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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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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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more really have a different experience as far as writing their contributions to science
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versus someone who's maybe contributed three or four publications.
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And so that senior person may not be the best person to help you because they have a different
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thinking about their contributions versus someone like you who's a little further behind
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or at least not as far ahead.
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You don't think of yourself as behind.
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You think of yourself as just not having gotten to that point yet, which is two different
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ways of looking at it.
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And then if it's a fellowship application, they may ask you for your scholastic performance.
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If it's a non-fellowship, at some point in the application, you're also putting your
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recent maybe awards that you want to highlight in the last three years and there are a few
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other things to consider.
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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.
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Okay.
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The next thing I want to share is that you do want to tailor your Biosketch to the opportunity.
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The piece that's easiest to tailor is the personal statement, but it's not the only
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one.
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And I would say that if you literally are taking one Biosketch and just changing it
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from application to application to application and just like, you know, editing, tweaking
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the personal statement a little bit, that, you know, it's okay.
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It's the way many people do it.
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But I would tell you that what you really want to do is to go through each part of your
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Biosketch, especially the contributions to science and the personal statement, personal
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statement being number one, to say, is this still the way I want to highlight my contributions?
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And to be honest, it does change because, for example, if you're submitting a grant
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in one area and your personal statement reflects certain citations that are related to that
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area, when you go to submit for another opportunity, you might have different publications to highlight,
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which may change some of the contributions you've highlighted later in your Biosketch.
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So it really, every, every Biosketch needs to be tailored to every opportunity.
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Now, if you are a supporting person and you are not necessarily the person submitting
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the grant and you're supporting somebody else's grant submission, either as a site investigator
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or as a collaborator, perhaps you don't need to put in as much work as the person who's
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like, actually who's really selling their qualifications for the grant opportunity.
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But you should still tailor it.
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You should still.
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So for every opportunity, you will.
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I think I'm thinking about how much investment, how much time it takes to tailor a Biosketch
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to an opportunity.
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It takes time.
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Sometimes it could feel like creating the Biosketch for the very first time.
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And I would say the more you are lead on a project as PI or as a co-PI or as an MPI,
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the more you should take time to sift through and see that your Biosketch actually says,
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presents your science, presents your qualifications in the best light possible.
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So definitely tailor your Biosketch to the opportunity.
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At a minimum, you should tailor your personal statement.
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But in general, you should be tailoring the whole Biosketch.
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Okay.
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The last thing I want to just highlight is that your personal statement of your Biosketch
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should tell a great story.
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It should tell a great story.
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And here's the story it shouldn't tell.
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Don't tell the story of, oh goodness, I have barely any qualifications.
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I barely know what I'm doing, but please give me the funding.
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You really do want to present yourself in the best possible light.
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Now something that can be difficult, especially if you are asking for kind of your first couple
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of funding, of grant funding opportunities, you're submitting your first, for your first
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proposals or you're submitting a proposal for a career development award.
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You don't necessarily want to project that you're too qualified.
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So there is a lot of a nuance there.
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But what you don't want to do is say, oh my goodness, I have absolutely no experience
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and please save me by giving me this opportunity.
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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.
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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
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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
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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.
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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
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00:30:47,800 --> 00:30:50,160
website to create a first draft.
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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.
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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
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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
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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
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00:34:58,000 --> 00:35:03,880
clinicians learn the skills to build their own research program whether or not they have
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00:35:03,880 --> 00:35:04,880
a mentor.
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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.
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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.
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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
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00:35:22,160 --> 00:35:43,200
of clinician researchers who make transformative discoveries that change the way we do healthcare.