Dear Mary,

RE:  Program Director Effort on Institutional NRSA's

We have several institutional training grants in my unit, and these require
a commitment of effort on the part of the program director (usually in the
neighborhood of 10% time). If we have associate program directors, they
usually also commit a certain portion of time (e.g., 5%).  As for the pool
of faculty mentors, we usually include a statement that the percent of
effort will vary from mentor to mentor depending on whether or not they
actually have responsibility for supervising a trainee and/or other program
activities.  I have also seen people use 5% for all mentors, but this can be
a problem if a potential mentor is near the point of being overcommitted,
especially since this may not reflect real effort.

I think it is very important to show program director effort because I can
recall a training grant proposal that was turned down twice because the
study section felt that the program director was far too overcommitted to be
able to devote sufficient time to make the program a success.

If you have any other questions, feel free to contact me directly.

Paul
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Paul Riofski
Office of Graduate Affairs
School of Dentistry, UCSF
513 Parnassus Avenue, S 619-D
San Francisco, CA  94143-0430
phone:  415-476-2944
fax:    415-476-4226
e-mail: xxxxxx@itsa.ucsf.edu
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