Steps to creating your Biosketch

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Welcome to the Clinician Researcher podcast, where academic clinicians learn the skills

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to build their own research program, whether or not they have a mentor.

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As clinicians, we spend a decade or more as trainees learning to take care of patients.

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When we finally start our careers, we want to build research programs, but then we find

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that our years of clinical training did not adequately prepare us to lead our research

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program.

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Through no fault of our own, we struggle to find mentors, and when we can't, we quit.

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However, clinicians hold the keys to the greatest research breakthroughs.

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For this reason, the Clinician Researcher podcast exists to give academic clinicians

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the tools to build their own research program, whether or not they have a mentor.

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Now introducing your host, Tiosi Unwemona.

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Welcome to the Clinician Researcher podcast.

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I'm your host, Toyosi Onwuemene, and it is a pleasure to be talking with you today.

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Today I'm talking about creating your first biosketch, or maybe it's not your first biosketch,

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you're updating it or revising it or tailoring it to a specific application, but I'm talking

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about biosketch today.

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And the reason I'm talking about the biosketch, you know, it's not a topic that I was thinking

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of creating an episode for, but over the last few weeks I was submitting a grant, and as

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part of this grant, it's not the biggest grant I've submitted, it's probably like a small

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to medium average sized grant, and I needed collaborators to send me their biosketches,

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specifically people who had volunteered to be site investigators for the study we're

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doing, and what I recognized is that many clinicians have not had the opportunity to

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either create a biosketch or to really optimize their biosketches to really tell a great,

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great story.

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And I wanted to just come and share my thoughts about how to create a biosketch.

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Clearly I'm not the first person to talk about this topic, but I will share my thoughts

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and definitely get as many resources as you can to help you in doing a great job in creating

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your first or updating your current biosketch.

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So the first thing is why?

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Why do you even need a biosketch?

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Why?

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And if you've been submitting grants before now, you probably know why you need a biosketch,

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however it's variable, right, because some grant opportunities will ask you to submit

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a CV, and they do not necessarily ask you to submit a biosketch.

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Sometimes it's optional, you can submit a CV or a biosketch, but many times when people

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are thinking about submitting a biosketch, it is within the context of grants, of grant

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writing.

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Sometimes if you are fortunate to have applied to a career development program that may not

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even necessarily be a grant you're submitting specifically, they might ask you to create

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a biosketch as part of that.

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And one of the great things about these career development programs that ask you to create

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a biosketch is because they force you to do it before you have to do it.

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And the whole point of creating a biosketch, the whole point of creating a biosketch is

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to really be able to create a short document that summarizes your contributions as a scientist,

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that summarizes your qualifications and your contributions as a scientist.

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And sometimes when people are starting out in their careers, there's a sense that, wait

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a minute, I haven't made any contributions, I'm just starting out, I've barely written

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a manuscript or two.

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Or maybe you've written five manuscripts and you're like, well, it's just five, how can

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I say I've contributed anything?

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And I will tell you that as long as you are a physician who has been trained, who has

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gone through, even if you're still going through residency, because there are biosketches for

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non-fellowship applications, there are biosketches for fellowship applications, whether you're

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pre-doc or post-doc.

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So there is a biosketch for you.

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And if you are somebody who's considering doing research in any way, shape or form,

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you've got something to say and you need to figure out how to say it.

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So the biosketch is important as an important summary of your contributions to science and

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your qualifications to lead a program or at least to contribute to it.

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And it's an important document.

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It's kind of like the language of the presentation of the scientist in a grant and in other things

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as well.

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So if you have not yet created a biosketch, you should, because it's also a great way

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to kind of summarize your contributions in a way that allows you to talk about it.

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And so, yes, you can talk about your contributions without creating a biosketch, but you usually

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cannot submit major grants or even small grants without the biosketch.

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So the biosketch is important.

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And many times, even if you're not necessarily leading your own research program, if you're

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contributing to somebody else's program and you are a named person in the grant or at

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least a significant contributor in some way, you will need to provide them with a biosketch.

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So the biosketch is an important document to have.

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If you are listening to this podcast and you're interested in growing your career as a clinician

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scientist or you're already a clinician scientist, then you definitely, definitely should have

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a biosketch.

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So why do you need the biosketch?

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It is a great summary of your qualifications and contribution to science.

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Okay, very good.

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Let's move on to number two.

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Number two is to create the biosketch before you need to.

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Create it before you need to.

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So usually, many times, biosketches are required as part of grant applications.

