Research Acceleration Holistic (REACH) Program
REACH provides mentoring, coaching and grantsmanship training to help you forge your unique path to becoming a fully funded researcher.
The SHP Office of Research and innovation (SHP-R&I) is committed to supporting our faculty’s academic research and scholarly development through structured mentoring, coaching, and grantsmanship training. The REACH program, designed to promote REsearch ACceleration through a Holistic approach, gives SHP faculty the tools to find their own unique paths to becoming fully funded scholars and researchers.
Who is REACH for?
REACH supports all faculty with 100% appointments in SHP who are pursuing steady funding for their research groups. REACH uses a combination of mentoring, coaching, and training to help faculty be more productive with less stress. REACH also supports senior faculty who wish to develop program/center grants, training grants, or grants with multiple coordinating projects.
What does REACH involve?
REACH seeks to grow a community of independent investigators from diverse backgrounds who will benefit from a holistic approach to research. SHP-R&I meets with faculty members individually to determine which of the program’s offerings are most beneficial. Together, we create a professional development plan, including timeline and deliverables.
REACH can teach you the soft skills that help you manage your time and make long-term research sustainable. Through mentoring and coaching, you’ll attain the skills required to run a research group, including:
- Laboratory and research development, management, and leadership
- Creating a positive lab culture (hiring the right people, navigating difficult conversations, ensuring creativity and confidence among lab members so that they can do their best work)
- Building team connections and trust while equitably managing the logistics of allotting time and shared equipment for faculty, students, and trainees
REACH can equip you with the hard skills related to grant application preparation by training you directly in researching, writing, and submitting grants. Our REACH Writing Group for junior and mid-career investigators provides support and accountability and serves as a feeder program for the UAB Center for Outcomes and Effectiveness Research and Education’s Grant Writing Intensive Cohort (GRIT), which has a proven track record of graduating federally funded investigators. If you are ready to pursue your first K grant or R01 and would like additional support in grant writing and other aspects of the application process, joining the REACH Writing Group is a good start.
GAME On: Grant Assistance and Mentorship Engine
GAME On is a personalized grantsmanship initiative that provides one-on-one mentorship, strategic proposal development and hands-on feedback for early/mid-career researchers pursuing federal grants such as K, R, or P grants within NIH, DoD, NSF, and other non-federal competitive funding opportunities. Support may be provided through synchronous work-sessions or asynchronous feedback, depending on the proposal timeline and investigator needs. Our Grants Strategist and investigator will work closely together to strengthen the proposal framing, research strategy, clarity, organization, and overall grantsmanship across key proposal components.
Core focus areas:
- Importance of the research (the WHY): Articulating translatability, clinical relevance and social urgency of the proposal
- Strategic study design & feasibility: High-level constructive feedback on the logic, rigor, feasibility, and overall structure of the study plan
- Narrative clarity: Strategic guidance on Biosketches, Career Development documents; and support with with ancillary materials inluding figures and graphics
How We Work:
Timelines are critical, and we recognize that funding decisions often hinge on the first few pages of a proposal. To address common constraints around limited lead time, we meet faculty where they are by prioritizing the most essential components: the Specific Aims and the Research Strategy.
We can collaborate early on to translate your complex study design into clear, high-impact, overview graphics, ensuring that visual and written elements evolve in parallel to strengthen reviewer comprehension from the outset.
Scope of Support:
Please note that these grantsmanship services are provided by a consultant with extensive experience in NIH grant applications, but not subject mater expertise in all scientific domains. It is strongly recommended to have subject matter experts for scientific validation and review as well.
From Chaos to Clarity:
You have the science and the preliminary data, but the deadline is closer than you'd like, your calendar is full, and every time you sit down to write, the proposal feels harder to pull together than it should.
Maybe the aims aren't quite landing. Maybe the narrative feels scattered across too many directions. Maybe you've been staring at the same draft long enough that you can no longer tell what's working and what isn't.
Most researchers hit this wall at some point. Strong science and a strong proposal are two different crafts, and writing under pressure, alone, makes it harder still.
GAME On pairs you with a grants strategist who will work through it with you — starting where it matters most: your Specific Aims and your core narrative. From there, we work outward, session by session, until the proposal reflects the quality of the science behind it.
Our commitment to you
We want your feedback and will continue to refine REACH to ensure we provide the tools SHP faculty members need. Our goal is to help you reach your academic goals and your true professional potential.
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