Guidelines for Writing Letters of Support
To print these instructions, click on the following link: Guidelines for Writing Letters of Support Template (pdf).
Mentors: To ensure that our program meets the highest standards in selecting fellowship awardees and to enhance the review process, please use the following guidelines when writing a Letter of Support for your fellowship applicant. Following these guidelines will increase the likelihood that the trainee’s application is successful.
- The letter should be 1) submitted on institutional letterhead, 2) signed by the mentor and 3) addressed to the CPRTP director (Professor Shine Chang)
- Please address these criteria:
- Potential for conducting research
- Evidence of originality
- Adequacy of scientific background
- Quality of research or publications to date
- Commitment to cancer prevention research
- Need for further research experience and training
- State how you would rank the trainee’s overall ability and potential. Top 10%? Top 25%?
- Include a paragraph describing how the applicant’s proposed project relates to the CPRTP objectives for their mechanism
- If your trainee is applying for the six-month R25E, indicate how this project will be a gateway into an R25T application and dissertation project or postdoctoral research agenda
- If your trainee is applying for an R25T postdoctoral fellowship, indicate how the applicant’s aims differ from the parent project’s aims
- Please also indicate any degree of overlap of this applicant’s aims with those of other trainees in your lab
- The review committee takes under serious consideration how the proposed project develops the individual trainees research path
- Include a paragraph describing the overall plan for completing the project
- Is sufficient data available for the trainee to successfully undertake the project?
- Is the time frame described in the application realistic?
- Describe the degree of mentoring capacity you currently have
- How many trainees at each level (predoctoral, postdoctoral, other) do you advise?
- How often will you meet with the applicant?
- In a separate paragraph, please outline your previous mentoring experience
- List any dissertations you have chaired
- Mention number of postdoctoral trainees you have advised, what their important projects are and where they are today