![]() ![]() Therefore, it must not only provide a clear snapshot of the entire study, but also convey what is novel about your application. The majority of review-panel members will only have read your proposal’s abstract. Typically, only three or four academics are assigned as primary and secondary reviewers of your grant. Why is this page so critical? Because of the nature of the peer-review process. Send a one-page sketch of your project abstract and aims to your mentor and co-investigators early in the grant-writing process with the goal of kicking off an iterative process of review and revision. When you finally start drafting your proposal, the specific aims should be the first thing you write - well before the background or methods sections. Writers of successful grant applications typically report that they spent 50 percent of their time on writing and revising their abstract and aims. 4: Spend half of your time on the abstract and aims. Looking at the number of specific aims and the range of acceptable sample sizes will provide you with key insights as to what has appealed to your target agency in the past. They can give you a critical sense of what has been successful. Some agencies post full abstracts online of both active and prior awards. It would be a high-risk proposition to write a grant for a foundation that has never funded an application in your area of expertise before. Review the list and ask yourself if their expertise overlaps with the aims and methodology of your study. Frame your request in that manner and people are typically happy to share.įunding agencies may also post a list of prior and current grant reviewers and their affiliations online. ![]() With a few names in hand, your next step is to ask those recipients if they are willing to share their successful applications with you - to give you a sense of the appropriate scope and depth of a successful research plan. This list is critical as it shows the agency’s interest (or lack thereof) in supporting your area of research. If not, your own institution’s grants office can provide you with a list of professors on your campus who have obtained the same grants as the ones you’re seeking. Grant agencies typically list previous award recipients online. 3: Look at who and what got funded before. Consider approaching people on other campuses as well as your own. Indeed, many early-career academics assemble a mentorship team, in which each member provides guidance on different career facets (i.e., a teaching mentor, a research mentor, a work-life mentor). It is also usually considered acceptable to seek out your own mentor. If you do not have a mentor in your department ask the chair to assign you one. This approach is critical as grant-review panels often see a large grant as the culmination of a growing body of work progressing from modest seed grants to larger and larger awards, in a cumulative fashion.Ī key factor in developing a vision of your ultimate large grant will be the advice of your mentor(s). ![]() But small grants will show that each of your aims is feasible - that you can “pull it off” (more about that in Tip No. Instead, funding decisions rely most heavily on your promise and potential as a candidate - your training to date, your mentors, and your topic’s importance.Īnother key advantage of early-career grant programs: You are competing against a smaller pool of people - as opposed to regular grant programs where you are competing with a large pool of midcareer and senior investigators who already have established track records.Īn overly ambitious application is one of the most common fatal flaws of an early-career application.Ī series of small awards will not definitively achieve your aims, as those grants will be limited by small sample sizes and budgets. Those grant programs typically do not require significant preliminary data. Grant programs specifically aimed at new faculty members and postdocs provide the highest chances for success. Given that grant funding today is more difficult to obtain than ever before, starting early in your career and capitalizing on the advantages of your “early-career” status is key. You would be better served securing a series of small grants first. As a postdoc or a new faculty member, you are often tempted to try to “land a big grant” quickly - even in the absence of a track record. Here, then, are my top 10 tips on how to draft a grant proposal that has the best odds of getting funded. I have some suggestions on that front - that I have gleaned from teaching grant writing for 20 years, and being continually funded by the National Institutes of Health as a principal investigator. They need to know what goes into a successful grant proposal, too. But up-and-coming researchers don’t just need advice on what not to do. When professors advise early-career academics on grant writing, we often focus on the common mistakes and pitfalls. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |