FARE 2010 Frequently Asked Questions
- Who can apply for FARE?
- What data should I present?
- How do I apply?
- When do applications need to be submitted?
- How does the application process work?
- Why does my mentor have to approve the application?
- What if my mentor rejects my abstract?
- How are the abstracts judged?
- How are abstracts placed in study sections?
- I do not have access to a computer in my lab. Where can I fill out the application?
- The online application form complains that my abstract is longer than 2500 characters. But my word processor claims that it is only 2410 characters.
- I want to include special characters in my abstract. How do I do this in the online application?
- What do I do if there are multiple authors?
- Should I put my name on my abstract?
- Can I put references in my abstract?
- Can I submit more than one FARE 2010 abstract?
- Can I submit an abstract that I have already written for another occasion?
- Can I re-submit an abstract that did not win last year?
- I won a FARE travel award already. Can I compete again this year?
- How many awards will be given this year?
- I applied to FARE but did not win, even though the same work has been accepted by a peer-reviewed journal. How can this happen?
- How do I activate my FARE award?
- How can I use the FARE award?
- What happens to my FARE award if I leave NIH before I get a chance to use it?
- Why do I have to register for the Research Festival when I apply for FARE?
- If my abstract is not selected for FARE, will I still be registered for the Research Festival?
- How do I get additional help?
The FARE 2010 competition is open to:
- intramural fellows, such as IRTA, CRTA, clinical/research, and visiting fellows, who have no more than 5 years total postdoctoral experience in the NIH intramural research program as of March 24, 2009. Visiting Scientists/Fellows must not have been tenured at their home institute.
- postdoctoral-level Special Volunteers (e.g., those with NRC, NRSA, or Jane Coffin Childs fellowships and others also).
- pre-IRTAs currently enrolled in a Ph.D. program and conducting their doctoral dissertation research at an NIH lab.
Previous FARE winners may apply to FARE 2010 (for details see below). Since FARE awards must be used while you are still at NIH, if you know that you will no longer be at NIH during fiscal year 2010 (October 1, 2009 to September 30, 2010), please do not apply. FARE committee members are not eligible for FARE awards. Other questions about eligibility should be addressed to FARE@mail.nih.gov, or to your Institute's Scientific Director.
2. What data should I present?
The abstract you submit to FARE 2010 should reflect your own current, first-author data, collected while you have been at NIH. The data must be recent: either unpublished, submitted, accepted, in press, or published in 2009. Please check with your co-authors and mentor before submitting your abstract. FARE abstracts may need to contain more background than would be usual in an abstract for a scientific meeting. Remember that the people evaluating your FARE abstract may not be as knowledgeable as you are in your specific area of research.
The online application is available at the FelCom FARE webpage.
4. When do applications need to be submitted?
Electronic applications must be submitted by March 24, 2009 at 5:00 PM EST. Mentor approvals must be submitted by March 31, 2009 at 5:00 PM EST. No extensions will be granted.
5. How does the application process work?
All applicants must submit their application and abstract online between February 23 and March 24, 2009 (5:00 PM, EST). The abstract may have a maximum length of 2500 characters, including spaces. The submitted abstract will be automatically emailed to your mentor, who will have until March 31, 2009 to approve it. Approved abstracts are stripped of identifying information, divided into study sections, and judged by a panel of three postdoctoral fellows and two tenure-track/tenured scientists or staff scientists. Winners will be notified by August 15, 2009. Awardees receive an award letter and $1000 in support to attend a scientific conference of their choice. The travel award must be used between October 1, 2009, and September 30, 2010.
6. Why does my mentor have to approve the abstract?
The NIH Fellows Committee feels that FARE is part of the mentor/trainee experience, and both will benefit from working together on the abstract. Mentor sign-off is also intended to avoid the possibility of authorship disputes. Mentor approval is carried out electronically. Your mentor will receive a copy of your application via email after you submit it. The mentor will be instructed to use an online form to approve or reject your submission. Your mentor's approval must be received by March 31, 2009 at 5:00 PM EST. Any application not approved by that date will be deleted from the pool. You will receive an email notifying you of whether your mentor has approved or rejected your abstract.
