3. How are the salary levels and other costs associated with Career Development Awards determined?
Each Institute and Center at the NIH has the authority to determine the upper salary levels and other cost levels for Career Development Awards (i.e., K-awards) as a matter of institute policy. Thus, the NCI's levels do not necessarily equal or match the levels supported by another institute. For the NCI, all individual career awards for "mentored" postdoctoral scientists and for junior faculty establishing their first independent research programs use the same salary and other cost levels.

4. Should I apply for 3, 4 or 5-year Career Development Award?
Unless it is very clear that you do not need five years of support, it is always better to apply for the maximum of 5 years. Let the peer reviewers delete future years based on their professional assessment of your need for "mentored" training before you can become independent investigator.

5. What happens if I already have considerable postdoctoral experience and want to pursue additional training or change fields?
This will depend upon the strength of your rationale for extending your period of postdoctoral training and on the perceptions of reviewers. If reviewers see your application as just another postdoctoral experience, it is not likely to succeed. But if they view your application as an essential step in a carefully considered career development plan to gain the multi-disciplinary skills necessary to become an independent investigator in your field of choice, this will be considered positively.

There are some unexplainable tendencies in peer review. For example, if you are trained as an M.D./Ph.D. versus obtaining an M.D. and then a Ph.D., reviewers are much more favorably inclined toward multiple postdoctoral experiences. We do not know the reason for this, but if you are in the second category, your application will have to present a very convincing career development plan.

6. What's the difference between a "mentor" and a "sponsor"?
The various announcements and the Form PHS 398 use mentor, sponsor and preceptor interchangeably. There is no difference.

7. What is the importance of the sponsor(s) or mentor(s)?
The sponsor will be critical to the success of your application in terms of how well the sponsor's research matches your career goals and objectives AND how good the track record of the sponsor is in training individuals who have become successful independent investigators. With today's increasingly multi-disciplinary, translational research emphases, it may be more logical and a stronger application to develop a program that includes more than one sponsor over the period of training.

Application Process/Review Related

8. What is the "career development plan" that is always referred to in the NIH Announcements?
The career development plan is the combination of the candidate's goals and objectives, combined with the specific opportunities available in the mentor's research group within the environment of the institution. In addition, it incorporates those elements of the research plan needed to achieve the objectives of the career development plan. For additional information, see PHS 398 Form ³, Section IV, Part 3 THE CANDIDATE for additional information.

9. Why do I need to send extra copies of my career award application?
These extra copies are vitally important to the timely processing and review of your application. The copies to the Center for Scientific Review (CSR), which is the central receipt point for all grant applications to the NIH, ensures that the application is given the appropriate grant number and assigned to the National Cancer Institute for peer review. CSR does the critical logging in and processing of the paperwork. Unlike the regular research grants (e.g., R01s), CSR does NOT ORGANIZE and conduct the peer review system for career awards. Each institute and center at the NIH manages its own peer review system for career awards. The extra copies that you send directly to the NCI ensure that the review process is initiated in a timely way and avoids the possibility that CSR can mishandle or lose your application.

10. Should I send a cover letter with my career award application?
The first processing step by the Center for Scientific Review (CSR) is to assign funding responsibility for your application to an institute; this is called the "referral" process. If your research is obviously cancer research, then it will be assigned to the NCI. But if you feel that your application is cancer research and are concerned that it could be assigned to an institute other than the NCI, then a cover letter explaining the significance of the research to cancer will be helpful. Also, if you feel that your research is related to cancer research and other areas of research, it may be to your advantage to provide an explanation. CSR can give an application a "dual referral" and make an assignment to two or more institutes. For example, if your application is related to cancer and aging, the grant number would begin with a CA/AG or an AG/CA, reflecting CSR's view of the primary emphasis of the research. When there is a dual assignment, this ensures that more than one institute can consider your application for funding.

11. How important is the font size in preparing the application?
This is very important. Follow the directions for Format Specifications in the instructions for the PHS 398 Form (Revised 9/2004) ³, or your application will be returned by CSR.

12. Can I supply additional information after I have submitted my Career Award application to the NIH?
Yes, but this must be submitted after receiving approval from the NCI Scientific Review Administrator (SRA) in charge of reviewing your grant application. You must identify the SRA, explain your situation, receive approval and send the additional information in time to provide reasonable opportunity for the reviewers to include it in their evaluations. Examples of additional information that is important for reviewers to examine would be new experimental data that strengthen the rationale for pursuing the research project and manuscripts that have been accepted for publication, especially if they are to peer-reviewed journals.

