Wednesday, December 21, 2011

Position filled

Remember that I was applying for an assistant professor position at a university in the US?

I applied for the position in June. A few months later, they emailed my references to send recommendation letters for the further consideration. A few month after that, they emailed me to send my future research plan for the further consideration.

I thought it was going well.

Anyway, the other day I logged in to their website to see what's going on.

It says "Position filled."

WTF

It's too rude and unprofessional. Couldn't they at least email and let me know that I was failed or so?


Anyway, again, now I'm applying for an assistant professor position at a university in Japan.

We will see.


Dr. R

Tuesday, November 8, 2011

Impact/Priority Score and Percentile and critiques

It's been 5 months since I submitted my K99.
If you go to the eRA Commons website, you will find how your application is going.
Looks like they reviewed my application, since the meeting day for me was on October.

Well, my Impact/Priority Score was twenty-something. Is it good?

You know it's my first submission for NIH so I don't know much about the system, but I guess on their review meeting, each reviewer gives you some score which is between 1 to 9. (1 is the best, 9 is awful) Then they calculate the average x 10.

If all of the reviewers give you 1, your Impact/Priority Score will be 10, which is the best.
If all of the reviewers give you 9, your Impact/Priority Score will be 90, which is the worst.

So, I think my twenty-something is not bad.


Based on the NIH Department budget, they will determine Percentile.

If your Impact/Priority Score is on top 8% out of all applications and if their budget can fund top 10% of applicants, congratulations you will be funded.

This means, even if your impact score is pretty good, you might not get funded. (Just imagine that all of other applications are better than yours.)

This also means, even if your impact priority score sucked so much like 40, there is a chance to get funded. (Just imagine that all of other applications sucked too)

There is a website that people talk about their score, percentile and some facts that if they are funded or not.
http://writedit.wordpress.com/nih-paylines-resources/

Don't worry if you don't get funded with your first applications.
There is a chance called re-submission. Yes, you can re-submit your proposal.

You can improve your proposal based on their critiques which they will give you eventually.



Anyway, so far I only got my impact priority score. I haven't gotten any of percentile and critiques.

Well see,


Dr. R

Tuesday, June 14, 2011

I am so relieved!

I am so relieved, I got some unexpected errors when submitted, though.

K99 submission
Another grant submission to the Japanese government
Application to a faculty position
My paper submission

Everything is done!! So nice.

Hope any of my applications will go well.


Dr. R

Friday, June 10, 2011

The due date is coming.

Did you get a great support from your boss? It's so funny that he fixed my writing a lot and lot when I wrote a paper which has been recently submitted to a journal that has an impact factor of 12.
But this time, he only went over my K99 proposal once (!!) and barely (!!) fixed my writing.

Does he care that much about me getting a K99 grant?

Anyway, I just finished the cover letter. Already received a couple of confirmation emails from NIH that two of my references uploaded letters and third reference's assistant told me that she will submit the letter tomorrow.

When will we know the score?


Dr. R

Friday, June 3, 2011

Recent important change

Few days ago I got this email from the University Grant Office.

Referees used to be able to send these letters up to 5 days after the proposal due date, but now they are due the day of the application.

Oh My God. I haven't even contacted 2 of referees. It will be okay, I still have a week...


By the way, I recently applied for an assistant professor position in somewhere. Also applied for a postdoc grant to the Japanese government, and I'm going to apply for K99.

So many thing are going on now.


Dr. R

Tuesday, May 24, 2011

Finally my boss read my K99 proposal and gave me a feedback.

It's been almost 3 weeks since I gave my K99 proposal to my boss. I almost gave up to submit my K99 for a due date of June 12. But today my boss came to my bay and we finally sat and talked about my K99.

Well, in Japanese, I believe I am 褒められて伸びるタイプ.
In Japan, we usually say there are two types of kids who 褒められて伸びるタイプ and who 叱られて伸びるタイプ.
褒められて伸びるタイプ is kids who need to be praised.
叱られて伸びるタイプ is kids who need to be jawed. I'm not sure those English words are right ones or not.

Anyway, I kind of wanted him to say "well done" or "this is good", and then he could have said "but here, you need to ..." But instead, he only gave me serious comments. You can easily guess how I'm feeling now.

The due date is June 12. I have a little bit more than 2 weeks to fix my K99 proposal.

Here is a newer guideline for K99/R00.
http://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/pa-files/PA-11-197.html


Good luck to us.

Dr. R

Thursday, May 5, 2011

Kind of done!!

