Program Coordinator’s Corner – July 2018
Navigating the Sea of a T32 Competing Renewal
Alex Stoller, MPA
Fellowship Program Administrator
University of Washington- Division of Metabolism, Endocrinology and Nutrition
as52@uw.edu
Preparing for a T32 competing renewal can be a challenging task for even the most experienced faculty and program administrators. As the captain of your training program, your Principal Investigator(PI) is relying on a skipper(the program administrator), and the shipmates (program staff) to help gather information, collect data, and deliver the information to the agency in order to be funded.
In 2017, our program submitted two different T32 competing renewals to two different agencies, both which were fully funded in 2018. This was my first experience submitting a T32 competing renewal, and here are my tips for program administrators.
- Plan Your Journey-Our program started planning twelve weeks in advance of our institutional deadlines, allowing enough time to request information, collect the data, and analyze the results. This also allowed enough room to meet our weekly deadlines and not feel overwhelmed in the process. You may want to start earlier—some programs start six to ten months in advance to allow enough time to prepare. At any rate, give yourself a fair amount of time if there are any issues or holdups along the way.
- Follow the Map-You have a plan, now, it’s time to dive in and request information from the NIH tables from faculty and administrators. The NIH provides specific examples and blank tables to use when you send out requests. Use the examples the NIH gives you-this is the best nautical guide during the journey. When I first saw the tables, I tried to develop my own worksheet to request information from administrators for all data. This form quickly developed into its own little black hole, taking up more time which could have been focused on the grant. By using the NIH instructions and blank tables, I was able to answer any questions about what information was being requested or how it should be formatted for the tables
- Pace Yourself-If you are like me, grants administration is one of the many tasks in your job, and you will likely be juggling other tasks simultaneously associated with your program. Triage and manage your time well, and leave some leeway if something takes longer than expected.
- Quiet Time at Sea-This is probably the most important tip. Writing a competing renewal can be a daunting, time consuming process, and quiet time is a must. Ask your manager or PI for some uninterrupted time to work on the grant. My best work occurs early in the morning, so I spent most of my early mornings focused on gathering information for my weekly deadlines and preparing information for my PI before moving on to other tasks.
- Ask for Help-Reach out to other administrators in your work world if you get stuck. I was lucky to have two superb, experienced PIs, who helped navigate the sea of questions I had during the process. Our institution also holds bi-monthly meetings with other T32 grant managers, which can be another helpful resource. For any new or seasoned program administrator, reach out for help from your PI, program administrators, grants managers, and your peers. Together, your team will be your most valuable partners in this process.
Many program administrators will work on a federal grant submission at some point during their career. This is an important skill to learn, and teach you about the funding process for research training programs and how to submit federal research grants. Working on a T32 competing renewal can be daunting, but like any journey, planning ahead and pacing yourself will allow the process to go smoothly.
Good luck with your competing renewals!
NIH Resources