7. What if my mentor rejects my abstract?
If that happens, you have until March 31st (5:00 PM EST) to revise your submitted abstract, and your mentor has until March 31st to accept or reject it. However, after March 24th (5:00 PM EST), no abstracts will be accepted. Only abstracts submitted before March 24th (5:00PM EST) pending mentor approval can be revised. It is to your advantage, therefore, to submit your abstract well enough in advance of the March 24th deadline to allow for the possibility of modification. There will be no grace period beyond March 31st (5:00 PM EST) to revise a rejected abstract. It is also to your advantage to discuss and finalize the abstract with your mentor prior to submission to avoid possible rejections and then resubmissions. Please also note that the abstract cannot be modified once it has been approved by the mentor.
8. How are the abstracts judged?
After receiving the submission, all identifying information is deleted except for an internal tracking number, and the abstract is designated to one of the 54 study sections. All attempts are made to place each abstract in the first-choice study section; however, the earlier you submit your abstract, the more likely it will be placed in your first-choice study section (see below). The abstracts in each section are judged by a panel of five NIH scientists--three postdoctoral fellows and two tenured/tenure-track investigators or staff scientists. The postdoctoral fellow judges are either members of the NIH Fellows Committee or a previous year FARE winner. Tenured/tenure-track investigators and staff scientists are from a volunteer pool. Every effort will be made to adhere to this panel; however, in the event that all five judges are not able to submit a review in a timely manner, a minimum of three judges will be considered a complete review when necessary. The names of individual judges are not released. If a judge recognizes an abstract, the abstract will be rated by an alternate judge. The judges will agree on the FARE winners, the top 25% of the abstracts from each study section. Abstracts are evaluated on four criteria: Scientific Merit, Originality, Experimental Design, and Overall Quality/Presentation. Please refer to the score sheet for details.
9. How are abstracts placed in study sections?
All attempts are made to place each abstract in the first-choice study section; however, at times the number of abstracts submitted to a study section exceeds a reasonable number and abstracts must be moved to their second- or third-choice study section. In this situation, abstracts are placed in the first-choice study section in the order by which they are submitted. Therefore, the earlier you submit, the more likely your abstract will be placed in your first-choice study section.
10. I do not have access to a computer in my lab. Where can I fill out the application?
There are several locations on the NIH campus to fill out the application, including the NIH Library, the Graduate School Lounge in Building 10, and the On-Campus Work Center in Building 31(on the first floor near the cafeteria).
11. The electronic application form complains that my abstract is longer than 2500 characters. But my word processor claims that it is only 2410 characters.
Your abstract must be 2500 characters or less, including spaces and carriage returns. Some word processing software (e.g., MS Word 6 for Macintosh) does not include spaces in its character count.
12. I want to include special characters in my abstract. How do I do this in the online application?
The electronic application is only able to process ASCII characters. Thus, if your abstract contains Greek letters, please spell them out (e.g., write "alpha" and "beta" rather than using the Greek letters). In most cases, subscripts and superscripts can be understood if they are in the body of the text, so, for example, Gi and Go should be written as Gi and Go. It is probably easiest if you compose your abstract in your normal word processor, then cut and paste it into the box provided on the application. Contact FARE@mail.nih.gov for more information.
13. What do I do if there are multiple authors?
There can be only one author per FARE abstract. Remember that you are writing an abstract that describes your current research efforts at the NIH. While you may describe the data from a larger research project (i.e., one in which multiple scientists participate on specific parts) you should emphasize the contribution you have made and place your contributions in context to the larger global project. It would be wise for you to make sure that all who are involved in the larger project agree with your submission of the abstract, in addition to your mentor.
