Have your grant edited by Dr. Brenda Birmann, part-time grant editor with the ORC. Brenda provides individual feedback, assists with English language, grammar, and writing style, and ensures formatting and content is in line with NIH guidelines. Brenda does not provide scientific review, so we recommend getting feedback from your mentor(s) before submitting to have as complete a draft as possible. You may sign up for either an ‘Aims only’ or ‘Full Proposal’ slot in the months preceding your submission date. Slots go fast, so plan ahead!

Weekly editing slots beginning on specified Mondays are offered on a first-come, first-served basis. Investigators submit draft materials by noon on Monday and receive suggested edits and feedback the following week. You can see currently available slots in our editing calendar below.

All investigators may directly book a slot for editing help for up to two full submissions (or one full submission and two Aims only) within a 12-month period, with a soft limit of one submission within a given NIH cycle (as marked by the Feb/March, June/July, and Oct/Nov deadlines). Additional requests for editing during those time frames will be placed on a temporary waitlist to ensure that others who have not yet received assistance have a chance to book those slots (see below).

Waitlist Policies

If a slot has already been claimed by another investigator, it will show as “Claimed” in red on the booking calendar and will not be available for you to book directly. You may instead request to be placed on the waitlist for that date in case of a cancellation. In this case, you may be contacted to submit your materials with short notice, so please plan to have your draft ready to send on Monday if you are on the waitlist.

If you have recently received ORC grant editing and are requesting help with another grant, your request will be placed on a temporary waitlist even if the slot is currently available in the following scenarios:

• You have already had any grant edited by the ORC within this NIH cycle (as marked by the Feb/March, June/July, and Oct/Nov deadlines).
• You have already had 2 full grants, or 1 full grant and 2 Aims Only grants edited by the ORC in the past 12 months.
• You have already had 1 full grant and 1 Aims Only grant edited by the ORC  in the past 12 months and would like to submit a second full grant.
  • If you are submitting a second Aims Only grant, you may book it directly.

If any of these apply to you, please make sure to check the appropriate box in the request form. If no one else books the slot for that week, you will be able to submit your materials on Monday at noon as usual. Thank you for your patience and understanding to ensure we can offer this service to as many investigators as possible.

Grant Editing Calendar

For your convenience, you can view the below calendar of all grant editing slots here (view-only). The status of each slot is shown by color and also in text when you click on the individual record.

Red – Claimed (available for waitlist)
Light Yellow – Available for Aims Only
Light Blue – Available for all submissions

When you have found a week you would like to book or waitlist, click here to fill out your info and reserve it automatically. You will receive a confirmation email with instructions about what materials to send.