Grant Writing Mentoring Program

This program is open to assistant and associate professors at NSU interested in getting specialized training and receiving one-on-one support from grant experts and senior mentors. The program aims to support NSU researchers by growing their capacity to find, apply for, and be competitive to receive grant support for their scholarly work.

The 2027 program will feature targeted support for two NIH grant programs (R16 and R15) and include hands-on, in-person workshops for proposal guidance, peer and expert feedback, and other capacity building activities.

Call for Mentees!

Interested in applying for the 2027 program? Access the application form here: https://tinyurl.com/2027-Grant-Intensive

Mentee Criteria & Commitment

A mentee is a full-time faculty member interested in pursuing a research career, who is at the assistant or associate professor level and who likely does not have past success winning external grant funding as a PI/PD. Mentees must have their dean’s approval to participate (the mentee's dean must sign the below form).

Mentees must read the "Mentee Agreement Form" to ensure they can commit to the program and obtain their Dean's signature indicating support (attach this form to the program application).

Questions? Email GrantLab@nova.edu

Mentor Criteria & Commitment

A mentor is a full-time faculty member who has received significant external sponsored funding and who holds the rank of associate or full professor. 

For the 2027 program, mentors will be utilized to conduct proposal reviews, and give mentees feedback and guidance, to contribute to proposal strengthening prior to submission.

The 2027 program will be an "NIH Grant Writing Intensive" running February through May 2027. It will include in-person workshops every two weeks from February 12 through May 14, 2027. Sessions are scheduled for noon to 1:00pm on Fridays on NSU's Davie campus. Mentees must be commited to attending these in-person sessions and completing required document drafting between sessions.

Prospective applicants should consider their readiness to participate in this program. Applicants are ready if they:

• Are committed to submitting an NIH R16 grant in May 2027 or NIH R15 grant in June 2027 as Principal Investigator (PI)
• Have a research project idea ready to start proposal writing by February 2027
• Have preliminary data related to the project idea (can be original data or secondary/database analysis)
• Have at least 1 publication related to the project idea (ideally should have 2-3 related publications)
• Have the time to dedicate to intensive proposal writing February through May 2027

Not able to attend in person meetings? Not ready to submit an external grant? Reach out to Melanie (mbauer1@nova.edu) or Beth (bgilbert1@nova.edu) for individualized proposal development support.

The two-stage 2025-2026 mentoring program engaged 22 faculty in Stage 1 (funding searching, grant strategy meeting, proposal drafting) and 10 faculty progressed to Stage 2 (mentor matching, proposal feedback, supported proposal submission). Ten Mentees completed the full two-stage program and were from the colleges of Business, Dental Medicine, Osteopathic Medicine, Pharmacy, and Psychology. Thank you to the Mentors who supported them!

Mentees submitted grants to the following funders/programs:

• National Institutes of Health
• Organization for Autism Research
• NSU President's Research Grant
• Dean's/College Grant

The 12-month (2023-2024) mentoring program supported 11 Mentees and 11 Mentors from six colleges--KPCOM, Psychology, Optometry, Pharmacy, Fischler, and Computing & Engineering. Thank you Mentees for your commitment and to Mentors for guiding them!

The program resulted in grant submissions to the following:

• NIH SuRE
• NIH SuRE-First
• NIH Katz
• FL Department of Health
• Alzheimer's Association
• International Brain Research Organization
• President's Research Grant
• Dooley Trust
• Health Professions Division Research Grant

The 2021-2022 program supported 12 Mentors and 12 Mentees from nine NSU colleges--MD College, Dental, Halmos, HCBE, Health Care Sciences, Nursing, Optometry, KPCOM, and Pharmacy. Many thanks to our Mentees and Mentors for the dedication of their time and expertise to this program!

The program resulted in grant submissions to the following:

• American Academy of Optometry
• American Heart Association
• National Institutes of Health
• Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality
• President's Faculty Research & Development Grant
• Quality of Life Grant
• Health Professions Division Research Grant

• Melanie Bauer, Grant Writing Manager, DoR (mbauer1@nova.edu)
• Beth Gilbert, Science Grant Writer, College of Osteopathic Medicine (bgilbert1@nova.edu)