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And usually, you're not, if you've never created one before, you've never updated your biosketch

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in a long time, when it comes to a specific grant that asks you to submit a biosketch as

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part of it, and definitely any NIH grant submission, then it's time to create the biosketch.

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And usually, that's not the best time to create a biosketch for the first time.

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There is no, there is no bad time to create a biosketch.

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If you have to do it for the grant submission, it's great.

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Whatever reason prompts you to create a biosketch is a good reason.

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The reason not to wait until you have a grant submission to create the biosketch is that,

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you know what, it takes time to create a good biosketch.

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And what you don't want to do is to be creating it for the very first time when you actually

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need it to represent you in a grant application.

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And invariably, especially if you're just writing your first series of grants, you do

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not know.

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You do not know just because of experience how long it takes to submit a grant application.

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Even the smallest grants come with multiple components, and they are parts of the grant

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that other people have to review or sign off on, so that you always have to start early.

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But when you first start grant writing, you tend to underestimate how long it takes to

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pull all these documents together.

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I have clients who are writing grants for the first time, and they finally pull all

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the pieces of the grants, all the pieces that are needed, and finally come face to face

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or come to terms with how much is needed, and they are overwhelmed.

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Grants are just collections of different documents, and many of them take time to create, especially

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if you're creating them for the very first time.

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So it can be quite overwhelming.

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And you don't want, at that point, just to be starting your biosketch, because it means

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you're going to rush through the biosketch.

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It's not going to represent you well, and it kind of misses the point of representing

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your science.

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So you want to create a biosketch before you actually need to.

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So you want to create the biosketch before you actually need to create the biosketch.

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Okay.

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The second thing is to find an example biosketch.

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Find an example biosketch.

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So in general, if there's any scientist you know, any clinician scientist or even a PhD

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scientist who has submitted a grant, they have a biosketch.

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Usually you can reach out to your senior investigators and say, hey, I'm creating a biosketch for

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the very first time.

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Please share information with me about your biosketch.

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And what you're asking them to do is to share the biosketch with you, not so you can copy

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their biosketch.

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Please do not copy their biosketch.

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So you want to get a sense of what a biosketch looks like.

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That's what you want.

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And now, as with many things in science, the easy answer is just copy what your senior

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person is doing, either your mentor or one of your mentors or your division chief or

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your chair.

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Copy something, copy a biosketch of somebody who's done great.

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First of all, you can't copy it because clearly they have a different scientific career than

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you do.

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But even using it as a template, it's fine to do that.

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I'm just saying that the specifications for biosketchers kind of change.

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They evolve a little bit over time.

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The more senior a scientist is, sometimes the less they have updated their biosketch

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to match the current formatting.

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And in general, everybody has to update their biosketch and it has to match.

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But there are some nuances.

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And the rules do keep changing just a little bit each time.

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So definitely get the biosketch of a senior person, someone who's ahead of you.

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So by senior, they don't have to be like, you know, a professor of medicine or something

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like that.

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It could just be senior as in someone who submitted a grant or two.

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But you definitely want to get an example so you get a sense, not so you copy it, but

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so you get a sense of what it looks like.

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The reason you don't copy it is you want to get the most up-to-date information or the

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most up-to-date recommendations for the grant submission.

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And depending on where you are in your career, you may need a fellowship biosketch or a

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non-fellowship biosketch.

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Or if you're pre-doc or post-doc, there are a few nuances to how the biosketch is actually

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formatted.

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So it's not how the biosketch is actually formatted.

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So it's not as simple as just copying a biosketch.

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But definitely get somebody's biosketch as an example and then set it aside.

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Don't copy.

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Just set it aside and create your own first.

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OK.

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So the first thing is to create it before you need to.

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Number two is to find an example biosketch.

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Number three is to create the first draft.

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Now that sounds simple and straightforward, but it actually is not necessarily so simple

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and straightforward.

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Now, there are different ways to create a first draft.

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The one I don't recommend to start off is just finding somebody's biosketch and copying

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it kind of verbatim and then installing or inserting things that are relevant to you

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where things differ.

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So you can do that.

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And it's one way to start.

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But it's a starting point.

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OK.

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So you can create a first draft and you can do that.

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Just go through and where they say education and training, you know your own education

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and training.

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You put all that in.

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Where it says personal statement, you can't copy their personal statement.

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But at least you have a sense of how they put it together.

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Physicians, scientific appointments and honors, contributions to science.

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At least you start to get a sense of how they're putting it together.

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So create the first draft.

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So I don't recommend copying because it depends on where you are in your career as far as

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what the specifics of your biosketch should look like.

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But create the first draft.

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So my recommendations are to either use the Science CV tool from PubMed or to go to the

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NIH grants website and download a draft like an example version of what your biosketch

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should look like.

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OK.

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So let's talk about the Science CV tool.

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So if you go to PubMed.gov, it's PubMed.NCBI.NLM.NIH.gov.

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Or you can just Google it and you find PubMed and go to PubMed.

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And then there is an option in the right topmost corner that says login or perhaps you're already

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logged in.

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If you're logged in or you can create a new account if you don't already have one and

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then you log into your dashboard.

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Now your dashboard at the bottom right corner usually, if you have other things in there,

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sometimes you don't and it's not in the bottom right, but it's usually on the right side.

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And there's a tool called Science CV.

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And there's an option to manage your Science CV.

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And then you can go in and create a new document.

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And when you go to create a new document, it really does help you kind of step by step

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walk through the process of creating a document.

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And I recommend it as just again, this is just the first draft.

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You're not looking for a pretty biosketch.

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You're just making a first draft, putting things on paper.

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And so the Science CV tool is useful to go through and just put in all the things that

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you need.

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You don't have to, so this is the point at which you're not necessarily trying to shape

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the document and make the personal statement exactly beautiful or make the contribution

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to science exactly beautiful.

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You're just getting things on paper so you can get a first draft.

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Okay, so very, very rough draft, filling all, fill in all the pieces and then export the

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document.

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And I think you have a couple of options for exporting the document.

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You can export it as a PDF.

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You can export it as a Word document.

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And there might be one or two other options.

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But export it as a Word document because you are going to edit it.

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You're not going to take your Science CV and just accept whatever first draft they shoot

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out at you because for a simple reason, you do need to tailor a little bit.

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And tailoring within the tool is not as easy as tailoring on a piece of, on the actual

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document.

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But the other piece of that is that the formatting is not beautiful.

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And I will tell you that whatever document you ever create for a grant needs to be beautiful.

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You need to look at the document and feel like, oh, this looks good.

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The formatting looks good.

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You really need to love the way it looks.

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The reason you need to love the way it looks is because it presents, it gives a nice presentation

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and it just says something good about you.

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You know, sometimes, many times when people are talking about grant writing, they talk

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about all the things you should do to not annoy the reviewer.

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And you know, I think it's great to not try to annoy the reviewer.

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But what a low goal in life to live life writing grants just so that you don't annoy people.

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I would recommend kind of like a higher, a higher goal, you know, to write a grant you're

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proud of.

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Write a grant you're proud of.

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And at the end of the day, it will also not annoy the reviewer, which is great, but that

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cannot be your goal.

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The goal of not annoying the reviewer.

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So yes, if you have a sketch that's well put together, you won't annoy the reviewer.

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But more importantly, you want a document that you are proud of, that you look at and

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you think the formatting looks good.

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So anyway, let's just say that the Science CV document usually when you create it the

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first time has the formatting could be better and you have an opportunity when you download

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it to actually update that formatting.

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So that's the Science CV as one option.

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The other option is just to go to the NIH grants website.

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That's grants.nih.gov.

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And there is, you know, the bias sketch.

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There's a link to actually create a bias sketch.

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So it's actually grants.nih.gov slash grants slash forms slash bias sketch.

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And I will put the link in the show notes.

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But if you go there, what it does is it gives you the most updated biographical sketch format

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for the current form.

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So NIH is always changing its rules as far as like what is needed for a grant application.

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And so they're always updating the bias sketch.

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And it may even be that the bias sketch doesn't change.

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And what they do is they update the expiration date of the bias sketch.

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Usually on the top right hand side of the page, there is a date of expiration of the

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current bias sketch.

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So you always want to make sure that your bias sketch is on the most up to date form

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or at the very least not on a form that's expired.

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And so this page, the grants.nih.gov page, I love because it just tells me what is the

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most current bias sketch, what are the most current rules.

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And what I love about it is that it actually separates your bias sketch into the different,

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it separates bias sketches into the different types of bias sketches that are needed.

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For example, if you are submitting a bias sketch for a fellowship type application,

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there's a specific type of format that you need as opposed to if you're submitting for

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a non-fellowship application.

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And if you're submitting for a fellowship application, there's the pre-doctoral version

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and there's a post-doctoral version.

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So I love looking at the bias sketch example on the grants.nih.gov page just because it's

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just very clear which one you need.

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And it gives you examples too, which is so awesome.

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So that never copy a person's bias sketch.

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But if you're going to copy anything, at least kind of look at the example that they give

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you on the bias sketch on the NIH website.

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And that's helpful because usually it's up to date and consistent with the current formatting.

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So those are two ways to create your first draft using the Science CV tool or going to

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the NIH grants website to get a blank page that you can use or to at least see their

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example that you can update as well.

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Okay, so now you have created your first draft.

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Let's talk about the components of the first draft of your bias sketch or the components

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of a bias sketch at all.

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So the first series of questions is kind of like the, it's a demographics, so to speak.

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Yes, it's a demographic page.

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So your name, your eRA Commons username, and this is a point at which if you do not yet

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have an eRA Commons username, you go create one.

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And definitely if you don't know anything about creating one, talk to someone at your

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institution who's done this before.

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Usually an administrative person may be the best person to talk to, or even your library.

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Oh my goodness, the library is such a great resource.

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And then they ask for your position title.

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So maybe you're a postdoctoral fellow or you're an assistant professor of medicine or you're

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an instructor, whatever it is, that's your position.

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And then your education and training, and that's pretty straightforward.

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And usually you'll put in like your major academic degrees, and for physicians you put

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in your training, so your internship and your residency and your fellowship training if

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you're fellowship trained.

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Even if you've had like a certificate or a master's degree since your training, all those

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things will go in there.

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That actually is pretty straightforward.

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The next section is the personal statement.

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And the personal statement is just that, a personal statement.

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So if you're a physician, you'd be writing personal statements at the very least since

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you applied to med school and personal statements continue.

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But this personal statement is very specific to your research.

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Why are you qualified to do this work that you're proposing to do?

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And it's really about your qualifications to do the research.

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And then a little bit about the particular application, this particular grant proposal

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or whatever the reason you're submitting your biosketch.

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For what reason are you well suited to the work?

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Okay, so that's your personal statement.

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And we can talk about it a little bit more, but really the personal statement really should

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be tailored to the grant opportunity.

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And so one of the things about creating a first draft is that you create it first, right,

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then you have a draft.

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But every time you go to update your biosketch, you go to submit it, the personal statement

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really needs to be updated to reflect that particular opportunity.

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So in general, it may not change much, but I would argue that for every grant opportunity,

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you need a new personal statement.

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And it feels like a lot to create a new personal statement for every grant opportunity because

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you should be submitting a lot of grants, but you probably will be eventually even if

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you're not yet.

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And so it's like, wait, for every opportunity, I'm going to update or write a new personal

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statement.

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The general trend of your personal statement will stay the same.

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But as you're progressing your career, and depending on the opportunity you're applying

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for, your personal statement is going to need to change.

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And so what you're talking about when you are maybe pre-fellowship or pre-doc versus

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when you're postdoc, it changes over time.

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And your contributions change, or they have more meaning, or there are other things that

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you can add in there.

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And so the personal statement really needs to grow to reflect your growing stature as

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a scientist.

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And you may be like, stature?

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I have no stature.

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Yes, you do.

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And you've got to be imaginative and creative as to how you bring all of your experiences

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into the personal statement.

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And so the personal statement is a really important piece of your biosketch.

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Actually may be one of the most important pieces of your biosketch because it's really

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your opportunity to tell your story of how you're qualified to do the science.

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And even if you do not feel qualified, actually you do need to feel qualified.

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You need to workshop feeling qualified so that you can project your qualifications.

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And if you're in the place where you're like, I don't really feel qualified and I don't

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know what to say, you do need to stop and talk to someone to help encourage you, to

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help you think through how all of your qualifications come together for that particular application.

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And I will tell you that you are always qualified, always qualified.

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Now it is up to the reviewer to decide if you're qualified enough for this particular

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application.

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But from your perspective, writing the personal statement, you are always qualified.

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And you want to make sure that you build the personal statement to demonstrate and to highlight

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your qualifications.

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And if you cannot do that, you need to sit down with someone to talk through how to best

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do that in light of all the things you've done.

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And even if you say, I have never even published a paper, I'm just telling you that if you've

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been through medical school, residency, fellowship, you've got something to say.

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And you find a way to say it and have somebody else help you workshop that if you have difficulties.

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Okay, so that may be the hardest part of the Biosketch.

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You know, there's a position, scientific appointments, and honors.

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And this is where you get to, you know, say where you are right now, how many other appointments

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you've had.

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This is where you get to put in your honors, any awards that you've received, but also

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your licensure and certification.

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Those are all important as well.

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Contributions to science.

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Okay, so this can be a part of the Biosketch that's difficult.

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So it was difficult for me when I first started because I was like, I barely contributed anything.

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And you've always contributed something, especially if you've written a publication.

