A: Budget
Budget for the full $50,000 per year. Remember, it has to cover your salary during the awards period as well as other expenses, such as research assistants. Also, don't dismiss the 'team members' section. That is the first thing that reviewers read, and it is essential that you develop it thoughtfully. This is the place where you can 'show off' your consultants, how well they work together, their expertise, etc. Each consultant needs to have a separate role — they can overlap to some degree, certainly, but you need to justify why you have included them in your team and what exactly they will be doing.

Career Development Plan
This section is just as important as the research plan ñ spend a lot of time and effort on developing it. Justify your need for a K — what training do you need to advance in your career and your research? Make it sound as if your whole life has led up to this K-award, and that the K will be a vital step toward your ultimate career goal. Specify training and courses that you will participate in, how often you'll meet with consultants, and how all of this will help you reach your objectives. Make use of the guidelines in the PHS398 packet for necessary Career Development subsections. You should generally include a statistician as a consultant or acknowledge a statistical support group in your budget justification.

For applicants who are proposing to learn neuroimaging:

• Have a physicist on board as a consultant, ideally one associated with the center where you're scanning.


• Have an MR-statistician on board.


• Propose to take a course or workshop in neuroimaging ñ to either obtain or hone your skills as a scanning maven.

Whole courses are hard to find time for once you've got your research in full swing. Consider proposing workshops and time limited training instead. Also, too many regular meetings with consultants can become burdensome, particularly if you don't have much to talk about. A few well-placed visits can go a long way.