Faculty Facilitator

Topic

Grants

relates to sponsored projects - pre- or post-award

Grant Tip - Clearly State Your Expected Results

The Research Strategy of an NIH R01 grant contains descriptions of experiments to be performed in order to achieve the goal of the proposed research. While most people do an excellent job stating the goal of an experiment and describing methodology, many forget to clearly define what they expect to

NIH Letters of Support

updated March 2026 Letters of Support document concrete commitments from collaborators, core facilities, and institutions (e.g., effort, access to equipment, samples, or mentoring) rather than serving as general reference letters or letters of recommendation. A Letter of Support for a grant is a means to convey to reviewers that

NIH URM Eligibility

updated February 2026. NOT-OD-20-031 was the most recent version of the NIH's Interest in Diversity. This Notice is no longer posted on grants.nih.gov consequent to the release of Executive Order 14151. The Notice it replaced, NOT-OD-18-210, is online but rescinded. Please contact your Program Officer for

Sabbatical as a Fiscal Tool

A sabbatical can have many purposes, including a very pragmatic fiscal one. For each unit of time worked, a faculty member earns X many hours of sabbatical time, similar to the way staff accrue vacation time. Then, once a faculty member reaches a minimum amount of accrued time, the faculty

Calculating Indirects as Part of a Total Award Budget

Some funding announcements provide budget information as a maximum allowed total cost along with a rate to budget indirects. The most common error is to calculate the indirect costs off of the total costs. Here's how to do it correctly.

Cost Shares

A cost share is a financial mechanism for interested parties to demonstrate commitment to a project or a plan, and to increase available funds for that project or plan. Cost sharing can be “Voluntary” or “Mandatory”. Mandatory cost sharing is exactly what it sounds like. The cost sharing is required