Welcome to the

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Welcome to the American Heart Association APPLICAT
ION INFORMATION MINI GRANT WRITING WORKSHOP

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Tammy Hill and Mary Maynard

• Southern Ohio Valley Research Consortium
• src_at_heart.org

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The mission of the American Heart Association is
to reduce disability and death from
cardiovascular diseases and stroke
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Science FocusWhat Kinds of Research Do We
Support?

• The American Heart Association supports research
  activities broadly related to cardiovascular
  function and diseases, stroke, or to related
  basic science, clinical, and public health
  problems.

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Research Funding
Donor Dollar
National Center Allocation
Affiliate Allocation

Research
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Southeast Affiliate Research Expenses

• 6.5 million dollars were committed
• to research in the Affiliate this year
• 34-cents of every donor dollar

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Southern and Ohio Valley Research Consortium

• Florida/Puerto Rico Affiliate
• Southeast Affiliate (Alabama, Georgia,
  Louisiana, Mississippi Tennessee)
• Ohio Valley Affiliate (Ohio, West Virginia and
  Kentucky)

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Breakthroughs Funded by AHA

• The first artificial heart valve.
• Techniques and standards for CPR
• Implantable pacemakers to regulate irregular
• heartbeats.
• Heart-lung machine
• Cholesterol inhibitors

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CVD Research Still Needed

• Obesity and Cholesterol Reduction
• Modify behaviors leading to CVD and Stroke
• Diabetes and Heart Disease
• Congenital Heart Defects
• CVD/ Stroke in African Americans and other
  ethnic
• groups
• Strategies to Understand and Treat Heart
  Failure
• Gene Studies
• Abnormal Heart Rhythms

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Stroke Research Still Needed

• Stroke Treatments
• Brain Imaging Techniques
• Stroke Risk Factors, Education Awareness
• Stroke and Dementia
• Recovery from Stroke
• Gene and Protein Research

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AHAs Research Aim

• Training for fellows interested in a career in
  research
• Support for basic and clinical science from new
  and experienced researchers

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STUDENT RESEARCH PROGRAMS
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Health Sciences Student Research
Fellowship Provides an opportunity to explore a
research career related to the cardiovascular
area or stroke. This award is given to an
institution, not to the student.
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Predoctoral Fellowships Initiates careers in
cardiovascular and stroke research and supports
doctoral dissertation projects. Postdoctoral
Fellowship Initiates careers in cardiovascular
and stroke research, and furthers research
training while obtaining significant research
results.
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Grant Programs
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Scientist Development Grant Beginning
Scientists Promotes independent status and
supports high quality research Grant-In-Aid --
Independent Investigator Projects Supports the
most innovative and meritorious research.
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What is the amount of the award?

• Health Science Student Fellowship 10,800 yr
• Predoctoral Fellowship - 18,000/yr 2- years
• Postdoctoral Fellowship - 35,000/yr 2 years
  
• Pre- and Post- doctoral recipients also receive
  a
• 1,000 healthcare benefit
• Scientist Development Grant - 55,000/yr 2
  yrs
• Grant-in-Aid -- 77,000/yr 2 years

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How do I apply to the American Heart
Association?www.americanheart.org
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AFFILIATERESEARCH PROGRAMSApplication Deadlines

• Electronic submissionJanuary 12, 2005
• Paper copies. January 19, 2005
• Time500 PM, Eastern Standard Time
• Both electronic and paper must be received

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DEADLINESTake them seriously!

• 5 are administratively withdrawn each year (NIH
  and AHA)
• Technical problems? Call before the 500 pm
  deadline.
• Applications received after 500pm are
  administratively withdrawn.

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Acknowledgment of Receipt

• Received within 24 hours after electronic
  submission.
• READ the acknowledgement for possible errors in
  electronic upload of your application.
• If you receive an error message try again or call
  the Consortium office.

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Late Applications

• Contact AHA staff before deadline if experiencing
  problems with the electronic website.
• Late paper copies will not be accepted.
• Electronic applications without paper and paper
  applications without electronic copies will not
  be accepted

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Administrative Withdrawal

• Late electronic or paper copies
• Modifications after deadline
• Format issues
• type size
• characters per inch (CPI)
• lines per page
• exceeding page limits

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Note Grant Writing Tips can be found on the AHA
web site.
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Before you begin

• Read the Summary of Award Characteristics (aka
  Eligibility Criteria)
• Target Market (Qualifications)
• Peer Review Criteria
• Restrictions
• If you have instructions with a date before 2005
  DESTROY THEM and print current version.