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But even if you haven't, if you have presented an abstract, if you've been part of a publication,

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if you've been part of an abstract publication, if you've even written a book chapter, you've

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contributed to science in some way.

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And this is just an opportunity to highlight your contribution.

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Again, as with the Biosketch, when you write your contribution to science, you cannot start

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from a position of, oh, goodness, I'm barely qualified.

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I have no contributions because that's exactly how you show up with your Biosketch.

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But if you think about how can I best highlight my contributions, that's the great starting

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point.

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And I invite you to start from that perspective of how can I highlight my contributions?

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That means you're saying I have them, now I need to figure out how best to shape that

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copy.

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So you have contributions as long as you've done anything related to science, as long

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as you have done anything as far as published or presented an abstract or being part of

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00:23:35,920 --> 00:23:39,400
an, a bit part of an abstract, you've contributed to science.

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And even if you're not, you haven't even done that yet, you're just in somebody's lab or

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you're in somebody's research program and you've helped with an experiment, you contributed

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to science.

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And so what you have to do is figure out what have your contributions been and how do you

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shape them?

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Okay.

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So again, these are the kinds of things that you should sit down and talk with someone

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about and it would be really nice if you have a research mentor to sit down and talk with

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about this.

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One of the things about our research mentors is that they did this so long ago, they may

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not even be the best person for you to sit down and talk with about doing this piece

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to start with.

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I would say probably what I recommend is finding a near peer mentor, somebody who's done this

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within the last two to three years for the first time to ask them about how they structure

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their contributions to science.

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Other mentors who have made what, 50 or upward of 50 or greater than 100 publications or

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00:24:29,000 --> 00:24:34,680
more really have a different experience as far as writing their contributions to science

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00:24:34,680 --> 00:24:38,000
versus someone who's maybe contributed three or four publications.

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00:24:38,000 --> 00:24:43,880
And so that senior person may not be the best person to help you because they have a different

402
00:24:43,880 --> 00:24:48,280
thinking about their contributions versus someone like you who's a little further behind

403
00:24:48,280 --> 00:24:50,480
or at least not as far ahead.

404
00:24:50,480 --> 00:24:51,800
You don't think of yourself as behind.

405
00:24:51,800 --> 00:24:56,040
You think of yourself as just not having gotten to that point yet, which is two different

406
00:24:56,040 --> 00:24:58,080
ways of looking at it.

407
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And then if it's a fellowship application, they may ask you for your scholastic performance.

408
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If it's a non-fellowship, at some point in the application, you're also putting your

409
00:25:06,920 --> 00:25:13,280
recent maybe awards that you want to highlight in the last three years and there are a few

410
00:25:13,280 --> 00:25:14,360
other things to consider.

411
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But those are the main sections of the Biosketch.

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You want to make sure that you have something for each of those.

413
00:25:21,560 --> 00:25:22,920
Okay.

414
00:25:22,920 --> 00:25:27,040
The next thing I want to share is that you do want to tailor your Biosketch to the opportunity.

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00:25:27,040 --> 00:25:30,840
The piece that's easiest to tailor is the personal statement, but it's not the only

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00:25:30,840 --> 00:25:31,840
one.

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00:25:31,840 --> 00:25:36,160
And I would say that if you literally are taking one Biosketch and just changing it

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00:25:36,160 --> 00:25:40,560
from application to application to application and just like, you know, editing, tweaking

419
00:25:40,560 --> 00:25:44,440
the personal statement a little bit, that, you know, it's okay.

420
00:25:44,440 --> 00:25:46,400
It's the way many people do it.

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00:25:46,400 --> 00:25:50,200
But I would tell you that what you really want to do is to go through each part of your

422
00:25:50,200 --> 00:25:54,200
Biosketch, especially the contributions to science and the personal statement, personal

423
00:25:54,200 --> 00:25:59,920
statement being number one, to say, is this still the way I want to highlight my contributions?

424
00:25:59,920 --> 00:26:03,840
And to be honest, it does change because, for example, if you're submitting a grant

425
00:26:03,840 --> 00:26:10,240
in one area and your personal statement reflects certain citations that are related to that

426
00:26:10,240 --> 00:26:17,360
area, when you go to submit for another opportunity, you might have different publications to highlight,

427
00:26:17,360 --> 00:26:21,600
which may change some of the contributions you've highlighted later in your Biosketch.

428
00:26:21,600 --> 00:26:27,600
So it really, every, every Biosketch needs to be tailored to every opportunity.

