Significant Impact: from K Award to Your First Big R01

Hosted by Sarah Dobson

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Episodes

113

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May 2026

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About the show

For women faculty, transitioning from a Career Development (K) Award to your first NIH R01 is about more than just writing a fundable grant. Host and expert NIH grant consultant Sarah Dobson guides early career researchers through the roadmap for overcoming the hurdles of being a woman in academia and avoiding the K cliff. She’s ready to see passionate and tenacious women K Award recipients level up to R01 funding and build impactful, thriving, and fulfilling research careers. Visit https://sarahdobson.co to learn more.

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60 recent

May 28, 2026Episode 10919 min

Whose Career Are You Building?

Your calendar is full. You're productive. But if someone asked you to describe your research vision in two sentences, you might struggle. In this episode, I explore why so many early career researchers end up building careers out of other people's priorities, and why the pattern is so hard to break. Part of it is your own conditioning to be helpful and accommodating. And part of it is that the people around you were socialized to expect exactly that from you. I introduce the golden goose concept and make the case that protecting your capacity for the work that only you can do isn't selfish. It's the whole point. Interested in joining the next cohort of K to R Essentials? Join the waitlist at https://sarahdobson.co/k2r

May 14, 2026Episode 10814 min

Mentors Can't Do This For You

Making the transition from mentored researcher to independent investigator requires things your mentors can help you with and things they can't. In this episode, I break down what this transition actually asks of you, where mentoring is really beneficial, and where even the best mentors hit a limit. I share stories from three graduates who had outstanding mentorship and still needed something more to develop the clarity, self-trust, and judgment this career stage demands. If you have great mentors and you still feel stuck, this one's for you.Interested in joining the next cohort of K to R Essentials? Join the waitlist at https://sarahdobson.co/k2r

April 30, 2026Episode 10729 min

Ten Lessons From Ten Years

Tomorrow this business turns 10 years old. And somewhere along the way, I also passed 100 podcast episodes without any fanfare. So today I'm pausing to mark both milestones and share 10 lessons from the journey — on finding your focus, trusting your instincts, being reliable, saying what's true, building consistency, finding your people, creating environments worth working in, staying in dialogue with yourself, growing into someone new, and defining success for yourself. These are the lessons that have shaped how I run my business, and they're the ones I think matter most for your research career too.Interested in joining the next cohort of K to R Essentials? Join the waitlist at https://sarahdobson.co/k2r

April 16, 2026Episode 10619 min

The Skills That Transfer No Matter Where the Funding Comes From

If you're a K award recipient, chances are your career has been geared towards securing NIH funding. In this episode, I make the case that the skills you're building as you transition from mentored researcher to independent investigator — clarifying your research direction, developing self-trust and leadership, thinking strategically, learning to communicate the value of your work — are career-wide skills, not NIH-specific skills. The "R" in K to R is a career milestone, not a specific grant mechanism. I also push back on the unspoken hierarchy that treats non-NIH funding as a consolation prize. Ultimately, your goal is to get your research into the world, and you have more autonomy over how you make that happen than you might think.Interested in joining the next cohort of K to R Essentials? Join the waitlist at https://sarahdobson.co/k2r

April 2, 2026Episode 10528 min

When Every Funding Opportunity Feels Urgent (And How to Know Which Ones Actually Are)

If you're a K award recipient right now, your inbox probably feels like a minefield of "opportunities" — RFAs, collaboration requests, suggestions from mentors — and every single one feels urgent. Meanwhile, you're toggling between two competing feelings: a defeated, what's-the-point nihilism and a panicky, I'm-running-out-of-time anxiety. In this episode, I talk about why those feelings are coexisting right now, what it costs you when you let panic drive your grant decisions, and how to tell the difference between an opportunity that genuinely deserves your attention and one that just looks fundable on paper. I share four questions to ask yourself before you say yes to the next thing that lands on your desk — so that your decisions come from clarity and direction rather than fear.Interested in joining the next cohort of K to R Essentials? Join the waitlist at https://sarahdobson.co/k2r

