How to use and customize the BRET Fellowship Application Planner
Applying for a fellowship can feel like you are juggling dozens of moving parts at once. The BRET Career and Professional Development grant planning Trello board helps you manage these tasks in one visual, flexible workspace. Throughout this blog, we will walk through how the board is organized, key Trello features you can use, and ways to customize it for your specific grant application deadline.
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[accordion title=”What is Trello and how does it work?”]
Trello is a free project management tool that organizes information into cards (representing tasks or items) grouped within columns (called “lists”) that represent stages of a project.
- We currently have Trello planning boards for NIH F NRSA grants, American Heart Association fellowships, and the NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Program; This screenshot shows the project planner for F NRSA applications, but others are arranged similarly.
- Each section of a fellowship application has its own card, which include dates, checklists, notes, attachments, and comments.
- You can move the cards across columns as your project progresses from “Not yet started” to “Ready to convert to pdf.”
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[accordion title=”Instructions for accessing the Trello board”]
Click on the link below to create a free Trello account using your Vanderbilt/VUMC email address (if you don’t already have one).
If you are a VUMC user and are receiving an error message when trying to access the Trello board, please reach out to Angela Zito (angela.zito@vanderbilt.edu), and we can provide you with a tip sheet for gaining access.
Step 1: Click on the link above and create a new Trello account using your Vanderbilt/VUMC email if you don’t already have one (it’s free!)
Step 2: Request access to the board by filling our this form https://redcap.link/grant_planner_access
Step 3: You will get an email notification once you have been approved to join the board. If you have not received access by 1 business day, please reach out to Angela Zito (angela.zito@vanderbilt.edu).
Step 4: Create a copy of the board. You must do this in order to be able to move the cards/edit the board. Please create a copy of the board and add it to your personal workspace within 48 hours of receiving access.
Step 5: Give the board a title and add it to your personal workspace.
Step 6: After you make a copy of the board in your personal workspace, you can now freely edit and customize your copy of the Trello board!
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[accordion title=”Key features of the ASPIRE grant Trello board”]
Before diving into customization, here’s a quick overview of the features you will use most often on the NIH F NRSA project planner (other boards are similarly arranged).
- Column headers
- Column 1: Getting Started
- Column 2: Sections required for all applicants
- Column 3: Project-dependent items (you may or may not need these)
- Column 4: Not yet started
- Column 5: Writing in progress
- Column 6: Ready to submit
- Column 7: Sent to Grant Manager to upload
- Column 7: Final to-do items before submission to NIH
- Column 8: After submission to the NIH
- Cards
- Each card represents a specific document, section, or task. You can open a card to see detailed information, checklists, and notes.
- Labels
- Colored labels help you visually track categories – pink for documents that are “written by candidate,” purple for documents that are “written by sponsor,” or blue for documents that are “written by others.”
- Dates
- You can assign due dates to cards to track upcoming deadlines or reminders.
- Members
- If your sponsor or collaborators also want to take advantage of your Trello board, you can assign cards to indicate responsibility for each section.
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[accordion title=”How the BRET grant Trello board is organized”]
Start with the cards in the first column. Here you will find detailed guides on how to get started – such as identifying the correct funding opportunity, contacting your Vanderbilt grants manager, and avoiding common pitfalls.
The next column contains cards that describe each document that you, your sponsor, or your collaborators/other letter writers are required to complete. Each card contains a link to the NIH fellowship instructions, helpful tips, and a checklist that you can use. Once you have copied the board into your own Trello account, you can customize the cards for your needs, including setting the due date for each card.
The third column contains cards that you may or may not have to do, depending on your project. If you are using vertebrate animals, select agents or toxins, or human subjects, pay special attention to these cards.
Columns 4-6 allow you to quickly visualize your progress. As you begin working on your documents, you can move them along the pipeline. Feel free to add additional lists if you would like more granularity.
As you are nearing the Vanderbilt internal deadline, start to pay close attention to the last two columns. Those cards contain checklists of items that are due by certain deadlines and common things to watch out for (such as formatting errors) before submitting.
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[accordion title=”Customizing the board for your grant”]
Trello boards can be fully customizable to best suit your needs.
- Add routing deadlines/Vanderbilt internal deadlines
- Add the deadlines set by your grants manager to the Trello cards. Your grants manager needs some sections of your application sooner than others to route your application through the internal approval process. The final step of the checklist on each card contains a spot for you to fill in this deadline information.
- There is also a Vanderbilt internal deadline (a few days before the NIH deadline!) that ALL of your documents must be FINALIZED. This ensures your grant manager has a few days before the deadline to get your application submitted and to avoid any unexpected errors.
- Personalize the “Reference letter” card
- Update the card with the names of your letter writers and track when you’ve requested and the letter has been uploaded to the eRA Commons page. You can also assign due dates or follow-up dates as reminders for yourself.
- Decide how you want to use Trello to keep track of your progress and deadlines.
- Do you want to use the checklists within the cards, add due dates for each card, and/or move the cards throughout the lists to track your progress?
- Choose how to use this feature to meet your needs:
- To set deadlines for yourself and your Sponsor.
- To set deadlines to send documents to your grants manager.
- Not at all – you just want to use the column headers to indicate your progress.
- Add attachments to the cards that contain your outlines or your drafts (Word, PDF), links to Google docs, or additional resources directly to the card to keep everything in one place.
- You can utilize the comments section on the right side of your cards to keep quick thoughts and reminders organized.
- Review and customize project-dependent items
- Column 3 contains cards that may or may not apply to your application. Review each card carefully (if in doubt, ask your grants manager). Set deadlines to complete sections that your application will require. If a certain card is not needed, you can mark it as complete to hide it from your project board (but you can still go back and review them at anytime).
- Keep your Trello board up to date
- Schedule 1-2 times a week when you go in and check the progress of your application materials. Check off any items complete, move cards as needed, and remind yourself of upcoming deadlines.
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Click here to go back to the main Fellowship Project Management blog series.