Grant Mechanisms Research Projects

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Grant MechanismsResearch Projects
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Grant MechanismsFellowship Research Career
Programs
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Review of your proposal

• There are hundreds of study sections

• 60-100 grant / study section

• Study section rosters (about 20 people) can be
  found at

http//www.csr.nih.gov/Roster_proto/sectionI.asp

• Each grant has about 3 reviewers

• All study section members score the grant 100-500

• Choose a study section that has goals consistent
• with your proposal

http//www.csr.nih.gov/Roster_proto/sectionI.asp
http//grants1.nih.gov/grants/award/award.htm

• You can lose on the abstract and first page

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Grant Writing

• What makes a good grant proposal?
• What makes a great grant proposal?
• Good idea
• Good science
• Good application

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A good proposal

• Well performed study
• Appropriate and up-to date technology
• Carefully analyzed data that is accurately
  reported
• Ethical considerations dealt with appropriately

Is this enough?
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Benchmarks of an Outstanding Application

• New or original ideas
• Focused, incisive research plan
• Knowledge of published relevant work
• Experience in essential methodology
• Future directions and contingency plans

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More Benchmarks of an outstanding proposal

• Published in respected journals
• Recognized and cited by peers
• Presented at high-quality meetings
• Fundable on competitive grant review

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What makes an outstanding proposal?

• Asks important questions
• Has potential to yield seminal observations

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Does the project have the potential to yield a
seminal observation?

• Create truly new knowledge?
• Lead to new ways of thinking?
• Lay the foundation for further research in the
  field?

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Writing a Grant Proposal

• Good idea
• Good science
• Good application

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Pursue original science

• Pursue original science
• Consider your perspective
• Novel vs. derivative
• Hypothesis-driven vs. fishing expedition
• Mechanistic vs. descriptive

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Picking a Research Project

• Ten steps to picking a Research Project

C. Ronald Kahn New England Journal of Medicine.
1994
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Steps to picking a Research Project

• Anticipate Results you might obtain Is the most
  successful outcome interesting? What would be
  the next step if you are successful? Are you
  prepared to follow up?

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Steps to picking a Research Project

• Is the area of interest to a large fraction of
  the scientific community?
• If only of interest to a limited number of people
  in the field, results may be difficult to publish
  and hard to fund

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Steps to picking a Research Project

• Is the field overpopulated?
• Look for an under-occupied niche that has
  potential

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Steps to picking a Research Project

• The best ideas come from listening to talks and
  reading papers outside your area of interest.
• Talks and papers outside your area of interest
  may point you in truly new directions and allow
  you to anticipate the evolution of the field.

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Steps to picking a Research Project

• Find a balance between low-risk and high-risk
  projects
• Include a high-interest project because this will
  be an opportunity to make a truly seminal
  observation

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Steps to picking a Research Project

• Be prepared to pursue the work to the next
  important level.
• To be recognized for important research
  accomplishments may require a willingness to
  pursue a project to any depth necessary

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Steps to picking a Research Project

• Differentiate yourself from your mentor
• This is especially true of you stay at the same
  institution.
• Independence is an important criteria for
  promotion and tenure
• You need to be more expert than your mentor in
  some area even if you choose to collaborate.

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Picking a Research Problem

• However, collaboration can be a good strategy
  especially if you are not technically prepared to
  carry out a particular aspect of the project
• List an expert in this area as a collaborator on
  your grant.
• Once you have established some expertise in an
  area, you can become more independent.

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Steps to picking a Research Project

• Focus rather than trying to make an impact in
  three or four different areas at once.
• At first focus on one or at most two projects and
  define very limited goals.

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Writing a Grant Proposal

• Good idea
• Good science
• Good application

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Good Science

• Logical and organized Research Plan
• Rationale for the Methods chosen
• Include Experimental Pitfalls
• Include Alternative Approaches
• Sufficient Experimental Detail

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Good Science

• Use appropriate controls
• Avoid shotgun approaches and fishing
  expeditions
• Do not assume reviewers with know what you mean
  SPELL IT OUT

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Good ScienceThe Hypothesis

• A meaningful hypothesis and a means to test it
• Rationale for the hypothesis
• A set of related aims
• Aims that are focused and not diffuse

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Formulate Sound Hypotheses
Whats the hypothesis here?
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Writing a Grant Proposal

• Good idea
• Good science
• Good application

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Good Application

• Read and Follow all instructions
• Make sure your Institute offers the type of grant
  you plan to prepare. For instance, not all
  Institutes offer R21 grants
• Use clear and grammatically correct English
• Write short, clear sentences. Minimize the use
  of overly technical jargon
• Avoid Reviewer fatigue

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Selling Your Ideas

• Its your responsibility to make it effortless
  for the reviewers to understand
• Your ideas
• Why they are important
• Why your approach is reasonable and feasible
• Present an organized, lucid write-up!
• Write for the skeptic how would you convince
  your harshest critic?
• Do not write the application for the
  specialist assume the reviewers wont know
  your system as well as you do

