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 a biosketch for the applicant, research mentor and translational mentor. For mentors, it is helpful to understand your mentoring experience if your trainees' names are underlined in the
citations/publications on your NIH biosketch. A translational mentor is the person that you will shadow 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 that of the candidate. 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 describe your planned research and research mentoring plan, translational immersion
experience and mentoring plan, and personal statement. Ensure that you have addressed all three areas listed below.
- Personal statement: A. Describe your mid and long-term career goals and the activities and experiences that you will complete to prepare you for a career in clinical and translational research. B. How
do you define diversity in science? Do you have experience with diversity in this field? Describe how experiences in your life will contribute to the mission of promoting diversity in the TOTTS program, and C. if relevant, explain any breaks
in your scholarly activity or hardships in your education or career.
- Research project and mentoring plan: 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. Also, describe your mentoring plan with your research mentor, for instance the regularity
of your meetings and activities. 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. 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 research related to the patient. In veterinary medicine immersions, activities could include shadowing, attendance
at Rounds--pathology, imaging, oncology research rounds, lab experiences and research in progress. 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 with you and your research and translational mentor 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 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. 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, etc., and IRB approvals for the proposed work.
Funding Support