Six Most Important Tips To Obtain Grant Funding

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Six Most Important Tips To Obtain Grant Funding

• 1. Gap/Match
• Match fields gap in knowledge, training,
  partnering, etc with what your project can do to
  bridge the gap
• Know the literature, current techniques, state of
  your field.

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Six Most Important Tips To Obtain Grant Funding

• 2. Internal consistency within your proposal
• Literature review leads to Aims
• Aims lead to Hypotheses
• Hypotheses lead to methods
• Methods lead to analyses

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Six Most Important Tips To Obtain Grant Funding

• 3. Match project idea to the agencys priority
• Correct branch, agency and program
• High program relevance
• Do they target this area for discretionary
  funding?

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Six Most Important Tips To Obtain Grant Funding

• 4. Persistence
• Develop a relationship with the program officer
• Use email
• Track them down at conferences
• Obtain PILOT DATA to show you can do the project

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Six Most Important Tips To Obtain Grant Funding

• 5. Match made in heaven doesnt exist
• Take criticism to heart
• Good ideas will get funded, not poor science from
  known researchers/universities/pretty faces
• Get feedback and clarify, revise, justify and/or
  add consultants, literature, data, measures

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Six Most Important Tips To Obtain Grant Funding

• 6. Buy a Ticket
• Must apply
• Best way to get a grant is to write a proposal

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Barriers to Success(another list)

• 1. "Trust me, I'm the expert
• 2. Give me the money, then Ill design my
  project
• 3. I'm going to develop a scale
• 4. Camouflaging the real intention of the
  proposal

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Barriers To Success(another list)

• 4. "Is this a problem?" "Is this important?
• Wheres the beef?
• 5. Inappropriate tests or measures
• 6. Avoiding input from others

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Why Bother Writing A Proposal?

• Interest and/or ambition
• A researchable problem or need exists
• Resources are needed
• Plan can be developed
• Environment will support the project
• Professional stature
• Material gains
• Liabilities are less than benefits

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Proposal Fundamentals

• Major steps in proposal writing
• Commonalities Across Agencies

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Major steps in proposal writing

• - Abstract
• - Project Description or Narrative
• - Preliminary Studies / Results
• - Procedures / Methodology
• - Evaluation Plan
• - Dissemination Plan

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Major steps in proposal writing

• - Facilities and Equipment
• - Personnel
• - Budget and budget justification
• - Special Agency Requirements
• - Appendices / Attachments
• - References
• - Title

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The Abstract

• Lays out the project
• The proposal builds from the abstract
• Watch number of words/amount of space
• Abstract must be consistent with the proposal -
  write this section last

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Abstract

• Include
• Problem, issue or need to be addressed
• Statement of the significance
• Listing of the objectives or goals
• Brief summary of the method and expected outcomes
  

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Project Description The MAJOR Section

• Introduction
• Summary of what is proposed and why?
• Define the Who, What, Why, Where, When, and How

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Project Description The MAJOR Section

• Text should address
• Theoretical framework and rationale
• Goals, objectives, or aims
• Current status of the field
• The innovation or improvement proposed by the
  project

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Project Description The MAJOR Section

• Significance --
• Why do this?
• What will it do the field?
• How will it be better?

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Project Description

• Establishes
• importance of problem or issue
• parameters limitations
• credibility and competence of the principal
  investigator
• novelty of the approach
• "Why?" for giving PI the money

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Preliminary Studies / Results

• Include for all proposals --
• Pilot data and preliminary work is essential for
  showing that the design will work
• Include tables and graphs if necessary

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Procedures / Methods

• Include design, participants, procedures
• Aim by aim, experiment by experiment, tasks by
  task
• Be VERY specific
• Provide DETAILS
• only routine tests, assessments, procedures may
  be noted without details

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Methods/Procedures

• Include statistical analyses, if appropriate
• Link hypotheses to specific analyses
• Have escape options if your hypotheses NOT
  supported
• Project time line must show how parts fit
  together
• Future studies or long range implications

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Evaluation

• Measures of success for the project design
• Specifics on various evaluation or testing models

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Dissemination Plan

• How to communicate results why?
• NSF looks at
• Spread - large dissemination
• Choice - alternative products or procedures
• Exchange - sharing information
• Implementation - use of new processes or
  procedures

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Facilities and Equipment

• What do you have already?
• Describe research space, equipment, materials
  available
• Describe laboratory specific general University
  facilities
• Make this description consistent with budget
  request

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Personnel

• Establish the credibility of the PI other
  personnel
• Publications
• Prior work
• Pilot data work

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Personnel

• Get connected with others though
• Conferences, seminars, professional meetings
• Correspondence, phone calls, lab visits
• Reviewers of manuscripts or grant proposals
  (these are public knowledge)

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Personnel

• Include updated vita or biological sketch in
  proposal
• Check all entries - include most recent / most
  relevant to fit page limits
• Length content guidelines
• Be accurate, DO NOT inflate

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Personnel

• What if key personnel are inexperienced or
  lacking in credentials?
• How do we get a grant if we havent had a grant?

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Budget and Budget Justification

• Review budget elements justification carefully
• What do you need for the project?
• What is needed for the life of the project?
• Be realistic and as accurate as possible
• Carefully justify any unusual items

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Special Agency Requirements

• Partnerships
• Compliances
• Plans for continuation after grant ends
• Other / Pending Support (related work)
• Reviewers to /or reviewers not to include
• Matching Funds
• Countries eligible to apply

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References

• List all references cited in text
• Be accurate in spelling, citations
• Be complete
• Consider how references are cited in text
• By author date or by number

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Appendices/attachments

• - Letters
• - Articles and manuscripts
• - Reviewers discretion
• - Employ a Table of Contents

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Title

• Clear, Concise, Communicative
• Real World Understanding
• Golden Fleece Award

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The Final Step in Proposal Preparation

• CHECK EVERYTHING CAREFULLY

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Final Step

• Proof Reproof-read the entire proposal
• Check pagination
• Recheck the budget
• Recheck agency instructions
• Obtain required signatures
• Make perfect copies
• Mail to meet deadline (postmarked or receipt)

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Commonalities Across Agencies

• They are more alike than they are different in
  proposal elements, review process, and in wanting
  to fund the best work

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Understanding Different Agency Cultures

• How are reviewers chosen?
• Where does review take place?
• How many reviewers?
• How many proposals?
• What happens at proposal reviews?
• How much time is involved for each proposal?
• What is the role of the program officers?
• Triage

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Overview of Reviewer's Pet Peeves

• Time-wasting hunt for information
• Unconventional proposal organization
• Writing to impress, not inform
• Lack of specificity
• Hard to read proposals sloppy, dense, boring,
  not scholarly

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Overview of Reviewer's Pet Peeves

• Inconsistency
• Dated materials
• Excessive support material
• Over or under ambitious project
• Budget is not cost effective

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Visual Appearance

• Who can read it? Baby Boomers Biggest Lament --
  Presbyopia
• Layout
• Use of figures and other graphics

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Dealing With Rejection

• - Obtain feedback from program officers
• - Consider programmatic reasons
• - Consider proposal issues
• - Look for missing or confusing elements
• - ALWAYS Revise Resubmit

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Rare Possibility

• Proposal reviewer - inexperienced or poor
  reviewer
• Be nice -
• Assertive but not aggressive
• Inform without lecturing
• Tone comes through in words

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Watch Out What You Ask For

• If it does get funded, you really do have to do
  the work!!

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QUESTIONS ???