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Keep your focus on your big picture

• Focus do not let your ideas wander from your
  main theme
• Show how this project fits into your big
  picture research objectives, describe future
  directions

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Presentation Formatting

• Prepare a reviewer-friendly application!
• Organize with headings subheadings, but avoid
  too many levels
• Include well-designed tables and figures with
  appropriate legends
• Stay within the page limitations
• Use a readable typeface and font size (Ariel
  11pt)
• Minimize grammatical typographical errors

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Components of a Grant Application

• Abstract
• Specific Aims
• Background and Significance
• Preliminary Results
• Research design

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Keys for a Successful Grant ApplicationAbstract

• Pretend reviewer has only this page to read
• Abstract should be a mini outline for the
  proposal.

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Keys for a Successful Grant ApplicationAbstract

• Include a general statement of the problem being
  addressed including gaps in our knowledge
• Include your hypothesis and why your experiments
  will fill the gaps in our knowledge (and why this
  is important)
• Include an outline of the specific aims and
  methods to be used, expected outcomes and the
  long-range significance.

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Keys for a Successful Grant ApplicationAbstract
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Specific Aims

• The Specific Aims are the first part of the
  proposal that the reviewer reads. Include a
  short description of problem and background
  summary (one paragraph)
• The Specific Aims should address an hypothesis
  and the hypothesis should be clearly stated
• They should be bulleted and clearly and
  succinctly outline the proposed research.

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Important TipSpecfic Aims

• The specific aims should be interrelated but
  should not depend on the success of one aim to
  perform the others.
• Example
• Aim 1 proposes to identify and clone the cellular
  receptor that restricts HXV infection to humans.
  In Aim 2, there are plans to construct transgenic
  mice expressing the receptor to develop an animal
  model for HXV to study pathogenesis.
• What if there is more than one receptor? Or you
  are not successful in identifying putative
  receptors? Or infection is also blocked at a
  stage past entry?

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Keys for a Successful Grant ApplicationSpecific
Aims

• Identify hole in our knowledge
• Explain why this hole is important
• State your hypothesis and long term goals
• Identify a series of logical steps to test your
  hypothesis

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Keys for a Successful Grant ApplicationSpecific
Aims

• List the aims as a bulleted list with a brief
  description of the approaches to be used after
  each aim
• Be specific. Avoid generalities.
• Avoid saying you will characterize or describe a
  phenomenon or determine the relationship between
  two processes

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Keys for a Successful Grant ApplicationSpecific
Aims

• Think about aim as a verb.
• Your aims should suggest a particular outcome
  rather than being descriptive.
• Do not merely characterize or describe
  something! Its boring and it doesnt convey the
  importance or excitement of what you hope to
  accomplish

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Keys for a Successful Grant ApplicationSpecific
Aims

• A specific aim that collects data with out
  describing the rationale for the hypothesis
  sounds like a fishing expedition.
• Each aim should include a hypothesis if possible.

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Keys for a Successful Grant ApplicationSpecific
Aims

• Is the scope of the problem achievable?
• Avoid proposing 10 years of work in a 3 or 4
  year proposal

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Keys for a Successful Grant ApplicationSpecific
Aims

• Combine low risk aims with one or two that are
  innovative and original
• An innovative aim will include novel concepts or
  approaches
• An innovative aim should advance the field
• The specific aims should be interrelated but one
  aim should not depend on the success of another

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Brief summary of background
Long term goal
Hypothesis
Rationale
Specific Aims
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Keys for a Successful Grant ApplicationBackround
and Significance
Rationale Rationale Rationale
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Keys for a Successful Grant ApplicationBackround
and Significance

• Set the stage
• Show how existing work lays the ground work but
  does not go far enough
• Bring together ideas and results (yours and
  others)
• Identify gaps that your proposal will fill
• Lay out still unanswered questions you will
  answer

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Keys for a Successful Grant ApplicationBackround
and Significance

• Compare and contrast work of others. Evaluate
  and critique it, but do so respectfully
• Cite literature judiciously. You cant cite
  every finding, but try to be fair.

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One more Tip

• After describing the background that relates to a
  particular aim, end that section with
• This problem will be addressed in Aim _. Remind
  the reviewer that you are going to save the day
  and solve that problem in this grant by filling
  in that particular gap in our knowledge

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Keys for a Successful Grant ApplicationPrelimina
ry Results

• In God we Trust
• All others must bring Data

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Keys for a Successful Grant ApplicationPrelimina
ry Results

• Demonstrate expertise in the techniques you are
  going to use.
• Show your hypotheses are supported by your
  initial studies
• Include only pertinent data
• Advance your data clearly and professionally
  (dont be sloppy)
• Include well-designed tables and figures

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Research Design Methods

• Provide a well-focused research plan
• Provide sufficient experimental detail
• Address data interpretation, anticipated results
  and alternative approaches
• Propose a realistic amount of work
• Secure collaborators for areas in which you lack
  experience and training

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Keys for a Successful Grant ApplicationExperimen
tal Design

• Address each Aim one at a time
• Keep numbering consistent between Specific aims
  and Experimental Design section
• Make sure design and methods are well-developed
  and appropriate?
• Are problems areas addressed?

