Tips for maximizing your application

What your research statement needs to accomplish

• A lot in a little space; get help with compressing
• Page/character limits aren’t about being short or giving reviewers less to read;  limits are about your capacity to articulate complex ideas and methods at a powerfully lucid conceptual level
• Who you are as a scientist/scholar, how you think
• Your energy, passion for the work, questions
• A vision
• Accessible to educated lay readers as well as experts (but never “dumb down”!)

What other application components need to accomplish

• Different roles, no redundancy
• Shortened CV
• Publications
• Budget tells story
• Letters: the perspective only that writer can give
• View as a whole package, not just pieces; consider how each component contributes fully to a larger whole

Choosing letter writers

• Your impact on their lab/research
• Can they characterize your scholarly qualities and strengths?
• Do they have sufficient information about the funder to aim their letter?