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Senior Individual Biomedical Informatics Fellowship (F38)
PURPOSE: NLM senior fellowships in biomedical informatics provide support for the training of experienced health professionals in informatics. Training may be for informatics research or for the application of informatics to any area of biomedicine, including, among others, clinical medicine, basic biomedical research, education, or administration.

These fellowships are intended for experienced scientists, physicians, and other professionals who wish to make major changes in the direction of their careers or who wish to broaden their scientific background by acquiring new capabilities in informatics research and development. These awards will enable professionally independent individuals with at least ten years of post-graduate experience to take time from their regular professional responsibilities for the purpose of receiving training in informatics. This award can be used in conjunction with a sabbatical experience. The requirement for a doctoral degree may be waived for candidates in the following professional fields: engineering, computer science, library and information sciences.

Upon completion of training, fellows should be able to conduct basic or applied research at the intersection of biology and medicine with computer and cognitive sciences, and are expected to be familiar with the use and potential of modern information technology. Fellows in informatics will achieve this goal through an individually-tailored program of formal coursework and research experience, associated with a project. The program of coursework should develop or augment the trainee's basic competency in each of these areas: computer science, information science, cognitive science, and knowledge of one or more domains of Biomedicine. This fellowship may lead to a degree, although it is not a requirement.

The fellowship must provide hands-on experience obtained via a defined project. Projects may be in basic informatics research areas or address an informatics application. An applied informatics project does not require the form or concepts of a research project, and need not be hypothesis-driven, but the proposal should provide sufficient detail to permit reviewers to judge importance of the problem, feasibility of the approach, and the post-training utility of the informatics techniques required.

Each fellow must have a mentor who provides guidance and oversight for the training program. The mentor should be expert in an area of informatics or information science that is pertinent to the proposed program, and should be an active investigator in the area of the proposed research. The mentor may be at the applicant's home institution or at another institution. If the latter, the plan for supervision and interaction must be described.

MECHANISM OF SUPPORT: This program announcement for Senior Individual Biomedical Informatics Fellowships uses the F38 funding mechanism. Training awards provide stipends to fellows as a subsistence allowance to help defray living expenses during the research training experience. The project period may be for one to two years, and awards are not renewable.

Training awards provide stipends to fellows to help defray living expenses during the research training experience. The amount of the trainee’s stipend shall be based on the documented salary or remuneration paid to the candidate from the home institution at the time of award, and shall be based on the normal full-time 12-month staff appointment at the home institution. However, in no case shall the NIH contribution to the stipend during the fellowship exceed the current legislated maximum salary; in Fiscal Year 2002, the maximum salary provided by a Federal grant is $166,700.

NLM will award 100% of the combined costs of tuition, fees, and health insurance up to $3,000 and 60 percent of the combined costs above $3,000. The base formula for travel allows up to $1,000 per year per trainee. LM provides an institutional allowance of $6000 per year per trainee to defray the costs of other research training expenses, including consultant costs, equipment, and research supplies. Salary for mentors, secretarial, and administrative assistance, etc., is not allowed.

Funded training periods may be for one to two years, and customarily require a full-time commitment. The minimum effort permitted is 50 percent of full-time. Part-time training program at a level of 50 to 99 percent effort will be considered with sufficient justification of need.

ELIGIBLE APPLICANTS: Only domestic non-Federal organizations, public or private, such as Medical, Dental or Nursing schools or other institutions of higher education, may accept an award on behalf of an applicant. Before submitting a fellowship application, the applicant must identify a sponsoring institution and an individual who will serve as a sponsor (also called mentor or supervisor) and will supervise the training and research experience.

By the date of appointment, applicants must have at least ten full years of relevant research or other professional experience beyond the qualifying degree. Relevant postdoctoral experience may include research experience (including industrial), teaching, internship, residency, clinical duties, or other time spent in full-time studies in a health-related field following the date of the qualifying doctoral degree. All candidates must be willing to spend a minimum of 50 percent of full-time professional effort conducting research and research career development during the entire award period.
  • Postdoctoral trainees must have received a Ph.D., M.D. or comparable doctoral degree from an accredited domestic or foreign institution.
  • The NLM encourages applications from individuals without doctoral degrees who have significant professional training and experience in closely related cognate fields. Nurses, health science librarians, researchers, educators, administrators, and other health professionals are eligible, as are computer scientists and engineers.
NIH REVIEW CRITERIA: The usual NIH criteria apply: significance; approach; innovation; investigator; environment. In addition, reviewers will consider the following:
  • Candidate: An assessment of the candidate's previous academic and research performance and the potential to become an important contributor to biomedical, behavioral, or clinical science.
  • Sponsor and Training Environment: An assessment of the quality of the training environment and the qualifications of the sponsor as a mentor for the proposed research training experience.
  • Research Proposal: The merit of the scientific proposal and its relationship to the candidate's career plans.
  • Training Potential: An assessment of the value of the proposed fellowship experience as it relates to the candidate's needs in preparation for a career as an independent researcher.
  • Protections: The adequacy of the proposed protection for humans, animals, or the environment, to the extent they may be adversely affected by the project proposed in the application.
  • Inclusion: The adequacy of plans to include subjects from both genders, all racial and ethnic groups (and subgroups), and children as appropriate for the scientific goals of the research.
  • Budget: The reasonableness of the proposed budget and the requested period of support in relation to the proposed research.
  • Training In The Responsible Conduct Of Research: Applications must include a description of a program to provide instruction in scientific integrity and the responsible conduct of research.
  • Data Sharing: The adequacy of the proposed plan to share data if applicable
NLM REVIEW CRITERIA: Applied fellowship applications will be judged as such and not as research training applications. Applications with an applied rather than research focus must include:
  • An outline and description of the project including specific hypotheses, objectives, and milestones as appropriate
  • A specific section labeled Milestones following the Research Plan. Milestones should be well described, quantifiable, and scientifically justified. A discussion of the milestones relative to the progress of the project, as well as the implications of successful completion of the milestones for further investigation or implementation, should be included.
  • The clarity and completeness of the specific goals and feasibility of milestones is critical.

Last updated: 20 November 2003
First published: 20 November 2003
Metadata| Permanence level: Permanence Not Guaranteed