Pink Search Story

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Grant Rejoinder WorkshopSession I Writing
the grant
9-930am Prof. Mary OKane Chief Scientist
Scientific Engineer, NSW 9.40-10.10am Research
Grants 10.10-10.20am Fellowship Applications Dr
Anina Rich Senior lecturer NHRMC Research
Fellow, Macquarie Uni
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Writing a good grant
Anina N. Rich anina.rich_at_maccs.mq.edu.au NHMRC
CJ Martin/RG Menzies Postdoctoral Research Fellow
2005-2008 ARC Australian Postdoctoral Fellow
2009-2011
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Sources/Mentors

• Prof. Stephen Crain (MACCS, MQ)
• Assoc. Prof. Amanda Barnier (MACCS, MQ)
• Mr Colm Halbert (Linguistics Psych, MQ)
• Prof. Max Coltheart (MACCS, MQ)
• Assoc. Prof. Lesley Hughes (Biological Sciences,
  MQ)
• Prof. Jason Mattingley (QBI/Psychology, UQ)
• Prof. Jeremy Wolfe (Harvard Medical)
• Assoc. Prof. Todd Horowitz (Harvard Medical)

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Research grants

• Getting started
• Ideas
• Thinking ahead
• The plan
• 2. The process
• Idea -gt Draft
• Structuring the grant
• Redrafting using your resources effectively
• 3. Finalising your grant

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Fellowship applications

• Eligibility
• Whats the right scheme?
• Competitiveness
• Track record
• Collaborators
• Different emphasis
• - Research potential

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The most important thing

• Your grant has to be understandable

The second most important thing

• Your grant has to be understandable!

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Research grants

• Getting started
• Ideas
• Thinking ahead
• The plan
• 2. The process
• Idea -gt Draft
• Structuring the grant
• Redrafting using your resources effectively
• 3. Finalising your grant

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Ideas

• Start early
• Keep a notebook
• Note the extent to which each idea is
• New, exciting, innovative, useful
• Fits with your previous research or future plans
• Fits with the literature
• Try out your idea logic on friends, family
• Discuss with a colleague
• Is it sensible? Does it address an important
  question? If you got the money, would you want to
  do it?

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My example ARC DP APD

• Follow on from experiments in my postdoc
• Lots of research on visual attention with
  stationary displays (e.g., visual search)
• Lots of important real-world tasks involve
  attending to moving objects (e.g., driving)
• Little research on attention to moving objects,
  particularly what effect distraction has
• The research question
• How do we deal with distraction when keeping
  track of moving objects?

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Research grants

• Getting started
• Ideas
• Thinking ahead
• The plan
• 2. The process
• Idea -gt Draft
• Structuring the grant
• Redrafting using your resources effectively
• 3. Finalising your grant

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Thinking ahead I

• Find a mentor(s) early
• Successful with external grants
• Commits to read drafts give feedback
• Doesnt need to be in your area
• Collaborator(s)
• Track record is worth 40
• Needs to be genuine collaboration
• Team cohesion is important (justify roles in
  grant)
• Your collaborators might have limits, so check
  early (e.g., Can only hold 2 ARC Discovery
  projects)

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Example cont

• Mentors Amanda Barnier Stephen Crain agree to
  read my grant
• Collaborator Todd Horowitz from Harvard Medical
  School
• He has a great track record
• We have two published abstracts together (start
  of a combined track record)
• He is willing to be a Partner Investigator

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Thinking ahead II

• Consider Early Career options
• But check stats for success from previous funding
  rounds
• Can you get more papers in press before the grant
  deadline?
• Often senior collaborator will be PhD supervisor
• good b/c established track record together BUT
• Try do some research with others to establish
  yourself as independent
• Can you collect pilot data?

