Scholar Selection


Candidate Criteria

The candidate must have demonstrable potential to be an excellent physician scientist, whose research interests are likely to improve long-term outcomes and quality of life for children who sustain critical illness or traumatic injury. The candidate must make a five-year commitment to the training plan, and there must be institutional commitment to the scholar. Letters of recommendation are required and must support the exceptional caliber of the candidate.

Mentor Criteria
The mentor should be an established clinical or basic scientist with a track record of extramural funding, preferably from NIH, who has expertise in training junior faculty in the research setting. A tabular presentation of previous trainees (date of training, current academic position, grants awarded, publications) may be included and will not be credited against the page limit of the application. The mentor statement should describe the mentoring plan in detail, including time commitment and coherence with the academic goals of the trainee.

Research Plan Criteria
The research plan should demonstrate the ability of the candidate to consider a scientific problem, develop a hypothesis-driven proposal, outline a research design, and describe the implementation. The research plan must address human subjects or vertebrate animal issues, as applicable. The research plan will form the major agenda for discussion when the National Advisory Committee interviews the applicant at the annual retreat. The applicant should demonstrate a good understanding of the research problem and be prepared to discuss the ideas formally with the committee during the interview.

Selection Process
Each candidate’s application will be reviewed by three members of the National Advisory Committee. The application will be presented and discussed at the Committee’s internal study section during the retreat. New Scholars will be chosen at the study section.  All applicants will receive written comments from the study section to help them with future applications.