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Keys for a Successful Grant ApplicationExperimen
tal Design

• Start with a brief overview to remind reviewers
  what you are doing
• Start each aim with brief rationale and
  hypothesis to be tested
• Provide framework for description of experimental
  details which follow

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Keys for a Successful Grant ApplicationExperimen
tal Design

• If each aim has common experimental detail, you
  can end the entire section with a General methods
  section, separate from the specifics for each
  Aim.
• Most reviewers what to see how the general
  research design plays out before fine details of
  methodology.

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Keys for a Successful Grant ApplicationExperimen
tal Design

• How much detail is enough?
• Convey credibility but dont get too bogged down
  in details.
• If you have previously shown expertise either in
  preliminary results or publications, you dont
  need as much detail as if the techniques are new
  to you.
• Arrange for collaborations or coinvestigators in
  scientific areas in which you do not have
  established credentials.

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Research Design and Methods

• Do provide the rationale for each experimental
  approach
• Discuss possible outcomes and how these will be
  interpreted
• Discuss potential pitfalls and alternative
  approaches

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A Picture Can Be Worth a Thousand Words

• Illustrate models instead of describing them in
  the text
• Use schematics to summarize
• If data figures or schematics are inserted into
  the Preliminary Studies or Research Design
  sections, make sure both the figure and the
  legend are legible and easily readable by the
  reviewer

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Using Figures
Both the figure and legend can easily be read by
the reviewers.
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Using Figures
The legend can be read but the schematic cannot
be read.
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Using Figures
Neither the figure nor the legend can be read.
Why bother showing it?
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Useful Tip

• Add a short summary at the end of the Research
  Design and Methods section to drive home what
  will be learned from the studies and why that is
  significant. Future directions can be included
  briefly.

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Bottom Line?

• What will the reviewers be looking for?
• How will they judge the application?

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Benchmarks of an Outstanding Application

• New or original ideas
• Focused, incisive research plan
• Knowledge of published relevant work
• Experience in essential methodology
• Future directions and contingency plans

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Review of Research Grants

• REVIEW CRITERIA Significance Approach Innovat
  ion Investigator Environment

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Review of Research Grants

• REVIEW CRITERIA Investigator - who are you?
  Make sure your CV is complete and conveys your
  areas of expertise and training.Make sure your
  preliminary results section conveys who you are.
  Actions speak louder than words.

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Review of Research Grants

• REVIEW CRITERIA Environment - Make sure you
  convince reviewers that your institution
  addresses all requirements of the proposed
  research plan.
• List areas of expertise of colleagues, research
  cores and facilities that will aid your research,
  any institutional support that exists.
• Justify reliance on external resources.

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What if your first grant is not funded?

• Dont give up
• Initial failure is common

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What if your first grant is not funded?

• Learn from it and succeed - a majority do
• Study criticism in pink sheet
• Decide if problems are reparable
• Attend diligently to each criticism
• Keep a positive tone and attitude in addressing
  criticism

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Most common reasons for failure

• Lack of new or original ideas
• Diffuse, superficial or unfocused research plan
• Lack of knowledge of published relevant work
• Lack of experience in the essential methodology
• Uncertainty concerning the future directions

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More reasons for failure

• Questionable reasoning in experimental approach
• Absence of acceptable scientific rationale
• Unrealistically large amount of work
• Lack of sufficient experimental detail
• Uncritical approach

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Remember

• There is no grantsmanship that will turn a bad
  idea into a good one, but.
• There are many ways to disguise a good one
• William Raub, Past Deputy Director of NIH

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Resources

• National Institutes of Health http//www.nih.gov
• National Science Foundation http//www.nsf.gov
• Hints for Writing Successful NIH grants by Ellen
  Barrett. http//chroma.med.miami.edu/Ellens.how.t
  o.html
• Extramural Funding Opportuniteshttp//deainfo.nci
  .nih.gov/extra/extdocs/gntapp.html
• Sounding Board Picking a Research Problem by C.
  Ronald Kahn. The New England Journal of Medicine.
  3301530
• How to Ask for a Research Grant by Janet S.
  Rasey. In Writing, Speaking, and Communication
  Skills for Health Professionals. Yale University
  Press. Pg 91-117

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Scientific Questions

• Focused
• Lead to testable hypotheses
• Interesting
• Significant

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Drill down to a specific question

• What does PTH do?
• What does PTH do in osteoblasts?
• How does PTH regulate bone formation in
  osteoblasts?
• What are the downstream targets of PTH in
  osteoblasts?
• What are the immediate early genes induced by PTH
  through the cAMP-PKA pathway in osteoblasts?