So busy lately, but I finished the 12 pages K99 research proposal just now and gave it to my boss.

When I said "do you wanna review my grant proposal?", he said "not really, haha."
I hope he was just joking.

Also, we finally submit my paper to a journal which has an impact factor of 15 (wow).
Hope they won't reject it right away.


The due date for K99 grant is 1 month away. I think the research plan will be okay, but now I need to find 3 references. I already contacted one and he said sure, no problem, but I still need two other people.
I don't wanna contact my boss in Japan who was my mentor when I was a Ph.D. student, but I guess I need to.
Still need one. Who can it be?


Dr. R

Tuesday, April 12, 2011

I finished the third and fourth pages, "Career development/training activities" and "Training in the responsive conduct research."

"Career development/training activities" was okay, but "Training in the responsive conduct research" was really boring. I know it's important, though.

Anyway, I am now working on "Research Strategy." It's more fun.
Do I need 5 years plan for K99 or just for 2 years? I don't know. Need to ask somebody.


Dr. R

Monday, April 11, 2011

I finished the second page "Career goals and objectives"

Are you working on K99 grant? I recently finished the second page "Career goals and objectives." We still have almost two months. No worry, we can do it.

Arial, size 11, 1/2" marjin.

We need a 12 pages Research plan which includes Candidate background, Career goals and objectives, Career development/training activities, Training in the responsive conduct research, and Research strategy.
Seems like first 4 will be 1 page each and Reseatch strategy will be 8 pages. MAYBE.


Dr. R

Wednesday, April 6, 2011

I finished the first page "Candidate's Background"

It wasn't that difficult. Maybe my next step is "Career Goals and Objectives."

I think you might have to read this instruction.
http://grants.nih.gov/grants/funding/424/SF424_RR_Guide_General_Adobe_VerB.pdf

You can also find it in here.
http://grants.nih.gov/grants/funding/424/index.htm

Especially, the page I-131~158 of Application Guide SF424 will be helpful.


Dr. R

Monday, April 4, 2011

Let's start writing a K99/R00 grant!!!

I have been working on a Japanese grant lately and kind of finished it finally, so I guess it's time to start writing an NIH-K99/R00 grant.

But I didn't know what to start at all. Well, then, I asked my friend, who is a postdoc in a lab next to ours and submitted a K99 grant before, to give me a copy of his grant proposal. Lucky me, he said yes and gave me it.

Although he hasn't gotten the grant yet, he said his score was pretty good so that now he is submitting a revised-proposal, which means it will be super helpful for me.

I can't upload his proposal of course, but let's figure it our together.

Again, here is a list of what I need.

Internal Forms (Title and Signature)
Project Summary
Project Narractive
Facilities and other resources
Biosketch
Budget
Budget justification
Cover letter
Candidate background
Career goals and objectives
Career development/training activities
Training in the responsive conduct research
Statement by mentor
Description of institutional environment
Institutional commitment of candidates research career development (what's this?)
Specific aims
Research strategy
Biography and references cited
Vertebrate animals
Equipment
Resource sharing plan
List of referee

First I will need a 12 pages Research plan which includes Candidate background, Career goals and objectives, Career development/training activities, Training in the responsive conduct research, and Research strategy.
Looks like more than half of 12 pages are Research strategy.

I will also need a page of Specific aims.

I guess those are first things to do. Let's figure out what to do next when I finish those. 


Dr. R

Thursday, March 24, 2011

I wanna submit my paper!!

Here is the thing. My boss doesn't submit my paper. It's not like he doesn't like my paper, but he wants it to be too perfect.

Yeah, he is a really good reviewer when he review somebody's papers submitted in some journal. He will know weak points of papers right away, so that most of the cases he rejects papers.

But I don't like it when he go over my paper, because then I will have to do additional experiments he says.

It's been already a year since I first gave my paper to my boss. I already did more than 10 additional experiments, even made 3 different mice lines. lol.

When will my paper be submitted? I need publications.


Dr. R

Friday, February 25, 2011

Papa John's pizza

I kind of like papa john's pizza.

The other day I got a large size pizza, but..... what is that? You must be kidding.




I will give you one more chance. Don't let me down.


Dr. R

Monday, February 14, 2011

A rumor; You can't submit a K99/R00 more than twice?

In K Lab, which is next to our lab, there are a couple of Japanese postdoc. One of them (Dr. O) came and talked to me today and it sounded like he is going to submit a K99/R00 grant in June.

