Course Description

You mastered the R series and are dreaming of an institutional training grant to attract the most highly qualified trainees. How do you begin? A T32 grant is among the most prestigious to land, and among the trickiest to write. How do you choose a relevant, innovative topic, or cohesive faculty? How does one structure the curriculum? What strategies should one employ to evaluate a program like this? And how do you fill out all those onerous data tables? We will walk you through the steps of preparing for and writing a competitive T32 grant application.

Updated:  September 1, 2023

Preview an Excerpt of This Course

I wish I would have participated in this training prior to submitting our T32 in May 2023. I would have structured our submission differently.

Colleen McMullen
Editorial Officer Clinic, Internal Medicine-Cardiology, The University of Kentucky College of Medicine

Course Details

Who:  For those preparing to write an NIH T-series submission and the people who advise them.

When:  Available on demand

Cost:  $1500 

Summary of Course Sections

Part I. Planning Your Program

What is the purpose of an NIH institutional training grant? How do you choose one? How do you prepare in order to optimize your chance of success? We will discuss when to consider writing a T32, how to identify a topic area that fits the strengths and needs of your group, how to identify optimal MPIs and mentors, and ways to think about formulating a strong curriculum. We will emphasize how and from whom to elicit feedback on your ideas and plans before moving ahead with writing. We offer a task list for administrators and a draft timeline and milestones.


Part II. Writing the Research Strategy Part 1

The 25-page Research Strategy of a T32 is complex and highly detailed. We will discuss how to write the Background section; Training Program & Environment; PDs/PIs; and Preceptors/Mentors. Emphasis will be placed on winning strategies we’ve seen on successful applications. We will also review how to fill out and refer to Tables 1-5.


Part III. Writing the Research Strategy Part 2

Here we discuss winning strategies for writing about the Trainees and the Training Record, which includes a detailed discussion of your evaluation plan. Tips for filling out and referring to Tables 6-8 are presented. This talk also includes instructions for creating a successful Recruitment Plan to Enhance Diversity.


Part IV. RCR, Rigor, Mistakes Commonly Made

We will wrap up with a discussion of the design and writing of the 3-page Plan for Instruction in Responsible Conduct in Research; and the important 3-page Plan for Instruction in Methods for Enhancing Reproducibility. We will conclude with a presentation of the 12 most common mistakes we see on T32 Summary Statements, and the successful “fixes” our clients have used to overcome these criticisms.

Learning Objectives

At the end of the 2 hours 50 minutes of coursework, you will be able to:

  1. Identify and employ crucial steps to take to prepare to write an NIH institutional training grant application
  2. Acquire key information about effective NIH writing strategies
  3. Apply NIH effective strategies to writing and revising a draft submission
  4. Utilize learned skills to critique peer drafts to hone their own skills
  5. Develop better grantwriting skills that will carry forward on all submissions, whether to NIH or other funding agencies

Content Disclaimer

Course content updated September 1, 2023. Content of this course was updated and re-recorded on this date. The content was accurate at that time. We recommend that you search for changes that may have occurred to the content since the recording date. Note that the course title may have been modified slightly since the recording.