14. Should I put my name in my abstract?
No. The abstract (and abstract title) should not contain any information that could be used to identify you. Do not include any identifying information about yourself in your title or abstract. Include your name only in the Author Information fields on the first page of the application.
15. Can I put references in my abstract?
No. Abstract submission does not need to have references.
16. Can I submit more than one FARE 2010 abstract?
No. Each qualifying fellow may submit only one FARE abstract.
17. Can I submit an abstract that I have already written for another occasion?
Yes. However, the abstract you submit to FARE 2010 should reflect your own current, first-author data, collected while you have been at NIH. The data must be recent: either unpublished, submitted, accepted, in press, or published in 2009.
18. Can I re-submit an abstract that did not win last year?
No. Your abstract can concern the same topic as last year's abstract, but the new abstract must be significantly different (at least 50% of the content and wording) from last year's (i.e., it should reflect current data, not just a re-hash of last year's data).
19. I won a FARE travel award already. Can I compete again this year?
Yes! All previous FARE winners are encouraged to apply again this year. However, FARE 2009 winners are also being asked to serve as judges for FARE 2010. Since judges are not allowed to evaluate their own abstracts, we ask that FARE 2009 winners who apply to FARE 2010 submit their abstract to a different study section from the one they will be judging. For example, submit your abstract to a study section relevant to your postdoctoral work, and offer to judge a section related to your graduate work.
20. How many awards will be given this year?
The Scientific Directors have generously decided to reward 25% of the fellows who apply. Thus, the number of winners is not fixed, but depends on the number of fellows who submit an abstract.
21. I applied to FARE but did not win, even though the same work has been accepted by a peer-reviewed journal. How can this be?
Your abstract may not have been written appropriately for the FARE competition. Remember that the people evaluating your FARE abstract may not be as knowledgeable as you in your specific area of research. Thus, FARE abstracts may need to have more background than would be usual in an abstract for a scientific meeting or a journal article. We welcome you to submit your new data to FARE 2010. It is also important to remember that your abstract is judged on the basis of other submissions as impartially as possible. Not winning the FARE competition has no bearing on and no reflection on the ability to publish your data. The NIH is a world renowned institution and all research that is being conducted here is considered important and in many cases groundbreaking. Therefore, it stands to reason, that the competition for the FARE award is very competitive.
22. How do I activate my FARE award?
The process differs from Institute to Institute. Winners should contact either their Branch Secretary, their Administrative Officer, or the office of their Scientific Director to learn how to activate their FARE award.
23. How can I use my FARE award?
Your FARE award should be used to cover costs related to attending a scientific meeting in the United States during the 2010 fiscal year (October 1, 2009 through September 30, 2010). In order for you to use your award, we ask that you present your abstract, either as a poster or a seminar, at this meeting. FARE 2010 winners will also be asked to present their work during the NIH Research Festival in Fall 2009, and to serve as a judge for FARE 2011.
24. What happens to my FARE award if I leave NIH before I get a chance to use it?
You must use your FARE award while you are at NIH. You cannot use it after you leave. If you change institutes, check with your current and previous Scientific Director to see if you can still use your award, and which institute will fund it. Your FARE award must be used between October 1, 2009 and September 30, 2010. If you already know that you will not be able to use the award during that time frame, please do not apply.
25. Why do I have to register for the Research Festival when I apply to FARE?
The winners of FARE are asked to present their work during the NIH Research Festival in fall 2009. Therefore, you must register for the Research Festival and indicate the category in which you would present you FARE poster in case your abstract is selected.
26. If my abstract is not selected for FARE, will I still be registered for the Research Festival?
No. You will only be registered for the Research Festival if your abstract is selected for FARE. If your abstract is not selected and you wish to present your abstract at the Research Festival, you will need to register for the Research Festival. Once the FARE winners have been notified, those who have not been selected will have adequate time to register for the Research Festival.
27. How do I get additional help?
Send mail to FARE@mail.nih.gov, and someone will get back to you within 24 hours.
Last updated on: 02/18/2009
