Advice on proposal for fellowship - whose advice to take? (Sep/09/2010 )
Hello Everyone,
So I'm in the final stages of the PhD yay! I will be writing my thesis soon, and I'm currently applying for a postdoctoral fellowship for which I had to write a 3-page proposal. I spent a lot of time researching the literature to come up with the proposal that investigates something new but applying what I have learned during my PhD. So I wrote the proposal, showed it to my boss and he thought it was really good. Now the proposal is in the field of kidney physiology and kidney disease, for one of my projects I also work with a nephrologist/clinical researcher, so this person is an MD not a lab research scientist. I also gave this person my proposal to get some feedback since the proposal has to do with kidney disease, but the hypothesis itself has to do with more basic science, and molecular pharmacology. So my PI really liked my proposal, but the MD said she still had "a bunch of questions" and pretty much seems to not like what I'm proposing, or makes it seem what what I state there is not true (background), but whatever evidence I state there I cite, so I'm not making it up obviously. So my question is, should I just ignore that she does not like my proposal and maybe it's just the MD ego, and she's just not seeing what I'm seeing? and seek the help from another nephrologist who can review my proposal? or should I talk with her about it and go nowhere since she is not going to suggest something constructive but probably would want me to change the whole thing entirely, but I do have confidence in my proposal. Anyhow, let me know what you all think.
Thanks
MariCYP on Thu Sep 9 06:33:47 2010 said:
Hello Everyone,
So I'm in the final stages of the PhD yay! I will be writing my thesis soon, and I'm currently applying for a postdoctoral fellowship for which I had to write a 3-page proposal. I spent a lot of time researching the literature to come up with the proposal that investigates something new but applying what I have learned during my PhD. So I wrote the proposal, showed it to my boss and he thought it was really good. Now the proposal is in the field of kidney physiology and kidney disease, for one of my projects I also work with a nephrologist/clinical researcher, so this person is an MD not a lab research scientist. I also gave this person my proposal to get some feedback since the proposal has to do with kidney disease, but the hypothesis itself has to do with more basic science, and molecular pharmacology. So my PI really liked my proposal, but the MD said she still had "a bunch of questions" and pretty much seems to not like what I'm proposing, or makes it seem what what I state there is not true (background), but whatever evidence I state there I cite, so I'm not making it up obviously. So my question is, should I just ignore that she does not like my proposal and maybe it's just the MD ego, and she's just not seeing what I'm seeing? and seek the help from another nephrologist who can review my proposal? or should I talk with her about it and go nowhere since she is not going to suggest something constructive but probably would want me to change the whole thing entirely, but I do have confidence in my proposal. Anyhow, let me know what you all think.
Thanks
You are lucky to have that MD who gave some critical comment. You can ask her to point out your fault in your proposal. Some MD may has practical aims that basic researcher doesnot have.
If you dont think her comment is constructive, we are please to here one. Could you please just post one here?
If I understand correctly, do you mean MD as (Medical Doctor / Medical Doctorate) ?
I am working with one MD. From my experience, as long as they are medical doctor, they will only concern how your research outcome will benefits the patient rather than basic science development. I mean, I could be wrong because my comment doesn't realy mean the whole population of MD... LOL...
In other words, you might had developed a new drug and maybe even can correctly shown the drugs biochemical pathway, but this is very less likely to impress them because they can't see how the patient is being benefited. But if you developed a drug, tested on animal and clinical tested on humans, do a statistical analysis and most likely they will be impressed.
But then, please find out what your MD says first and see whether her comment is constructive.