Oh My God. Did I already find a competitor? lol
No, it will be fine. He is working on cancer and I am not.

Anyway, today I will post an information that he told me.

He said, you can not submit a K99/R00 grant more than twice. NIH will review your application and you will have to revise it, since most of the time NIH doesn't accept the original application. That means you will submit a revised, improved application and then NIH will review it. If the improved application isn't good enough, you won't be able to submit the same grant FOREVER!!
I thought even when your application is rejected, you can try again and again as many as you want as long as it is less than 5 years since you get Ph.D.
But he said you can only submit a K99 grant twice in your life.

Is it true? IDK.


Dr. R



隣の Kラボに日本人ポスドクが数人いて、そのうちの1人(Dr. O)が今日ぼくに話しかけにきた。彼はどうやらK99/R00グラントに応募するようだった。
早くも競争相手を見つけてしまった?いや、大丈夫。彼はガンを研究してて、ぼくはそうじゃないから。

今日は彼が教えてくれた情報を紹介します。
彼が言うには、K99/R00グラントは2回までしか申請できないらしい。
NIHは一発で採用するパターンはまれなので、だいたいはReviseとなる。申請者は申請書を改善して2度目の応募をして、運がよければ採択。悪ければ不採択となる。不採用となった場合、もうK99には応募できないんだって。
ぼくは、たとえ不採用になっても、Ph.D.をとって5年いないなら何度でも応募できると思ってた。
でも彼が言うには、人生で2度だけ。

これってほんと?


Dr. R

Wednesday, February 9, 2011

Reviewing somebody's paper

It is a great moment for researchers (at least for me) when you submit a paper to a scientific journal.

Of course it is the best moment when your paper is accepted to a journal, but submitting a paper means you finished your experiments and writing a manuscript and making figures, so I feel great when I submit my paper. (I am done!!)


When I was a Ph.D. student in Japan and submitted my paper to a journal, I was thinking like;
"Who will review my paper?"
"How will they feel about my paper?"
"Come on! Give me positive comments!"

~~ Three years later ~~

Are you expecting your research paper to be reviewed by a famous Professor? Ah, I'm sorry. My boss is supposed to review your paper, but he is so busy writing a grant, so actually I'm reviewing your paper, who is a Japanese third year post-doc and who is not familiar with your research.

Who knows?

I'll give you some statistic data that my friend Dr. M told me the other day.
There were two posdoc Dr. S and Dr. T in my lab.
When my boss had to review a paper, he usually asked one of them to do it.
Dr. S was too nice. Most of the cases she ended up accepting a paper.
Dr. T was not nice at all. She never accepted a paper.

Me? I don't know. 20%?

Good luck!


Dr. R




論文を投稿する時は研究者(少なくとも自分)にとって嬉しい瞬間だ。
もちろん論文がどこかの雑誌に受理(アクセプト)されたときが一番嬉しいけど、少なくとも論文を投稿するってことは、実験が終わり、論文を書くのも終え、Fig作りも終わったってことだからね。

日本でPh.D.の学生だったときは、論文を投稿するときは
「誰がレビューするんだろう?」
「自分の研究をどう評価するのかな?」
「ポジティブな返事だといいな」なんて考えてた。

それから3年後。

え?論文を投稿して、誰か有名な教授があなたの論文をレビューしてるかって?
すみません、ボスは忙しくてあなたの論文をレビューする時間がありません。だから実際のところ、ぼくがレビューしてますよ。日本人の3年目ポスドクで、あなたの研究分野にあまり詳しくないけど。

実際誰がレビューしてるかなんて誰もわからないものだ。

少し前に同じ研究室の Dr. Mが教えてくれた情報を一つ紹介しよう。
うちの研究室には以前Dr. SとDr. Tがいて、ボスがレビューを頼まれたときはその2人のどちらかに頼んでいた。
Dr. Sは優しすぎる。ほとんどの場合、彼女はアクセプトしていたらしい。
一方Dr. Tは厳しく、彼女は一度もアクセプトしたことがない。

ぼく?さあ、20%くらいかな。

グッドラック!


Dr. R

Tuesday, February 1, 2011

Research: K99/R00

My first blog is about a grant K99/R00.
Getting a grant is very important for researchers, but I can not apply for most of NIH grants, since I'm Japanese and I don't have a green card.
There is some Japanese grants called Gakushin which you can apply if you are Japanese and working in the US or any other countries. I tried a few times but all failed.
But I heard that you can apply for a grant K99/R00 even if you are not American or you don't have a green card.