429
00:26:27,600 --> 00:26:33,440
Now, if you are a supporting person and you are not necessarily the person submitting

430
00:26:33,440 --> 00:26:37,440
the grant and you're supporting somebody else's grant submission, either as a site investigator

431
00:26:37,440 --> 00:26:43,880
or as a collaborator, perhaps you don't need to put in as much work as the person who's

432
00:26:43,880 --> 00:26:50,400
like, actually who's really selling their qualifications for the grant opportunity.

433
00:26:50,400 --> 00:26:52,280
But you should still tailor it.

434
00:26:52,280 --> 00:26:53,280
You should still.

435
00:26:53,280 --> 00:26:55,000
So for every opportunity, you will.

436
00:26:55,000 --> 00:26:59,240
I think I'm thinking about how much investment, how much time it takes to tailor a Biosketch

437
00:26:59,240 --> 00:27:00,360
to an opportunity.

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00:27:00,360 --> 00:27:02,000
It takes time.

439
00:27:02,000 --> 00:27:04,840
Sometimes it could feel like creating the Biosketch for the very first time.

440
00:27:04,840 --> 00:27:12,320
And I would say the more you are lead on a project as PI or as a co-PI or as an MPI,

441
00:27:12,320 --> 00:27:17,800
the more you should take time to sift through and see that your Biosketch actually says,

442
00:27:17,800 --> 00:27:21,760
presents your science, presents your qualifications in the best light possible.

443
00:27:21,760 --> 00:27:25,280
So definitely tailor your Biosketch to the opportunity.

444
00:27:25,280 --> 00:27:27,320
At a minimum, you should tailor your personal statement.

445
00:27:27,320 --> 00:27:31,240
But in general, you should be tailoring the whole Biosketch.

446
00:27:31,240 --> 00:27:32,240
Okay.

447
00:27:32,240 --> 00:27:36,960
The last thing I want to just highlight is that your personal statement of your Biosketch

448
00:27:36,960 --> 00:27:39,560
should tell a great story.

449
00:27:39,560 --> 00:27:42,040
It should tell a great story.

450
00:27:42,040 --> 00:27:44,440
And here's the story it shouldn't tell.

451
00:27:44,440 --> 00:27:49,320
Don't tell the story of, oh goodness, I have barely any qualifications.

452
00:27:49,320 --> 00:27:53,120
I barely know what I'm doing, but please give me the funding.

453
00:27:53,120 --> 00:27:57,440
You really do want to present yourself in the best possible light.

454
00:27:57,440 --> 00:28:02,860
Now something that can be difficult, especially if you are asking for kind of your first couple

455
00:28:02,860 --> 00:28:08,520
of funding, of grant funding opportunities, you're submitting your first, for your first

456
00:28:08,520 --> 00:28:13,400
proposals or you're submitting a proposal for a career development award.

457
00:28:13,400 --> 00:28:17,080
You don't necessarily want to project that you're too qualified.

458
00:28:17,080 --> 00:28:19,440
So there is a lot of a nuance there.

459
00:28:19,440 --> 00:28:22,780
But what you don't want to do is say, oh my goodness, I have absolutely no experience

460
00:28:22,780 --> 00:28:25,680
and please save me by giving me this opportunity.

461
00:28:25,680 --> 00:28:31,680
You really do want to say, here's how I've really shone in the things that I've done

462
00:28:31,680 --> 00:28:36,320
and here are the gaps that are still needed and how this application will help me.

463
00:28:36,320 --> 00:28:40,360
So you are going to be writing it a little bit differently if you are asking for a career

464
00:28:40,360 --> 00:28:46,920
development mentor type award, as opposed to if you're asking for an award as a leader

465
00:28:46,920 --> 00:28:52,000
of a project who's not necessarily asking for mentoring.

466
00:28:52,000 --> 00:28:57,560
So you do want to tell a great story with your personal statement and you want to highlight

467
00:28:57,560 --> 00:29:01,880
yourself as competent and qualified.

468
00:29:01,880 --> 00:29:06,880
And if for you that's very early on, it's saying in my residency program, I have the

469
00:29:06,880 --> 00:29:09,880
opportunity to participate in XYZ project.

470
00:29:09,880 --> 00:29:14,040
I moved this project forward in my fellowship and I presented it this meeting.

471
00:29:14,040 --> 00:29:21,120
So there are always opportunities, there is always an opportunity to highlight what you've

472
00:29:21,120 --> 00:29:23,600
done in a beautiful light.

473
00:29:23,600 --> 00:29:29,640
And it really does come first from believing in the work you've done and believing in yourself

474
00:29:29,640 --> 00:29:34,000
as someone who is qualified to do the work.

