This document summarizes a webinar about transitioning from an early career award to obtaining an R01 grant. The webinar outlines the major challenges of this transition, including taking on more managerial responsibilities. It recommends creating a strategic plan with draft aims and approaches to guide work towards an R01. Managing time effectively through prioritizing, delegating tasks, and protecting writing time is also discussed. Building a research team and securing additional funding sources to supplement startup funds are key steps to lay the foundation for a successful R01 application. Refining specific aims, approaches, the investigator section and choosing the right research questions increase the chances of securing this important first grant.

1. Transitioning from an
Early Investigator Award to
the Coveted R01
Presented by Christopher Francklyn, Ph.D.
University of Vermont
Brought to you by Principal Investigators Association

2. Webinar Outline
• Introduction: the nature of the challenge
• Creating a strategic blueprint to get you to the first
R01
• Managing your time effectively
• Building and husbanding your financial resources
• Building your research team
• Laying the foundation for your first R01

3. Introduction
– Major change in your skill sets and responsibilities
– Now must do things you weren’t trained for!
What makes this transition so special?

4. http://www.principalinvestigators.org/new-and-early-stage-investigator-toolkit-new/
The New & Early Stage Investigators Toolkit has everything
new PIs need to know to gain the confidence required for leading
a successful research team. It includes a 192 page Career
Guide co-authored by some of the industry’s best, as well as over
4 hours of targeted education they can access at any time!

5. • As a post-doctoral fellow your
principal activities were
confined to experimental
design, execution, and data
interpretation
Previously…
• more management than
execution: a coach rather than
a player
• Train others to excel at what
you have been trained to do
Now…

6. • As a grad student and as a fellow, time limits are more
flexible and open to extension
Second key feature: this transition is time limited.
• After tenure, there is no time limit
Prior to first grant and tenure, there is
a “clock”
• Should seek to secure major federal
funding within 2-4 yr of first appointment
• The “classical” tenure clock means that
paperwork submitted in year six for
decision in year seven. (Now extended in
many institutions.)

7. Your overall goal in this transition
period:
A “formula” for tenure.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
Identify research ideas
Recruit initial lab members
Gather preliminary data
Supplant start up with additional awards and
grants
Write and successfully compete for first R01
Generate data pursuant to those original aims
Publish results
Seek promotion!
In this webinar, we will focus on steps 1-5, especially 1 through 4.

8. Let’s return to our outline…
• Introduction: the nature of the challenge
• Creating a strategic blueprint to get you
to the first R01
• Managing your time effectively
• Building and husbanding your financial resources
• Building your research team
• Laying the foundation for your first R01

9. http://www.principalinvestigators.org/nih-career-development-awards-educational-pack/
NIH Career Awards foster the independence of promising new investigators by
providing mentorship, salary support, and protected time to develop a research
program.
During this educational pack, your expert presenters dig into the different NIH
training and career development programs, discuss what programs are tailored to
specific individuals during their career, and provide an overview of how to write a
competitive award. Walk away with tactics you can implement right away and take
your career to new heights.

10. Creating a strategic blueprint
to get you to your first R01
Why create a strategic plan?

11. A plan can help you focus your energies.
Scientists are like hunting dogs: prone to distraction!

12. New professors have limited time and resources:
need to avoid natural tendency to dissipate these

13. A plan provides a basis for resource/time allocation

14. Provides a
framework to
help senior
colleagues
mentor you

15. – The plan defines what you need
to have in place to write a
successful R01. It might include:
What should be in the plan?
• The first versions of the 3-4
Specific Aims
• The set of
Approaches/Technologies you
will need
• What output (i.e. publications)
you will need to gain reviewer
confidence
• What potential collaborators
you think you will need

16. Plan should be dynamic, evolving as you
(a) better understand the key questions in your field and
(b) better appreciate what potential resources, technology, and
collaborators are available.
Why write a fixed plan? Won’t you change it anyway?

17. When should you start
writing your strategic
plan?
Steps before you
secure your first
appointment
• Draft Aims of
your first R01
should be part of
your research
plan during the
hiring process
• Feedback from
search
committees/new
department

18. Steps after you secure
your first appointment
• Revise and refine
Aims to maintain a
“leading edge”
emphasis and make
consistent with your
capabilities
• Take inventory of
your environment.
Network with others
in your field.
• Test plan with local
mentors

19. Let’s return to our outline…
• Introduction: the nature of the challenge
• Creating a strategic blueprint to get you to the first
R01
• Building and husbanding your financial resources
• Managing your time effectively
• Building your research team
• Laying the foundation for your first R01