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Before you begin...continued

• Use the Application and Collation Checklists
• Follow the instructions carefully
• Call if you dont understand something. Keep
  calling if you have other questions.
• Submit before the deadline
• Do not provide anything not required

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Common MistakesMade When Applyingfor Funding
FATAL FLAWS
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FATAL FLAWSby Investigators

• No demonstration of expertise or publications in
  approaches
• Low productivity, few recent papers
• No collaborators recruited or no letters from
  collaborators (if needed or would strengthen the
  application). Fellows dont usually need
  collaborators.

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FATAL FLAWSExperimental Approach

• Unnecessary experimental detail
• Not enough detail on approaches, especially
  untested ones
• Not enough preliminary data to establish
  feasibility
• Feasibility of each aim not shown
• Little or no expertise with approach
• Lack of appropriate controls
• Not directly testing hypothesis
• No correlative or descriptive data

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FATAL FLAWSExperimental Approach-continued-

• Experiments not directed towards mechanisms
• No discussion of alternative models or hypotheses
  
• No discussion of potential pitfalls
• No discussion of interpretation of data

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FATAL FLAWSSpecific Aims

• Too ambitious.
• Too much work proposed
• Unfocused aims
• Unclear goals
• Limited aims
• Uncertain future directions

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FATAL FLAWSSignificance

• Not significant, exciting or new research.
• Lack of compelling rationale
• Incremental and low impact research
• Innovation is not always necessary, but the
  results should have compelling significance.

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FATAL FLAWSEnvironment

• Little demonstration of institutional support
• Little or no start up package or necessary
  equipment

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FATAL FLAWSBy New Applicants

• Proposal is unrealistically ambitious.
• No clearly defined priorities.
• Timetable is unrealistic.
• Literature and background reviews are uncritical
  (undergraduate quality)
• No results of pilot studies or other preliminary
  data provided.
• Time spent on research is not within the
  guidelines or is not realistic
• Budget is unrealistic.

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FATAL FLAWSBy Established Investigators

• Application is fragmented and disjointed.
• Parts obviously written by different junior
  colleagues and then hastily assembled.
• "I dont have to go into detail. Trust me and
  examine my track record. Rely on my reputation".
• Proposal is too cautious and does not venture
  into new and unexplored areas. More of the
  same".

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FELLOWSHIP APPLICANTSA Word of Advice

• Career Goals
• Be clear about your long-range professional,
  research and academic career goals (not your
  proposed fellowship)
• Describe your institution and type of research to
  be pursued.
• Describe the relationship between your career
  goals and CVD/stroke.

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FELLOWSHIP APPLICANTSA Word of Advice

• Training Goals
• Describe the relevance of your training goals to
  your career goals.
• Identify skills, theories and conceptual
  approaches to be learned during award.
• Describe how the activities, including research,
  will contribute to the achievement of your
  academic learning.
• Describe how activities will prepare you for a
  career in cardiovascular or stroke research.

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FELLOWSHIP APPLICANTSA Word of Advice

• Research Experience
• Summarize your research experience and describe
  problems studied and conclusions reached.
• If no research experience, list other scientific
  experience.

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Variances from Ordinary Career Progression

• Be sure to explain
• Extenuating circumstances that affect your
  eligibility
• Postdoctoral research positions held part-time
  positions
• effort (e.g., 50 effort).
• Personal variances from ordinary career
  progression (e.g., child-rearing years, military
  service, unusual circumstances leading to gaps in
  research experience).

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PREDOCTORAL FELLOWSHIP APPLICANTS

• Describe undergraduate/ graduate research
• activities
• research participation programs
• student-originated study programs
• research gained through summer or part-time
• employment
• research within course work and/or outside
• of the classroom.
• Summarize, stating problems studied and
  conclusions reached.

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Technical Support

• Request technical assistance from AHA.
• Seek advice on administrative issues from your
  grants management specialist.

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What happens after my application is submitted?
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Peer Review
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What does a Peer Review committee do?

• Who serves on Peer Review?

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Streamlined ReviewTriage

• Removes noncompetitive applications from the
  review process.
• Applicants receive critiques, but not scores
• Applies to fellowships and grants

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So Ive downloaded the application and the
instructions AND the guidelines, Ive heard the
advice.

• What if I have questions?
• CALL 1-800-275-0448
• src_at_heart.org

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Resubmit!!!
I dont want to be a pessimist, but what if I
dont get funded?
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FATAL FLAWSResubmissions

• Regardless of how you feel, dont insult the
  reviewers.
• Only responding to specific reviewer concerns and
  not other aspects that may be newly criticized.
• Just changing the name or submitting a previous
  project as new.
• Do not send the same or similar application for
  review without indicating that it is a
  resubmission.
• AHA allows an original and 2 resubmissions

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What can the Research staff do for me?
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Questions