475
00:29:34,000 --> 00:29:39,480
And I will tell you that if you are submitting a biosketch for whatever reason you are, and

476
00:29:39,480 --> 00:29:44,640
it's time to own your qualifications, it's time to own your power and find the best way

477
00:29:44,640 --> 00:29:45,640
to present it.

478
00:29:45,640 --> 00:29:50,280
What you never want to do is compare yourself with the senior investigator who's been doing

479
00:29:50,280 --> 00:29:52,640
this for the last 15, 20 years.

480
00:29:52,640 --> 00:29:56,600
Okay, yes, your biosketch may not look like that person's biosketch, but it doesn't have

481
00:29:56,600 --> 00:29:57,600
to.

482
00:29:57,600 --> 00:30:01,120
A biosketch only needs to reflect you in the best possible light.

483
00:30:01,120 --> 00:30:05,040
So don't compare yourself with someone else and then feel bad about your contributions.

484
00:30:05,040 --> 00:30:06,240
Don't do that.

485
00:30:06,240 --> 00:30:11,040
Start with your contributions and figure out the best way to tailor your contributions

486
00:30:11,040 --> 00:30:13,600
to highlight you in the best possible light.

487
00:30:13,600 --> 00:30:18,880
Okay, the last thing I want to share with you is that, you know, many times in our research

488
00:30:18,880 --> 00:30:22,560
careers, we feel like we should get everything we need from our mentors.

489
00:30:22,560 --> 00:30:27,240
And oh my goodness, yes, we try to overload our mentors with giving us things that other

490
00:30:27,240 --> 00:30:28,680
people could help us with.

491
00:30:28,680 --> 00:30:32,160
I will tell you that somebody else can help you with your biosketch.

492
00:30:32,160 --> 00:30:35,280
It doesn't have to be your primary research mentor.

493
00:30:35,280 --> 00:30:36,960
A near peer can help you.

494
00:30:36,960 --> 00:30:39,920
The librarian at your institution can help you.

495
00:30:39,920 --> 00:30:43,480
You can Google it and find tips about writing your biosketch.

496
00:30:43,480 --> 00:30:47,800
Or you can just start on your own and use these templates and the examples on the NIH

497
00:30:47,800 --> 00:30:50,160
website to create a first draft.

498
00:30:50,160 --> 00:30:55,500
And after you've created a first draft, then ask your research mentor to weigh in and give

499
00:30:55,500 --> 00:31:00,240
you ideas and tips to sharpen the focus of your biosketch.

500
00:31:00,240 --> 00:31:02,120
That's a good use of your mentor.

501
00:31:02,120 --> 00:31:06,200
A good use of your mentor is not to create the first draft because there's so many resources

502
00:31:06,200 --> 00:31:08,600
available to you to be able to do that.

503
00:31:08,600 --> 00:31:13,680
What you want to do is you want to bring your best to the table and then ask your mentor

504
00:31:13,680 --> 00:31:17,120
to sharpen the focus of your biosketch.

505
00:31:17,120 --> 00:31:21,960
And you know, you may not even necessarily need your mentor to do that if you have access

506
00:31:21,960 --> 00:31:24,280
to help to do that in a different way.

507
00:31:24,280 --> 00:31:27,320
So I'm just telling you that this is your career.

508
00:31:27,320 --> 00:31:28,440
You're leading it.

509
00:31:28,440 --> 00:31:32,800
Your mentor is not necessarily the person who's going to do everything for you.

510
00:31:32,800 --> 00:31:35,160
You're not a baby to be spoon fed.

511
00:31:35,160 --> 00:31:39,020
You're somebody who can create your biosketch on your own and then bring it to somebody

512
00:31:39,020 --> 00:31:41,120
to help you bring it to the next level.

513
00:31:41,120 --> 00:31:42,960
And so I encourage you to do that.

514
00:31:42,960 --> 00:31:46,280
I encourage you to seek out resources that can help you write a great biosketch.

515
00:31:46,280 --> 00:31:48,720
And I encourage you to keep practicing.

516
00:31:48,720 --> 00:31:53,160
The more you submit, the more your biosketch is going to continue to be updated.

517
00:31:53,160 --> 00:31:56,960
I will tell you that there's one more thing I forgot to mention because this came up with

518
00:31:56,960 --> 00:32:05,240
my recent submission that I was doing is the list of your citations.

