Abstract
I am honored to receive the 2019 ASCB Public Service Award. It has been a true privilege to work with the cell biology community; I thank them for their collegiality in their interactions with me over the years. In this essay I offer some perspectives on constructing goals and strategy for research grant and fellowship applications in basic cell biology. They are based on my observations as a program officer for grants and applications in cell biology in the National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIGMS) from 1991 to 2019.