Repost for 2010: Put NIH Row on Your Itinerary

As those of us in the neurosciences gear up for our annual tribal meetup, my mentoring hat turns to a topic that is dear to my heart. Namely, increasing the odds that my readers, who are all exceptionally brilliant and deserving scientists, will be successful in obtaining NIH grant funding. Part of that process is a long game of developing interpersonal relationships with the Program Officers that staff the NIH ICs of interest to our individual research areas. It is indubitably the case that many scientists find the schmoozing process to be uncomfortable and perhaps even distasteful. To this I can only reply “Well, do you want to get funded or not?”.

This post originally went up Nov 12, 2008. I’ve edited a few things for links and content.

---

One of the most important things you are going to do during the upcoming SfN Annual Meeting in San Diego, CA is to stroll around NIH row. Right?

I have a few thoughts for the trainees after the jump. I did mention that this is a long game, did I not?