Timing
Six to ten weeks before a deadline
Enough time to revise aims or gather preliminary data in response to the comments.
Funding & SupportResearch Plan Review
Office of Collaborative ResearchOne per yearRestricted · Early-career, non-partner
A reviewer's read on your plan, before the reviewers see it.
Each year OCR reviews one research plan, free of charge, for an early-career investigator who is not part of our partner programs. A research development strategist reads the plan the way a study section would and returns written feedback on aims, logic, feasibility, and fit.
Formally: OCR Early-Career Research Plan Review
OCRFunded and run by the Office of Collaborative Research.
What you receive
Written critique, a debrief, and time to act on both.
- 01
Written critique
A research development strategist reads your plan as a study section would and returns written comments on significance, aims, approach, and feasibility.
- 02
A debrief conversation
A 45-minute meeting to walk through the comments, weigh options, and agree on the revisions that matter most.
- 03
Pointers for what's next
Funding mechanisms, collaborators, and UCSF resources that fit the plan, drawn from OCR's work across campus.
What to send
A draft, not a polished proposal.
The review is most useful early, while there is still time to change direction. Send what you have.
What qualifies
Plans for external funding
Documents headed for NIH, foundation, or other external proposals.
- Specific Aims page
- Research Strategy, up to 12 pages
- Career development and mentoring plans for K-series awards
Eligibility
Who should apply
- Early-career investigators: postdoctoral scholars, clinical fellows, instructors, and assistant professors within five years of first faculty appointment
- Not affiliated with an OCR partner program (Bakar ImmunoX, Parnassus Institutes), whose members receive research development support through their program
- Preparing a proposal for external funding with a submission date in the coming year
Priority
If more than one request arrives, we favor
- First-time applicants to the mechanism they are targeting
- Investigators without departmental grant-writing support
- Plans with a confirmed submission deadline
- Proposals that would start a new program of research at UCSF
How to apply
From first conversation to launch.
Step 01
Request
Email a short note: your position, department, target mechanism and deadline, and your current draft.
Step 02
Confirm
We confirm eligibility and whether the year's review is still open, usually within a week.
Step 03
Review
A strategist returns written comments within three weeks of receiving your draft.
Step 04
Debrief
Meet for 45 minutes to discuss the comments and plan revisions.
What to prepare
A single email with these is enough.
- 01Your current draft, even if incomplete
- 02The funding mechanism and submission deadline
- 03Your position, department, and date of first faculty appointment, if any
- 04Your biosketch or CV
- 05A sentence on what you most want feedback on
Review
How proposals are judged
OCR staff check eligibility; a research development strategist does the review. We look at:
- 01Clarity of the central question and its significance
- 02Logic connecting hypothesis, aims, and approach
- 03Feasibility given the team, timeline, and preliminary data
- 04Fit with the funder's priorities and review criteria
- 05Presentation: whether a reviewer can follow the argument quickly
If selected
What we ask of recipients
These opportunities build shared resources, so they come with a few commitments.
- Tell us the outcome of the submission so we can learn from it
- Acknowledge OCR if the funded work leads to publications
Questions
Common questions
Our strategists' time is funded by our partner programs. One complimentary review a year is what we can offer outside them without shortchanging partners.
Other opportunities
Feb 2026Biospecimen Pipeline SupportUp to a quarter of an OCR clinical research coordinator's time for a year, to launch or expand a clinical biospecimen stream.Learn more →RollingAI Tools Open CallPropose an AI tool that would speed up your research. If it fits, OCR's team builds it with you.Learn more →Cohort 2Parnassus Community FundUp to $5,000 for events, programs, and projects that connect three or more Parnassus Institutes.Learn more →May 2026Hellman Clinical-Translational AwardUp to $100,000 for physician-scientists to embed with OCR or a CoLab and profile clinical samples.Learn more →RollingData Library Analysis SupportSupport to pursue new questions in the UCSF Data Library and build analysis tools others can use.Learn more →RollingSabbatical Assistance GrantUp to $25,000 to host a visiting scientist at UCSF, or to support your own sabbatical elsewhere.Learn more →
Before you apply
Talk through your idea with us.
We can tell you which opportunity fits, who to bring on as mentors or sponsors, and what makes a proposal competitive. A short email is enough to start.
Funding consult
Talk through your application
30 min
Free
Free
You'll meet with
Vincent Chan, PhD
OCR Director and ImmunoX Chief Strategy Officer