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Example cont

• Tried applying alone as an ECR for the 2008 round
  was unsuccessful
• Stats showed ECR applications were less
  successful than non-ECR applications
• Feasibility of the study was questioned
• Reduce refine project
• Take reviews into account in redrafting
• Move back to Australia
• Include pilot data from two initial experiments

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Research grants

• Getting started
• Ideas
• Thinking ahead
• The plan
• 2. The process
• Idea -gt Draft
• Structuring the grant
• Redrafting using your resources effectively
• 3. Finalising your grant

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The plan

• Decided on funding scheme
• Checked eligibility type of research funded
• Decided on idea to pursue
• Worked up the narrative
• Ran it past colleagues friends
• Got commitments from collaborators mentors
• The next step The plan

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The plan

• Print out the Guidelines Instructions to
  Applicants
• Carefully read the instructions for each grant
  section
• Work out a timeline
• Most Universities require submission 3 weeks
  prior to grant deadline
• Give your mentor time to read comment on drafts
• Dont leave the summary, research codes etc to
  the last minute

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What are the critical sections for this grant?

• Obvious
• Aims, Approach Methodology
• Sometimes under-emphasised
• Project summary/abstract
• Significance Innovation
• National Benefit
• Keywords Codes
• Use guidelines to structure grant space
• e.g., ARC DP - Sig Innovation 20, National
  Benefit 10

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Research grants

• Getting started
• Ideas
• Appropriate funding bodies
• Thinking ahead
• The plan
• 2. The process
• Idea -gt Draft
• Structuring the grant
• Redrafting using your resources effectively
• 3. Finalising your grant

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Idea -gt Draft

• Initially
• Write the story, dont worry too much about the
  word limit
• Think of a real-world example to illustrate the
  problem you are investigating
• Try it out on your friends family
• In the end it needs to be polished like a paper,
  but to start with just get something down
• Start early, grant writing is hard!
• Save versions, keep a file with scraps

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Research grants

• Getting started
• Ideas
• Appropriate funding bodies
• Thinking ahead
• The plan
• 2. The process
• Idea -gt Draft
• Structuring the grant
• Redrafting using your resources effectively
• 3. Finalising your grant

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Structuring the grant Aims

• What is the research question?
• Top-ranked ARC applications present problems/
  hypotheses /or controversies explain how they
  will solve them
• Make aims very clear - no jargon
• Often need a sentence or two background before
  stating aims
• Need to make clear early on
• What is this about? Why is it important timely?
  What methods are used? What will the outcomes be?

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Remember

• Make the assessors task easy
• Give them a clear answer to these questions
  within 10 minutes
• What are you going to do? (Aims)
• Why are you doing it? (Significance)
• How is your idea novel? (Innovation)
• How are you going to do it? (Methods)

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Background

• Work out how much background is really necessary
• Balance between showing you know the relevant
  literature giving enough information
• using up too much space on something that isnt
  actually ranked
• Include real-world examples to set the scene
• Lead clearly to the research problem
• Avoid jargon

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Significance Innovation

• This is important!
• In ARC Discovery grants, worth 20
• Balance between
• Stating the significance in broad general terms
• Overstating/stretching too much
• If there is a real-world problem, highlight how
  your project addresses it
• If it is basic research, highlight how important
  this basic research is

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Approach methodology

• Avoid jargon!
• Present pilot data if possible
• Consider best use of space
• Outline one experiment in detail then others
  that use the same methodology?
• Use figures? (quality of ARC scanning is poor)
• Divide project into years, each with a specific
  question?
• Give enough detail to show its well thought-out,
  but be aware of space constraints
• Demonstrate it is feasible

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National Benefit

• This is important too!
• In ARC Discovery grants, worth 10
• If you fit in a National Priority area
• Great!
• Make it clear how you fit
• If not, still put in section on how this could
  benefit Australia
• Can be in terms of increasing international
  profile, collaborations, teaching of research
  students

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National Benefit

• Mention
• Expected outcomes ( best possible outcome)
• Benefits for society
• May need a 100-word summary of this also in lay
  language (e.g., ARC Discovery)

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Communication of results

• Minor section - if you can demonstrate an unusual
  but feasible/appropriate way to communicate your
  results, mention here

Role of personnel

• Again minor (space-wise), but important to
  justify all CIs any additional personnel (e.g.,
  RA)

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Very important Project summary

• Understandable by everyone
• Used in decisions about which panel, which people
  on the panel, which expert assessors
• May be used for publicity if you get the grant
• Will be read multiple times
• Gives the first impression about your topic
• Has to include all the critical elements
• What? Why? Significance innovation? Outcomes?
  Benefits?

