Thank you for your interest in submitting an application to the National Network on Cryo-ET. The sections below describe the process for evaluating applications, including review criteria and approximate timeline to evaluate an application.
Upon receipt, applications are administratively reviewed to ensure that each section of the application is filled out correctly and completely. Applications that are administratively correct are forwarded on to reviewers for evaluation at the end of the review period. An e-mail acknowledgment is sent to the submitter confirming that the application has been received and forwarded on for review. If there are any administrative deficiencies or if an application has sections that are incomplete or unclear, the applicant is notified with an opportunity to clarify or correct the deficiency. If you do not receive either a confirmation that your application has been forwarded on for review or that your application requires corrections before it can be reviewed, reach out to us at cryoem@biochem.wisc.edu.
Each application will be scored in a manner that aligns with the mission of the Network. The centers established by this NIH initiative have the following mission:
As noted in the NIH RFA, the scope of this cryo-ET initiative is limited to the analysis of native, frozen-hydrated specimens using 3-D (tomographic) transmission electron microscopy. Other emerging technologies, while important, are outside the scope of this initiative.
Applications are collected within bi-monthly review periods and scored at the end of each submission period.
Applications are filtered into one of three main categories: Training, Service or Methods Development. The applicant has the opportunity to select the category during the application process. If a category is not identified by the applicant, one will be assigned during the review process. Applications may contain – and most are likely to contain – elements from more than one of these three categories. Applications will not be penalized for focusing only on one category or for containing elements from multiple categories.
Consistent with the mission of the Network, reviewers will be asked to evaluate:
Approved applications will move on as projects within the network to be queued in order based on their score relative to other approved applications and the capacity of each center to take on new projects. Applicants will be notified of their status once this process is complete.
An individual center will be initially assigned to begin a project and that center will reach out directly to the applicant for scheduling and sample submission.
Each application should have one applicant designated as the ‘Laboratory Head’ who will be the primary contact for the project. By default, the applicant will initially be marked as the ‘Laboratory Head’, but if a different person than the applicant will be the primary contact or group leader for the project they will need to be added on the application and marked as the role of ‘Laboratory Head’. There should be only one designated ‘Laboratory Head’ for each project.
Projects that will include multiple group members visiting for training or instrumentation will need to have each of the group members included in the application under the Personnel tab.
Applicants should upload a PDF of their NIH formatted biosketch with their project. A biosketch should be provided for the Laboratory Head and for any additional members where available. See the instructions for the common NIH format here (https://grants.nih.gov/grants/forms/biosketch.htm). New NIH formatted biosketch documents can be created with the SciENcv tool available online at (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sciencv/ ).
An application will not be considered finalized until you select ‘Complete Submission’ on the final review page. Until this point all entries can be revisited and edited. After submission, the application will be locked for further edits and will be forwarded for an administrative review to find any missing items or issues before being sent for a scoring review.
Answer. Proposals that do not contain a training component will not be penalized.
Answer. Yes. Training is a core mission of the network, and training-only proposals will be evaluated on the merit of the training component.
A3. Yes. We will make every effort to pair applicants with a preferred center.
A4. Yes. All research publications supported by one of these projects must acknowledge their support by citing the associated grant numbers in the form "supported by NIH grant U24 GM139168 (MCCET) (and/or the other centers, CCET (U24 GM139174), NCITU (U24 GM139171), or SCSC (U24 GM139166), based on which resources used)"