519
00:32:05,240 --> 00:32:11,120
So at the very end, you provide a link which shows you like which demonstrates your kind

520
00:32:11,120 --> 00:32:17,200
of like your public list because on the biosketch, you can only at most, you can probably put

521
00:32:17,200 --> 00:32:21,480
probably 20, no more than 20 if it's four per section.

522
00:32:21,480 --> 00:32:24,920
So it's about 20 at most citations on your biosketch.

523
00:32:24,920 --> 00:32:27,640
And if you have more than that, then they don't fit on the biosketch.

524
00:32:27,640 --> 00:32:31,880
So you have to tailor your biosketch to the opportunity and tailor which citations you

525
00:32:31,880 --> 00:32:34,160
want to show up in your contributions.

526
00:32:34,160 --> 00:32:40,680
But no matter what, you usually or at some point or even if you don't, will have a longer

527
00:32:40,680 --> 00:32:44,880
list of citations eventually than you can put on your biosketch.

528
00:32:44,880 --> 00:32:48,840
And even if you don't, you do want a place where somebody can just go click a link and

529
00:32:48,840 --> 00:32:50,920
see everything that you've published.

530
00:32:50,920 --> 00:32:55,720
And that's the link and it's the only link that's actually allowed on the biosketch.

531
00:32:55,720 --> 00:33:03,520
So sometimes you put a citation in and there is a link to the actual manuscript or the

532
00:33:03,520 --> 00:33:07,660
article, you do want to get rid of all those links in your biosketch because links are

533
00:33:07,660 --> 00:33:08,880
not allowed.

534
00:33:08,880 --> 00:33:12,100
Even when they're not active links, they're not allowed.

535
00:33:12,100 --> 00:33:15,760
But the only link that is allowed is a link to your biosketch.

536
00:33:15,760 --> 00:33:21,560
And one of the best ways I see for creating that link is to go to the PubMed webpage,

537
00:33:21,560 --> 00:33:28,720
again sign into your account and if you go to your dashboard, you can go to manage my

538
00:33:28,720 --> 00:33:33,880
bibliography and then there's an option for a link to share your bibliography.

539
00:33:33,880 --> 00:33:37,920
You do want to make sure that's in there even if you don't have so many citations or at

540
00:33:37,920 --> 00:33:40,680
least you feel like you don't have enough publications.

541
00:33:40,680 --> 00:33:45,040
It's nice for reviewers if they choose to just click on the link and just see how much

542
00:33:45,040 --> 00:33:50,040
you have published or what areas you've published in and over time that list will grow so you

543
00:33:50,040 --> 00:33:55,240
do want to keep it updated and it'll be great just to have access to one link that kind

544
00:33:55,240 --> 00:34:00,360
of summarizes the story of your contributions through manuscripts and publications.

545
00:34:00,360 --> 00:34:05,120
Okay, so that's about all that I have as far as how to create a biosketch.

546
00:34:05,120 --> 00:34:07,720
Clearly this is my one perspective.

547
00:34:07,720 --> 00:34:13,400
I recommend that you talk about it with others and definitely the key to creating a biosketch

548
00:34:13,400 --> 00:34:19,920
is to just keep repeating the process as you apply for grants, as you apply for opportunities,

549
00:34:19,920 --> 00:34:24,880
you will have the opportunity to create biosketches and just take the opportunity and create it

550
00:34:24,880 --> 00:34:29,200
and over time you will have the biosketch that you want.

551
00:34:29,200 --> 00:34:34,080
So definitely take the opportunity, create the biosketch you want and if you want to

552
00:34:34,080 --> 00:34:38,360
share any insights, please leave a voicemail on our podcast website, clinicianresearcherpodcast.com

553
00:34:38,360 --> 00:34:43,240
and we'll be happy to share your insights with our audience in a future episode.

554
00:34:43,240 --> 00:34:52,640
Alright thank you for listening.

555
00:34:52,640 --> 00:34:58,000
Thanks for listening to this episode of the Clinician Researcher Podcast where academic

556
00:34:58,000 --> 00:35:03,880
clinicians learn the skills to build their own research program whether or not they have

557
00:35:03,880 --> 00:35:04,880
a mentor.

558
00:35:04,880 --> 00:35:10,760
If you found the information in this episode to be helpful, don't keep it all to yourself.

559
00:35:10,760 --> 00:35:12,640
Someone else needs to hear it.

560
00:35:12,640 --> 00:35:16,680
So take a minute right now and share it.

561
00:35:16,680 --> 00:35:22,160
As you share this episode, you become part of our mission to help launch a new generation

562
00:35:22,160 --> 00:35:43,200
of clinician researchers who make transformative discoveries that change the way we do healthcare.