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Research grants

• Getting started
• Ideas
• Appropriate funding bodies
• Thinking ahead
• The plan
• 2. The process
• Idea -gt Draft
• Structuring the grant
• Redrafting using your resources effectively
• 3. Finalising your grant

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Redrafting

• When you have a complete draft
• Pretend you know nothing about your area
  re-read it
• Look at each sentence Is there a simpler way to
  say it? Can you use shorter words?
• Do you need to cut words to fit the space?
• Cut content? Write more concisely?
• Give it to your friends family - can they
  understand the point? If notrewrite it!
• Take all comments seriously - if your reader
  didnt understand it, it wasnt clear!

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Redrafting using resources

• Get comments from your mentor(s), and anyone else
  who is willing
• Consider which colleague will be willing to read
  it more than once
• Consider getting comments from one at a time
• Offer to read other peoples grant drafts
• Give your summaries to random people in your life
• Do they understand the summary?
• Do they think it sounds interesting?

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Other general suggestions

• Look up the assessment panel
• intelligent non-experts (often in unrelated
  fields)
• Follow the guidelines exactly
• Panel members some reviewers are reading lots
  of grants
• Make it easy on them (Red Sox reading)
• Go for clarity ease of reading - dot points,
  subheadings, space
• Look at successful grants (be careful not to
  poach wording)

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Characteristics of top-ranked ARC applications

• Manage to balance technicality with accessibility
• Present problems/hypotheses and/or controversies
  and explain how they will solve them
• Explain how the momentum of topic demands funding
  now
• Show how Australian work fits into the
  international picture, even if the subject matter
  is uniquely Australian
• Back up compelling claims with evidence and the
  judgments of others
• Carefully temper ambitious goals with plausible
  approaches
• Display evidence of responsible but often daring
  approaches to the problem
• Many CIs are vigorous players in large
  international research networks
• Present excellent progress reports on previous
  grants
• Advance compelling arguments in relation to
  national benefit

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Research grants

• Getting started
• Ideas
• Appropriate funding bodies
• Thinking ahead
• The plan
• 2. The process
• Idea -gt Draft
• Structuring the grant
• Redrafting using your resources effectively
• 3. Finalising your grant

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Finalising your grant

• Leave time for the final read-through
• Ideally finish it, leave it for a week, then read
  it again
• Check for spelling, grammer, typos, presentation
• Leave time for getting signatures etc

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If you miss out

• It doesnt mean your grant wasnt good!
  (Unfortunately its a bit of a lottery)
• Wasnt a waste - you planned experiments,
  developed your rationaleand have a draft for
  next year already!
• Revise based on comments, resubmit
• Consider alternative funding schemes - Was your
  application to the right scheme? Was it timely?
• Work on your track record
• Do the work anyway include as pilot data next
  round

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Fellowship applications

• Eligibility
• Whats the right scheme?
• Competitiveness
• Track record
• Collaborators
• Different emphasis
• - Research potential

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Eligibility

• Are you eligible?
• ARC Australian postdoctoral fellowship (APD)
• Within 3 years of graduating from PhD
• ARC Australian research fellowship (ARF)
• 3-7 years post-PhD
• NHMRC training (postdoctoral) fellowships
  (various)
• Within 2 years of PhD pass letter

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Are you competitive?

• Track record typically worth 40
• Track record compared with others at your level
• Field you will be competing with? (e.g., years
  out)
• Would writing papers applying next round be
  better?
• Having a senior collaborator with a good track
  record is helpful
• Need to show it is a genuine collaboration
• May be an international researcher
• Where you are going/who with counts too

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The emphasis

• Apply all the rules from writing a grant
• Use the available space to show why you are a
  good investment
• Achievements to date
• Demonstrate international profile using
  citations, impact factors, speaking invitations,
  conferences
• Particularly for postdoc fellowships, they are
  assessing your research potential

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Resources

• http//www.hfsp.org/how/ArtOfGrants.htm
• http//www.learnerassociates.net/proposal/
• http//www.arc.gov.au/
• http//www.nhmrc.gov.au/
• http//www.research.qut.edu.au/development/find/ex
  ternal/arc/examples/

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Anina Rich anina.rich_at_maccs.mq.edu.au