Here is a link to the detail information.
http://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/pa-files/PA-10-063.html

Well, it seems like kind of super difficult to understand what I need to prepare for it.
(Is it because English is not my first language?)

A couple of weeks ago, I asked my boss if he does mind me submitting this grant and of course he said "go for it" or something like that.

So, this will be my first challenge to get a grant by myself.
Well, even though I said "by myself", I still need somebody's help.

I asked A, who is an Administrative Assistant in my lab, to read the instruction and she told me that basically I need a 12 pages research plan and a lot of items such as recommendation letters by June.

One of the due date is February of 2011, but I just assumed that it's nearly impossible to write a grant in a few days, so I'm shooting for the June deadline.

Here is a list of items I need for K99/R00. (Of course A gave me this list)
Internal Forms (Title and Signature)
Project Summary
Project Narractive
Facilities and other resources
Biosketch
Budget
Budget justification
Cover letter
Candidate background
Career goals and objectives
Career development/training activities
Training in the responsive conduct research
Statement by mentor
Description of institutional environment
Institutional commitment of candidates research career development (what's this?)
Specific aims
Research strategy
Biography and references cited
Vertebrate animals
Equipment
Resource sharing plan
List of referees

OK, I don't understand some, actually most of them.
Anyway, my due date is June. Don't worry. Should be fine.

Dr. R



最初のブログはグラントK99/R00について。

グラントを獲得することは研究者にとってとても重要なことだけど、ぼくはNIHのグラントに応募できない。日本人だし、グリーンカードがないから。
もちろん海外で働く日本人研究者が応募できる日本のグラント、学振もあるけど、ぼくは何度もチャレンジしてるけどうまくいかない。
でも最近、アメリカ人じゃなくてもK99/R00というグラントなら応募出来るという情報を得た。

詳しくはリンク先をみて。
http://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/pa-files/PA-10-063.html

まず最初の印象は、長すぎて何が何だか全然わからない。
(これは英語が母国語じゃないせい?)
何が必要なのか、情報を抽出するのも難しそう。

数週間前、ボスにこのグラントの応募について聞いてみたところ、当然「よし やってみろ」との返事。
というわけで、これがぼくの人生初めてのグラント応募だ。
ま、自分の力だけで進めるのは不可能なので、誰かの手伝いが必要だけどね。

研究室の秘書であるAさんにお願いし、インストラクションを解読してもらった。
彼女は慣れてるので朝飯前だ。
彼女が言うには、基本的には12ページの研究計画書と、たくさんの書類が必要とのこと。
締め切りは年に3回あり、1つは2月だけど、ぼくは6月分で応募することにした。
数日でグラントを終わらせるの不可能と自分で判断。

秘書さんがくれたリスト。
Internal Forms (Title and Signature)
Project Summary
Project Narractive
Facilities and other resources
Biosketch
Budget
Budget justification
Cover letter
Candidate background
Career goals and objectives
Career development/training activities
Training in the responsive conduct research
Statement by mentor
Description of institutional environment
Institutional commitment of candidates research career development (what's this?)
Specific aims
Research strategy
Biography and references cited
Vertebrate animals
Equipment
Resource sharing plan
List of referees

、、、。
もう何が何だかさっぱりだ。
ま、締め切りは6月だし、なんとかなるだろう。

Dr. R

Hello. Let me introduce myself.

Hello everyone. Let me introduce myself. 
I'm Dr. R, Japanese, and working as a Ph.D. researcher in CA (it's been 2 years since I came to CA.
I like running, and cooking (and eating).

A few weeks ago I made a blog about something but got bored, so now I'm making a new one. I hope this lasts long.
This blog "Dr. R's life in CA" will be about;
My days in CA;
Research;
Running;
Cooking;
Travels;
et cetera.

I will also update my blog in Japanese, too, since my first language is Japanese.

Hope somebody will like my blog;)

Dr. R


はじめまして。簡単に自己紹介させて下さい。
名前はDr. Rです。博士研究員としてカリフォルニア州で働いています。もう2年になります。
ランニングや料理が好きです。

数週間前に別のブログを作ったけどそれにはもう飽きてしまったので、今回新しいのを作りました。
このブログ「Dr. R's life in CA」では
アメリカ、カリフォルニアでの出来事、
研究について、
ランニングや料理、旅行などについて書きたいと思っています。

母国語が日本語なので、日本語でも更新します。
誰かが気に入ってくれるといいね。

Dr. Rより