13. Should the signature of the Sponsor be included with Statement of the Sponsor in a research career development award application?
Yes. Reviewers want verification of everything in the plan by the signature of the sponsor. The absence of the signature could compromise the review of your application.

14. Who will review my career award application?
A scientific review group organized by an NCI Scientific Review Administrator will review your application. It will have the necessary expertise to judge the merit of your application, the suitability of the sponsor, the institutional commitment, and your potential to develop into an independent investigator.

15. How will reviewers evaluate my application?
The reviewers will evaluate your application using the review criteria provided in the NIH/NCI announcement that corresponds to the particular career development award that applies to you. In this case it is the K08 award. It is very important that you prepare your application in response to these criteria because your ultimate success in receiving funding will depend upon how well your application addressed these criteria. For review criteria for the K08 grant mechanism, see the REVIEW CRITERIA section of the Program Announcement: PA-06-512 MENTORED CLINICAL SCIENTIST DEVELOPMENT AWARD (K08) ¹.

16. What will happen if I report independent research support at the time of submission of "just in time" information?
It will depend on the type of support. Please refer to the ELIGIBILITY REQUIREMENTS in the Program Announcement: PA-06-512 MENTORED CLINICAL SCIENTIST DEVELOPMENT AWARD (K08) ¹. If the support does not meet eligibility criteria, an award will not be issued.

17. Does my career plan have to include Training in the Responsible Conduct of Research?
Yes. This is an NIH requirement. There should be either clear documentation that you have completed this training at a previous time or substantive activities related to instruction on the responsible conduct of research that will be incorporated into your research training plan. Most programs consider training in the following areas: conflict-of-interest, responsible authorship, policies for handling scientific misconduct, policies regarding use of human and animal subjects, and data management/record keeping. This aspect of your training will not affect the merit score given to your application, BUT if this training in not in the application, it cannot be funded until proper arrangements have been made.

18. What should my application contain if it deals with human subjects, clinical trials or vertebrate animals?
If the study deals with human subjects, you must answer all parts of item 4 on the face page of the PHS 398 Form (Revised 9/2004) ³ application. NIH requires documentation of Institutional Review Board (IRB) approval at the time of award. The application should also address the points concerning Gender and Minority Inclusion and Inclusion of Children as Participants, OR provide sufficient information/justification for exemptions. This information can be found in the Human Subjects Research section of the instructions for preparing a PHS 398 Form (Revised 9/2004) ³ application.

If the study involves a clinical trial, you will need to include an abbreviated data and safety-monitoring plan showing that the sponsoring institution does have an operational mechanism for data and safety monitoring of clinical trials.

If you are using vertebrate animals, you must answer all parts of item 5 on the face page of the PHS 398 Form (Revised 9/2004) ³ application and follow the instructions in the Vertebrate Animals section of the instructions for preparing a PHS 398 Form (Revised 9/2004) ³ application.

Without the proper information on Gender and Minority Inclusion, Inclusion of Children and Vertebrate Animals, an award cannot be made. If an application is fundable, the NCI must be provided with the human subject IRB certification before an award can be made; and, where appropriate, a detailed data and safety monitoring plan.

Policy/Post Award

19. If I submit a research grant application (e.g., R01) after receiving a Career Development Award, how does NCI reconcile the percent level of effort commitment and salary on the research grant application with the requirements of the Career Development Award?
The total percent level of effort commitment on the Career Award and the research grant cannot exceed 100 percent. The percent effort commitment permitted on the research grant will be negotiated at the time of award and will depend on the degree of overlap between the specific aims of the two funding sources. (Please contact the NCI Staff Contacts ⁵ for the Career Award for additional detailed information on this issue.)

20. If I have an award and I would like to ask for post award changes, how do I go about this?
You must contact the NCI Grants Administration official to determine the appropriate procedures to use in making a request for post award changes in your grant. This also applies to any of your needs that require a prior approval from the NCI. In general, you will have to make a request that is signed by you and a business official of your institution. After receiving the request, the Grants Administration official will consult with the NCI scientific program staff as necessary to determine whether the request can be approved.

For additional information regarding policies and/or guidance in preparing an application for the K08 Award, contact:

Dr. Dorkina Myrick
Program Director
Telephone: (301) 496-8580
Fax: (301) 402-4472
E-mail: myrickd@mail.nih.gov

For information regarding review issues, contact:

Referral Officer
Division of Extramural Activities
Phone: (301) 594-1403
Fax: (301) 402-0275