Description

COMPANY STATEMENT

Sarah Dobson is the founder of a research grant consulting and academic coaching firm focused on helping early career researchers submit grant applications to the NIH. We do this by:

1. Providing detailed and timely grant reviews focusing on persuasiveness, clarity, and strategic alignment
2. Providing coaching and training related to grantsmanship and academic career skills for clinical and translational researchers

Role Overview

We’re looking for an amazing Research Grant Editor to review grants for our Strategic Grant Review service: a detailed ~12-week process where we work closely with PIs resubmitting R01 grants to NIH. You’re a grant magician: with your strategic eye and stellar editorial skills, you help bring out the very best in our clients’ R01 resubmissions.

You’ll review draft R01 applications and provide written recommendations and edits for applicants, helping them to learn how to write a clear and compelling grant. 

Strategic Grant Reviews follow the main NIH parent R01 grant cycles (Feb/March, June/July, October/November). We work with PIs applying to a wide variety of NIH’s funding Institutes and Centers. You must be comfortable applying grantsmanship principles across a variety of topic areas. The feedback and recommendations we offer focus on how to improve the persuasiveness and clarity of R01 grants and are not specific to any one domain—in other words, subject matter expertise is not required to provide excellent advice on strategic positioning. 

We’ll provide orientation on our approach to strategic reviews, but you must have a high level of fluency with biomedical research, grantsmanship, and academic writing. Specific experience with grant applications to the NIH is an asset, but not a requirement.

This is a contract position. Grant reviews will be paid a base rate with additional performance based incentives for each grant. The total value of the contract ranges from $70,500 (in the first year based on a training and apprenticeship cycle) to $82,500 with the opportunity for further increases  based on performance and/or volume. The work is remote and has quite a lot of flexibility, but because we’re working on grant reviews it’s important that you’re available for reviews during specific periods that you’ve committed to prior to grant deadlines. Our clients count on us to deliver our reviews when we say we will, because their deadlines are firm.

MISSION AND VALUES 

We are a woman-owned, feminist-led company. Our mission is to give researchers—particularly those who are underrepresented in biomedical research—the systems, strategies, and support they need to write high-impact fundable grants. We recognize that there are systemic barriers and biases built into biomedical research. So on top of our commitment to supporting individual scientists, we are committed to addressing systemic racism and misogyny in academia and in funding agencies. We unequivocally endorse the recommendations in the recent Cell paper: Fund Black Scientists (Stevens et al., 2021).

What We Believe In

Relationships are everything. We care a lot about the people we work with (our clients and our team). Connection, empathy, and support are the foundation of our work, and we make sure to infuse those values in every interaction we have. We believe that everyone on the team has valuable insight to offer, and we encourage everyone to bring their ideas and recommendations to the table. 

Reliability and excellence are the magic formula. We do what we say we’re going to do, and we do it extremely well. Because our work is highly deadline-driven, it’s absolutely essential that we’re reliable. Which means that we’ve built systems and processes that ensure we always keep our promises to our clients. And we expect the same reliability and excellence from our clients—because we can’t do our job if they don’t do theirs.

Feedback should build you up, not tear you down. Our clients are accomplished and tenacious early career researchers. But grantsmanship is a separate skill set. And because so few institutions offer adequate support and training related to grantsmanship, most faculty are left to figure this out on their own—when the stakes are tremendously high. We start with the assumption that our clients’ research is brilliant and impactful, and our job is to highlight that brilliance so that reviewers are just as enthusiastic as we are. We give editorial feedback with love, care, and encouragement (and Oxford commas). The same goes for the feedback we provide to team members.

Quality over quantity. We reject the toxic, abusive, ableist academic culture that encourages productivity at the expense of an individual’s health and relationships. We’re humans, not robots. We enthusiastically endorse setting boundaries to create time and space to think, reflect, rest, and refine—and we know that doing so creates higher-impact research.  