20. http://www.principalinvestigators.org/time-management-toolkit-for-scientists_new/
By gaining 1
extra hour
each day, you
will add up to 6
extra weeks of
productive
working time a
year…

21. Managing time effectively
One of the biggest challenges for a new professor is managing your time

22. While previously you
only focused on
science

23. In addition to CEO, chief
grant writer and rainmaker,
you also serve as
• The lab’s first postdoctoral fellow and
scientist
• Accountant and
finance minister
• Head of purchasing
• Head of human
resources
• Head of new
employee training
• Laboratory chemical
and radiation safety,
and other regulatory
compliance

24. Remember you
also may have
teaching and
departmental/
institutional
service
responsibilities!

25. • A challenge with time
management is that
mentoring around this
issue is very uneven
across departments and
institutions
• You may receive mixed
signals from colleagues
and administrators
about priorities (hint:
listen to Department
chair!)

26. • There is no such thing as multi-tasking, only task switching
• Let me suggest a few basic
principles:
• Prioritize
• Delegate and supervise
• Create time blocks
• Manage communications
• Close the door

27. • Need to
establish what
only you can do
and what can be
delegated.
• Consider
departmental
priorities and
success metrics
• Organize tasks
Prioritize

28. Supervise and
delegate
• Identify functions
that can be
delegated, get
weekly reports
• When you
delegate, review
the results: it’s
your name on the
forms!
• Don’t be a
“helicopter” lab
chief

29. • Particularly for writing, establish significant time blocks
where you write and think, and are not disturbed
Create time blocks

30. Handle email and phone calls at beginning or end of day, not
every time the bell rings.
Manage communications

31. • Protect your access,
especially when you
need to complete a task.
• Leave the door open
when you are receptive
to students and
colleagues
Close the door, sometimes

32. Let’s return to our outline…
• Introduction: the nature of the challenge
• Creating a strategic blueprint to get you to the first
R01
• Managing your time effectively
• Building and husbanding your financial
resources
• Building your research team
• Laying the foundation for your first R01

33. FOUNDATIONI N G
&
CORPORATE FUND
Get Your Share of This Billion Dollar Pie!
TOOLKIT
http://www.principalinvestigators.org/foundation_corporate_funding_toolkit/

34. Building and husbanding
your financial resources

35. • Running a lab is not an “ivory tower”: it’s a small business, and you
are an entrepreneur
• Your Department chair is
your chief investor and
provider of start-up capital.
For a tenurable position,
He/she is likely investing 11.5 million in you.
A useful model

36. • Issue #1: controlling your rate of spending. (i.e.,
biotech industry burn rate.)
• Issue #2: what should be your spending mix on
equipment, personnel, and supplies?
Two important considerations

37. • Learning to play to the “short game” for capturing additional
resources
Strategies for extending your start up package

38. Main idea is to have your
start-up extend until the
first R01 gets awarded.
Controlling burn rate

39. Track monthly spending so you don’t
experience gaps in operating…these will stop
your momentum

40. Finding the right balance between
equipment, personnel, and supplies
Seek to leverage personnel
costs with support from
teaching assistantships
and training grants
• try to ensure that each
full team researcher
Try to borrow
has adequate supplies
equipment, obviating
to be successful: 12-15
expensive
K per researcher per
maintenance costs
year.
•
•

41. Assume your start-up package is a bank
account…try not to overdraw it!
The “short game:” Seeking out sources to
supplement your start-up
– Small institutional awards. Small, may have
programmatic flexibility. Can provide
additional operating resources to extend your
start-up. New faculty sometimes treated
preferentially.
– Private foundations. Advantages: Can be
sizable; specifically targeted for new
investigators. Disadvantages: restricted to
programmatic interests of the foundation.
– NIH: specifically RO3 and R21 mechanisms.
These can be helpful in getting on the path to
an R01. They are reviewed by regular study
sections: no special bonus for first time
investigators. Aims will have to be distinct
from your eventual R01.

42. Let’s return to our outline…
• Introduction: the nature of the challenge
• Creating a strategic blueprint to get you to the first
R01
• Managing your time effectively
• Building and husbanding your financial resources
• Laying the foundation for your first R01
• Building your research team

43. http://www.principalinvestigators.org/how-to-become-an-exceptional-mentor-educational-pack/

44. Building your research team
Planning is fine, but your
team is the crucial factor in
executing your research
plan: people management
must become one of your
key skills.
Your first team will get you
to the first R01, and
strongly influence reappointment and tenure
An effective team
allows you to better
delegate tasks not
essential for you to
execute
The key decisions
are the mix of
employees
(technicians, grad
students, and postdocs).

