Application Instructions
Please create one PDF document for uploading into the online application. Required sections should be in the order listed below. Have all documents ready prior to accessing the online application as you will not be able to save
and go back once you have uploaded and submitted your application. The application MUST include the following elements in the listed order: 1. Face page, 2. NIH Biosketches (x3), 3. Proposal, 4. Graduate courses completed with grades, 5. Letters
of Support (x3) and 6. a description of ethical and regulatory training in clinical and translational research, including Responsible Conduct of Research and Good Clinical Practice, already completed and proposed for completion during the TL1 TOTTS
year. Additional details and guidance is provided below. Incomplete applications will not be reviewed.
1. Face Page:
Download and complete the facepage and include as the first document in your application
package.
2. NIH Biosketch:
Include an NIH biosketch (using the correct and current NIH format) for the applicant, research mentor and translational mentor. Please ensure that mentors detail their mentoring experience in the
personal statement and consider underlining trainee's names in co-authored citations/publications on the NIH biosketch. A translational mentor is the person that you will follow, observe and interact with to
understand the target audience that you are translating your research to for uptake. For those working in a lab, this may be a clinician and for clinicians, this could be a community organization or a preclinical researcher. For veterinary trainees,
a translational mentor will be a human health professional engaged in clinical/translational research and associated with the CCTSI, whose area of interest is complementary to your interest. In your NIH Biosketch, detail how your career plan builds
on previous experiences and aligns with the proposed research plan. Please contact: Marion Sills, MD for assistance with identifying
a suitable clinician translational mentor; John Tentler, PhD for a lab-based translational mentor or Doug Thamm DVM, PhD, for a veterinary medicine translational
mentor. The CCTSI Profiles tool may be useful in identifying possible translational mentor with complementary interests of the applicant.
3. 3-page Proposal:
Use Times New Roman or Arial 11-pt font or larger. Page margins no less than 1 inch on all four sides. In three pages, briefly provide a personal statement, a diversity statement, describe your planned research
and research mentoring plan, and a translational immersion experience and mentoring plan. Ensure that you have addressed all four areas listed below. Skipping an area or required element will reduce your overall score and thus competitiveness. Please
use headers for each of the following four elements.
- Personal statement (approximately ½-1 page): Provide some background information and
insight to give the reviewers an idea of who you are. Describe your mid and long-term career goals and the activities (coursework, journal clubs, etc.) and experiences that you will complete to meet your goals and prepare you for a career in clinical
and translational research. Explain how the TL1 TOTTS award will augment your current training program. What is the added value of the TL1 program for you?
- Diversity statement (approximately ¼
page): How do you define diversity in science? How should diversity in science be reflected? Do you have experience with diversity in this field? How will you contribute to diversity in the TL1 TOTTS program? Describe how
experiences in your life will contribute to the mission of promoting diversity in the TOTTS program. If relevant, explain any breaks in your scholarly activity or hardships in your education or career.
- Research project: Describe the research project to be completed during your pre- or post-doctoral training period and its clinical and translational relevance. Provide your research questions/hypotheses
and associated specific aims and brief description of the methods. Explain how your research project translates into improving health. Consider alternative strategies and next steps.
- Mentoring plan: Describe your mentoring plan with your research mentor, including the frequencies and format of your meetings and types of training activities (coursework, experiential or hands-on learning,
laboratory meetings, conferences, etc.) What learning goals or needs will your research mentor help you achieve?
- Translational immersion experience and mentoring plan: Explain how your immersion and translational mentor extends the preparation and training of your current program and how it complements your personal
learning goals and needs. Immersion experiences can take many forms--laboratory, clinical services, community service or veterinary medicine. Clinical experience needs to include regular engagement regarding patients with the clinical mentor and
that mentor’s clinical team. This could include discussing patients after encounters, discussing patients in group settings such as rounds or registry meetings, assisting with recruitment, involvement in monitoring/management of adverse
events during clinical studies, observing/participating in clinical study visits and informed consent. Engagement with your clinical mentor or mentor’s team in one of these settings is key; additional activities could include obtaining biospecimens,
observing procedures performed on the patients or discussing clinical research related to the patients. In veterinary medicine immersions, activities could include shadowing, attendance at Rounds--pathology, imaging, oncology research rounds,
lab experiences and research in progress meetings. Lab experiences could include learning new lab techniques and understanding/interpreting data. Community immersion experiences could include working with patient advocacy organizations or government
agencies. Activities can include attendance at community meetings, assisting with marketing and translational materials, and working on policy briefs. Please describe the mentoring plan with your translational mentor in terms of frequency
of meetings and activities. Consider holding quarterly meetings among you and your research and translational mentors to discuss your research project and the integration and interdisciplinary team approach.
4. Courses:
List all courses completed as a graduate student and or doctoral student at CU Denver or CSU School of Veterinary Medicine and grades obtained. Official transcripts are not necessary.
5. Letters of Support:
Your application must include letters of support (no longer than 2 pages each) from your: 1. research mentor, 2. translational mentor and 3. doctoral or post-doctoral program director. Letters
from your mentor should support the aspects and details of your proposed mentoring plans with the research and translational mentor and should describe their prior experiences in mentoring, and current funding to support your proposed research.
Please see guidelines.
6. Ethics, Regulatory training and IRB:
Please provide a table or list of trainings, courses, workshops that you have completed and that you will complete during your TOTTS TL1 year related
to Ethics, Responsible Conduct of Research, Good Clinical Practice, IACUC, IRB, etc., Please see suggested coursework below, by training experience. In addition, if IRB and/or IACUC approvals are received for proposed research, please submit the approval
numbers and letters of approvals.
Funding Support