I just reviewed NIH fellowship applications for the first time. Since these are very different applications than the R applications I usually review, I made note of a few common challenges that I thought might be helpful for prospective applicants and their sponsors/mentors:

#1: Your training goals and your research plan should match. Make your training goals really specific (i.e., NOT "learn statistics"). Don't propose taking a class if it is completely unrelated. Don't propose teaching a course unrelated to your training and research goals.

#2: These grants mainly fund your time to learn and do the proposed research, NOT fund most research expenses. If you are proposing a really expensive research plan, make it clear how the research will be funded.

#3: With the lack of research funding for these awards, the proposed research plan understandably overlaps with the sponsor's research. Make it clear how the proposed research is distinct!

#4: Make it really clear who is going to do what. Which mentor/sponsor will help you achieve each training goal? (DON'T have all of your mentors/sponsors involved in every training goal; individual areas of expertise should shine.) Who will do the stats? The qualitative coding?

#5: Try to do better than "representative of the community", if the university/community is not very diverse in terms of race, ethnicity, age, etc. Take this opportunity to learn about engaging and retaining participants-- you might even include a mentor related to this goal.

#6: Check the documents that your sponsors/mentors submit. Make sure they are tailored to your application and don't have leftover language from previous proposals. They should provide clear data that they have successfully mentored other trainees.

#7: Make your application easier to review:
-Don't make the reviewer hunt for how you will receive FUTURE training in responsible conduct of research
-Don't underline all edits on an A1
-Clearly present how many peer-reviewed publications you have published and under review

(Your qualifications for the fellowship are NOT just your publications and grades. If you have practical experience, that is also very relevant-- make that clear!)

#8: It's okay if you don't know exactly how the research will shake out. If there is some uncertainty that you can't address before the research is conducted, acknowledge it and then propose back-up plans or sensitivity analyses that you will conduct.

#9: Make it clear how the fellowship grant will prepare you better/differently than the average student in your program. Don't propose taking courses that you have already taken as part of your training goals.

#10: Beyond training goals specific to the research plan, planned training in grant writing and #scicomm is always great to see.

#11: Get mentorship on power calculations-- they are hard to do well. Make it clear why you are proposing the sample size that you are.

#12: If you are proposing a fellowship with mentors/sponsors that you have worked with for many years, make it particularly clear what NEW skills you will be learning through the fellowship.

#13: Fellowships are not 5 year R01s. Make sure that you are proposing activities that are do-able.