45. • If well trained, can start
executing experiments
immediately. Can help
manage lab administration
and assist in training
The value of a good lab tech

46. •Can be highly motivated, independent and
very capable in the lab.
•Can seek support for them via training grants
•Screen carefully (rotations!), and allow for
time to finish academic requirements.
Grad students

47. • Advantage is that they come with
high training
Post-doctoral fellows
• Have the potential to gain
independent salary support
• Work independently as coinvestigators
• As a new PI, your situation may not
be optimal for them
• They will need to find a position
after 3-4 years: can you create an
independent project for them?
Remember, there will always be a
trade off between cost of an employee,
and their experience level

48. Let’s return to our outline…
• Introduction: the nature of the challenge
• Creating a strategic blueprint to get you to the first
R01
• Managing your time effectively
• Building and husbanding your financial resources
• Building your research team
• Laying the foundation for your first R01

49. http://www.principalinvestigators.org/nih-r01-manual-4th-edition/
http://www.principalinvestigators.org/nih-webinar-library/

50. http://www.principalinvestigators.org/scientific-and-medical-writing-educational-pack
Inside this Educational Pack, you will
find step-by-step guidance and
writing examples applicable to
grants, journals and everyday
communications; expert guidance on
what you should and should not
include in your own writing; and
exercises to get you one step closer to
becoming a scientific writing expert.
http://bit.ly/PIAwriting

51. Laying the foundation
for your first R01
• By carrying out the phases described above, you
should have a strong foundation for writing an R01.

52. Before discussing the
preparation process, let’s
discuss how grants are
reviewed
• Are the overall specific
questions that the
application is addressing
significant
• Are the approaches
described feasible, well
designed, and appropriate?
• Is the investigator and the
team that he/she has
assembled the right group
to perform this work?

53. • The specific aims form the foundation and core of the
application.
Honing your specific aims:

54. • Constant revision and
sharpening during the
“transition period.” should
represent the “leading edge”
of your field.
• If successful, your
aims should have
potential to
transform your field

55. • Aims have to include an artful balance of what is
readily achievable with your current skill sets, and
what is riskier but potentially more exciting.

56. – Your approaches should be chosen as the preferred experiments
to address the hypotheses stated in your specific aims page.
Refining the approaches in your aims…
– Using multiple complementary approaches is always a strength
– Your key challenge is convincing your reviewers that you can
execute these of experiments.
– As part of the set-up for the grant, you have to have completed
these as preliminary data (option #1) or published them (better).
– Alternatively, you can recruit in collaborators who are published
experts in the method.

57. • Strengthening the investigator and environment
components
• Even if Aim and Approach are superb, a weak Investigator
and Environment can still sink the application.
It is key to remove all
productivity concerns
prior to review

58. Create additional
enthusiasm by
bringing additional
experts onto your
research team.
These can add
additional
technical
innovation.

59. Summing up
• There is a finite amount of time between your initial
appointment and your first R01 and then reappointment/tenure. Create a dynamic plan to achieve those
goals.
• Use good time management
skills to allow sufficient time
to do the thinking and
writing required for a
competitive application. You
will need to start early to
increase your odds. Try to
delegate some of the lab
administration tasks to
create the required space.

60. • When managing your financial resources, embrace a business
model, considering cash and expense flow to that your
resources won’t dry up before your funded. Write small grants
to local and private sources to extend your operating budget,
and consider the mix between equipment people and supplies.

61. When recruiting the people who will become your lab, consider
their organizational and interpersonal skills, and their potential to
be funded by sources other than your start-up. Don’t be afraid to
use probationary periods to avoid being saddled with disruptive or
unproductive lab members.

62. Be aware that in
writing a competitive
R01, much of your
success will ride on the
steps you’ve taken
before you start
writing. This means
that you have to
identify the right
questions early, and
start demonstrating
scientific momentum,
in order to convince
reviewers you are the
right person for the
work. Potential
productivity concerns
must be allayed for
starting to write!

63. Transitioning from an
Early Investigator Award
to the Coveted R01
Interested in watching this webinar?
Learn More Here!
Presenter: Christopher Francklyn, PhD.
Webinar Format: CD-Rom, MP4 and PDF Transcript.
All formats include the PDF presentation handouts.
Length: 60 minutes

64. The only Free eNewsletter focused on providing best
practices on obtaining grant funding, career advice lab
management, and much more!
http://bit.ly/SciencePro

65. PIA’s Must-Have Manuals and Guides for Every PI!
http://bit.ly/R01Manual http://bit.ly/NSFManual http://bit.ly/R15Manual http://bit.ly/SBIRManual