Ruth L. Kirschstein National Research Service Award

Stephanie Shumar

I received the F31 Diversity Fellowship which provides pre-doctoral funding to "under-represented" graduate students such as women. F31 fellowships are training grants for graduate students offered by the NIH. The main focus is for the graduate student to have money to get the best training possible, such as by having additional funds to go to national conferences, or learn specific techniques or use equipment  that are not offered at their university. Obtaining an F31 is kind of the graduate school equivalent of obtaining an R01. It is given to graduate students that have an exceptional academic and preliminary research record.  My F31 will provide funding for 2 years.

Ray Anderson

The F-31 (NIH Ruth L. Kirschstein National Research Service Award) is a prestigious pre-docotral fellowship through the national institutes of health. It provides funding to promising PhD candidates to obtain individualized, mentored research training from outstanding faculty sponsors while conducting dissertation research. This award covers my stipend, tuition and fees, and provides institutional allowances for things like textbooks and other items I may need during training. This is important for my future career aspirations as it will set me apart from other researchers. Additionally, the funding takes pressure off my mentor to provide money for my stipend. This will give me more flexibility in the lab to purchase things that will facilitate the progression of my research. I had been in the lab for a little over two years at the time of my submission back in April. I had worked the majority of that time gathering preliminary data that I included in the grant. The NIH has agreed to supply funding to me for three years (hopefully it won't take that long). the official Project begin date is in march of 2018, but I'm hoping to get this date pushed up to January or December.