Health comes first. Nothing is more important than physical and mental health. As a person living with a chronic disease and a disability, our founder knows firsthand how challenging it is to prioritize health and wellbeing in academic spaces. That’s why our team takes our downtime seriously, and it’s why we always preach quality over quantity.

Freedom and autonomy are essential. The pandemic has emphasized that our professional and personal lives are deeply entwined (and very much influenced by wider political and structural forces). Whether you’re a caregiver or not, having autonomy over your own schedule is important. We know how freeing it is to work remotely and make your own choices. It’s vitally important to us to have the freedom and autonomy to choose how we’re going to fulfill our responsibilities.  

Science is for everyone. But right now, that’s an aspirational idea rather than the reality. To make academia more diverse and inclusive, we need to make sure that more women, BIPOC, LGBTQ+, and disabled researchers are getting hired & promoted, reviewing grants, making hiring decisions, and leading departments...and being supported to do so, not actively undermined. 

Read more about our Mission and Values.

DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES

• Provide thorough written reviews and recommendations for NIH R01 grant applications for each PI undergoing a Strategic Grant Review (3x/year) - don’t worry, we’ll orient you to our specific approach to strategic reviews
• Provide a resubmission strategy session leading up to the full application review (again, we’ll orient you to our process)
• Ensure that your reviews are completed by the deadlines set out in each client’s agreement
• Liaise with clients, including brief videoconference conversations following each round of review to address any questions
• Attend semi-monthly editorial meetings

This role is right for you if…

• You have experience in biomedical research, academic editing, and/or research development 
• You can offer clear feedback and suggestions for improvement with a goal to educate, not criticize 
• You have excellent organizational skills and the ability to meet strict deadlines 
• Reliable is your middle name: you have a track record of delivering on your promises, and communicating promptly in the face of unforeseen obstacles
• You’re able to see the big picture, dissect a complex argument and offer suggestions to improve clarity and persuasiveness 
• You’re looking to work with a small but growing team, working remotely and independently with a high level of trust
• You love reading about other people’s amazing research ideas and figuring out how to make their grant applications shine
• You love a challenge and are resourceful when it comes to figuring things out and making them happen
• You can work under pressure where you might have multiple projects on the go with tight deadlines
• You have exceptional communication skills when it comes to dealing with team members and clients
• You’re excited to work towards leveling the research funding playing field so that biomedical research is more equitable, diverse, inclusive, and just

This role is not right for you if… 

• You’re someone who flakes on deadlines. Because we’re working with clients who have hard deadlines on their grant submissions, our grant reviews require that we strictly adhere to a review schedule (which you’ll know well ahead of time). It’s absolutely essential that you complete your work on time so that we can keep our promises to our clients. 
• You can’t commit to working during our busy periods, which are 10-12 weeks prior to major grant deadlines (March 5, July 5, November 5) - this is when we conduct our grant reviews and we require that you be available to work during this time. We have built-in downtime for our editorial team after each review period (in early March, July, and November). Because grant reviews happen in cycles geared towards specific deadlines, this is the predictable nature of our work schedule. If that type of work schedule doesn’t suit your lifestyle (e.g., you like to be able to take spontaneous vacations), this is not the right role for you.

If you’ve read through this description and the role excites you, see the application instructions below.

Application Instructions

If you’d like to be considered for this contract position, please send an email to tamiza@sarahdobson.co with the following details:

1. Your CV and/or website
2. A one-page cover letter with a bolded section that highlights your relevant experience and explains how you would contribute to this role
3. Write the word “unicorn” in the email subject line (so we know you’re paying attention)

We are a company that highly values diversity, equity, inclusion, and justice. We encourage Black, Indigenous, Latine, Asian, and those individuals who hold other marginalized identities to apply.

We can’t wait to see your application!

Note: Sarah Dobson International Inc. is based in Vancouver, Canada. Since this is a contract position, applicants are not required to be legally eligible to work in Canada.