The Office of Research Affairs provides support for grant applications, including assisting with institutional letters of support, proposal budgeting, graphic design, and data generation for certain types of projects.
Letters of Support
Our staff will facilitate and review requests for institutional letters of support to ensure accuracy and alignment with institutional priorities. To initiate a request, please email som-ora@som.umaryland.edu with a draft of your letter and the grant abstract or specific aims page. Please allow at least two weeks for review, editing, and final approval.
If your letter of support includes a commitment of contingent institutional support—such as monetary funding—please also submit your grant budget and a detailed explanation of how the requested support will be used. These requests will require additional review time.
Institutional Facility and Environment
Most grants, including NIH grants, require a Facilities & Other Resources section. Descriptions of facilities and resources should be directly applicable to the proposed work and will generally be specific to an individual laboratory.
In certain circumstances, it may be necessary to describe in more detail the University of Maryland Baltimore, the School of Medicine and/or its departments, centers, and institutes, or the core resources. The Office of Research updates this type of information annually for PIs to use in grant applications.
Download the School of Medicine Facilities and Other Resources Word document.
Proposal Routing and Pre-Award Assistance
We offer comprehensive pre-award administrative support for principal investigators submitting large, multi-project grants, such as NIH P01s, P30s, U19s, and U54s. Our services include:
- Reviewing funding opportunity requirements
- Managing grant submission timelines
- Developing budgets
- Collecting and reviewing biosketches
- Routing proposals through Kuali Research and/or ASSIST
For assistance in preparing a multi-project or training grant, please contact Joni Prasad at JPrasad@som.umaryland.edu, least three months before your grant deadline to request support.
Scientific Visualization
Clear and effective visual communication is essential for successful grant applications. Well-designed figures, charts, graphs, and tables help reviewers quickly understand a proposal and can lead to higher scores. To ensure grant visuals meet best practices, please refer to our Grant Style Guidelines for recommendations on color, font, and formatting.
ORA provides graphic design support for investigators submitting major grants, including training grants and large programmatic applications (such as NIH P01s, P30s, U19s, and U54s). This service is available for 1–2 figures per application and is intended for overarching visuals, conceptual models, training timelines, and similar elements. Please note that support is not available for standard scientific graphs or tables.
If you are interested in graphic design services, please email Joni Prasad at least three months before the grant deadline. Support is subject to current workload and institutional priorities, and requests may be prioritized accordingly.
Download the UMSOM Grant Style Guidelines.
Training Grant Support
The first step in developing an NIH training grant application is to understand the training grant resources available on the intranet (all SOM faculty have access). Then reach out to our experts at the Office of Research Affairs who will help assemble the complex data and letters of support required for training grant tables.
Allow at least 4 months before the submission deadline to ensure enough time to:
- Gather data and generate the tables
- Source and develop the necessary letters of support
For statistics on trainees, contact the Office of Postdoctoral Scholars.
NIH Common Forms Implementation
NIH requires the use of the Common Forms for the Biographical Sketch Common Form and the Current and Pending (Other) Support. All applicants must use SciENcv to complete and certify their biosketch and other support for application submissions, research performance progress report (RPPR), and Just in Time (JIT) requests.
An NIH Common Form Toolkit, developed by the Department of Epidemiology & Public Health, provides guidance, resources, and tips for developing your Biosketch and Other Support pages.
Data Management and Sharing
All scientific data generated by NIH funding requires a data plan for the management and sharing of that data. Learn more at our DMS page.