Season 2 Trailer

Welcome to Season 2 of the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke’s Building Up the Nerve, a podcast for neuroscience trainees that takes you through the components of a grant application with successful awardees. We know that applying for NIH funding can be daunting, but we’re here to help—it’s our job! 

Episode Transcript

Lauren Ullrich (00:01):
On season two of Building up the Nerve, we are
focusing on the components of agrant application with a
particular emphasis onfellowship and career
development awards.
This season we've invitedsuccessful awardees to speak
about their experiences and giveadvice for navigating the NIH
system.

Marguerite Matthews (00:18):
And similar to last season, the goal is to
demystify this process and makesure everyone can benefit from
the experiences of previousawardees.
We want you to have all theinformation you need to succeed.
We hope that our podcast canlive up to its name and help you
build up the nerve to submit thebest application you can.
I'm Marguerite Matthews, ascientific program manager at

(00:40):
NINDS.

Lauren Ullrich (00:41):
And I'm Lauren Ullrich, a program director at
NINDS and we're the hosts ofbuilding up the nerve, a podcast
for neuroscience trainees thattakes you through the components
of a grant application withsuccessful awardees.
We know that applying for NIHfunding can be daunting, but
we're here to help.
It's our job.
Here's a preview of what you canlook forward to this season.

Clark Rosensweig (01:06):
My path to grad school was very nonlinear.
So if there are people out therelistening that, you know, that
are looking at these awards andthinking this isn't for me, I,
you know, I didn't go straightthrough, like, I didn't know
exactly what I wanted to be whenI was born.
That's not what these awards areabout these awards that are
there to award you for whoeveryou are and whatever your path

(01:29):
was to the place where you're atnow.

Maria Ali (01:33):
Getting critiques is the best, because it tells you
the things to focus on andwhat's going right, and what's
going wrong, as opposed to justfeeling like you're in this
void.
So be excited for critiques, youknow, take them seriously,
whether you agree with them ornot, but just look at it as a
way to get a clearer lens on thedirection your grant should be
going in.

Victoria Abraira (01:50):
And I think a lot of what people don't realize
about sometimes some of thesetraining mechanisms is that the
science is one part, but thetraining is so essential, right?
So you have to have like areally good plan and you have to
have how each mentor is going tocontribute to that plan and to
how you're going to leveragethose scientific interests to

(02:10):
answer this cool question.

Nathan Smith (02:12):
It's like, you want to show the reviewers that
you can do absolutelyeverything.
You have all these ideas thatare going around in your brain,
and you put it all on paper.
And in realistic terms its like,you cannot do everything.
If its overambitious.
I put my thinking cap on andit's like, you know what?
I can actually move some of thisto the alternative approaches.
I don't have to put it all in,because you know, someone will

(02:33):
say, this is overambitious, noway this person is able to
achieve all of this.

Marguerite Matthews (02:39):
Be sure to subscribe to the podcast on
Apple Podcasts or your favoritepodcast app so you won't miss an
episode.