The Office of the Vice President for Research is pleased to host the NSF-focused webinar workshop:  Write Winning NSF CAREER Development Award Proposals, presented by Dr. John Robertson of Grant Writers’ Seminars and Workshops on February 1^st, 2024 from 1:00 to 4:30 p.m.

IMPORTANT PRE-REQUISITE:  This workshop requires that you attend the intensive grant writing workshop, Write Winning Grant Proposals on January 30 and 31.  Please register for both the Write Winning Grant Proposals on Jan 30-31 AND the Write Winning NSF CAREER Development Award Proposals workshop on Feb 1^st. You will be sent a link to the webinar workshops the day before the events.

The OVPR covers the costs for the seminar and requires registrants to be nominated by a university official:

• Department chair for faculty members

• Faculty researcher for postdoctoral fellows

• Graduate advisor for graduate students

Please provide the name and email of your nominating official at the time of registration for verification.

Registration will close January 9th (no exceptions). 

Supporting Material and Workbook

All participants will receive an extensive handout, as well as one copy of the NSF version of The Grant Application Writer's Workbook. You will be contacted for pick-up of the workbook prior to the workshop.

Content of the Webinar

The purpose of the National Science Foundation’s CAREER Award is to create a teacher-scholar — a faculty member who, throughout his/her career, will use research to attract and motivate undergraduate students to learn better. Applicants must be academically independent. In other words, this is not NSF’s version of the mentored career-development awards that are offered by other agencies.

Acquisition of a prestigious CAREER Award is a particularly distinguishing step in the developing career of an assistant professor, which is why so many apply for it – mostly without success. Failure is usually attributable to not understanding what NSF is trying to create with this award and, therefore, not appreciating how the application must be written. This seminar teaches attendees how to meet the purpose of the program with their proposals while, at the same time, it makes them aware of the missteps that cause so many CAREER applications to fail. Both Intellectual Merit and Broader Impacts aspects of the CAREER program are considered.

Dr. John Robertson holds a doctorate in Pharmacology/Toxicology and has been an associate member at Grant Writers’ Seminars & Workshops since 2010.  In 2017 he became the Managing Member.  He has been the recipient of competitive extramural funding from both the NIH and non-federal sources.  He has authored 30 peer-reviewed journal articles and three book chapters.  In addition, he has been a member of grant review panels, a reviewer for a number of biomedical journals, and served on editorial boards.  He has also been routinely recognized for excellence in teaching.