March 19, 2026Episode 10433 min

Featured K to R Essentials Graduate: Deanne Tibbitts, PhD

The K-to-R transition asks you to do something that sounds simple but isn't: zoom out from the project you've been working on and start seeing yourself as someone with a research program. That shift is harder than it looks — and it's exactly where Deanne Tibbitts found herself in the final stretch of her K award, while simultaneously navigating a nine-month job search in one of the hardest years academic research has seen in recent memory.She arrived in K to R Essentials thinking she needed to tackle "a big mountain" of an R01 — and what she got instead was a realization that her net was too broad, that only one of her research directions was actually lighting her up, and that her R01 wasn't an isolated problem to solve but an expression of the ecosystem of her work.We also get into what it means to see yourself as the most important asset in your research program, and why that reframing matters even more when you're staring down the end of your funding without a job offer in hand.Interested in joining the next cohort of K to R Essentials? Join the waitlist at https://sarahdobson.co/k2r

March 5, 2026Episode 10314 min

[Greatest Hits] There's More Than One Road to a Successful Research Career

The rules you inherited about academic success—churn out more grants, stick to the old playbook, be grateful to be here—can shrink your career. In another of our Greatest Hits episodes, we flip that script with a simple, powerful idea: create the conditions for success by defining success on your terms and designing both grants and career moves from purpose and possibility, not from constraints.Interested in joining the next cohort of K to R Essentials? Join the waitlist at https://sarahdobson.co/k2r

February 19, 2026Episode 10211 min

[Greatest Hits] Your Research Career Needs a Compass

Feeling pulled into every committee, side project, and “quick favor” while trying to make the K-to-R leap? In another of our greatest hits episodes, we explore one of the most powerful tools you can deploy in your research career.We start by naming the real friction: early career women are socialized to say yes and keep the peace, even when it derails the work that matters most. Then we get concrete. A well-defined North Star sets standards for what earns a yes, reframes no as integrity, and turns scattered opportunities into a focused path. You’ll hear how we translate values and mission into decision filters you can apply to service requests, collaborations, and grant invites without second-guessing yourself.Interested in joining the next cohort of K to R Essentials? Join the waitlist at https://sarahdobson.co/k2r

February 5, 2026Episode 10116 min

[Greatest Hits] How Unconscious Decision-Making Can Derail Your Career

Fear, pressure, and momentum can quietly shape a career you never meant to build. In another of our greatest hits episodes, we take a clear-eyed look at how unconscious choices creep into your career, leading to unintended consequences.We help you understand the difference between conscious vs unconscious decision making and why it matters for early-stage investigators chasing R01-level funding. From the dangers of track-thinking and the shame of “falling off the path,” to the pitfalls of advice that reflects someone else’s goals, we unpack the hidden drivers that pull your work off course.Interested in joining the next cohort of K to R Essentials? Join the waitlist at https://sarahdobson.co/k2r

January 22, 2026Episode 1006 min

[Greatest Hits] How to Free Yourself From the Mentee Mindset

You don’t become a PI after you get funded; you get funded after you start thinking and acting like a PI. In another one of our show's greatest hits, this episode unpacks the crucial mindset shift from mentee to independent leader: focusing on self-trust, clear decision-making, and protecting your research vision from well-intentioned but ultimately misguided advice.We dig into the hidden forces that keep talented women researchers second-guessing themselves: academic hierarchy that rewards deference, gendered socialization that trains us to please and defer, and a review culture that can make bold ideas feel risky. Rather than vilifying mentorship, we reframe it: the K award is designed as a runway to independence, not a holding pattern. You’ll learn how to spot mentee habits—waiting for permission to submit, leaning on mentors to set direction, or endlessly tweaking aims—and replace them with deliberate practices that move your work forward.Interested in joining the next cohort of K to R Essentials? Join the waitlist at https://sarahdobson.co/k2r