The Craft of Grant Writing

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The Craft of Grant Writing

• Phyllis McBride, Ph.D.
• Assistant Director
• Office of Proposal Development
• p-mcbride_at_tamu.edu

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Writing for reviewers

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Think about your reviewers

• Remember that while your application will be
  submitted to an agency, it will be read by
  people
• Prepare your application with your reviewers in
  mind

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Think about your reviewers

• Smart
• Accomplished
• Dedicated
• Fair

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Think about your reviewers

• Busy
• Overworked
• Tired
• Skeptical

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Think about your reviewers

• Distinguishing between innovations that emerge
  from empirical testing of concepts and
  pre-existing notions and practices currently
  embraced by businesses to distinguish themselves
  from competitors in a given local consumer market
  illustrates the extent to which competitive
  incentives to offer new and potentially
  innovative products may encourage such businesses
  to adopt practices from other markets, thereby
  avoiding costs associated with research and
  development of those new products.
• Example from GWSW

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Think about your reviewers

• We will use the previously designed data
  collection instrument, described in section B.3.1
  on page 16, and the statistical analysis, similar
  to that which is in the methods section of the
  reprint attached as appendix VI, to measure the
  extent to which our healthcare assessments
  approaches will be reflective of the community
  standards described in Section B.2.1 on page 5.
• Example from GWSW

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Write for your reviewers

• In language, clarity is everything.
• Confucius

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Write for your reviewers

• Make sure that all of your reviewers no matter
  what kind or level of expertise they may have
  will be able to follow your argument
• You want your reviewers to be your advocate
• For reviewers to be your advocate, they must be
  able to understand your proposed research project
  well enough to explain it to other reviewers

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Write for your reviewers

• Remember that the proposal is the only reality
• Assume nothing
• Include everything the reviewers will need to
  evaluate your proposed research and your
  qualifications to conduct that research
• Remember that you are telling a story
• Synthesize all key concepts for the reviewers
• Clearly articulate the links between the overall
  goal, the individual objectives, the hypotheses,
  the rationale, the expected outcomes, and the
  significance and impact
• Dont count on the reviewers to make leaps of
  logic for you

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Create a reviewer-friendly application

• Prepare reviewer-friendly text
• Develop reviewer-friendly formatting
• Incorporate reviewer-friendly graphics

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Create reviewer-friendly text

• Divide the proposal into the required sections
• Place the sections in the required order
• Use parallel structure at the section level
• Incorporate logical paragraph breaks
• Open paragraphs with clear topic sentences
• Avoid the use of inflated language
• Use declarative sentences
• Define potentially unfamiliar terms
• Spell out acronyms and abbreviations
• Employ appropriate style and usage
• Use correct grammar, punctuation, spelling
• Run a spell check and proofread the application

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Create a reviewer-friendly format

• Observe page limitations
• For whole proposal
• For individual proposal sections
• Observe margin requirements
• Observe font and point size requirements
• Incorporate headings and subheadings
• Incorporate ample white space

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Create reviewer-friendly graphics

• Make graphics large enough to be useful
• Place graphics as close to the text they are
  meant to illustrate as possible
• Refer to graphics in the text
• Number and title all graphics
• Prepare a caption for all graphics
• Label axes and data points, as needed
• Provide a legend, as needed

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Reading the proposal solicitation

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Read the instructions

• Read the instructions!
• Read all of the instructions!
• Read all of the instructions carefully!
• Read all of the instructions carefully again!
• Agencys proposal preparation guide
• Programs proposal solicitation
• Solicitations supplemental instructions

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Analyze the solicitation

• The proposal solicitation is not
• A list of suggestions
• A menu or smorgasbord from which you can choose
  what to address
• The proposal solicitation is
• A non-negotiable list of proposal requirements
• A treasure map

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Analyze the solicitation

• Use information presented in the announcement to
  help you develop a competitive proposal strategy
• Remember that a proposal is a persuasive sales
  document
• Emphasize hot buttons
• Echo language of announcement
• Address the review criteria
• Call your program manager with questions

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Preparing the application

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Prepare the application

• Cover sheet
• Title
• Abstract
• Executive summary
• Background
• Significance
• Project description

• Project schedule
• Biographical sketch
• Resources
• Grant support
• Budget
• Budget justification
• Supplementary materials

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Cover Sheet

• Requires that you provide basic information
• Program name and number
• Principal investigator information
• Administrative official information
• Organization name and type
• Requested award amount
• Proposed project period
• Human and animal subjects assurance numbers
• Signatures
• Oftentimes offers you the opportunity to indicate
  if you are a new investigator

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Title

• Create a good first impression
• Must be informative
• Must be interesting
• Conform to restrictions on length
• Know if restrictions apply to characters only,
  or to characters and spaces
• Conduct market research
• Ask colleagues to help you select the most
  compelling title

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Abstract

• Provides a concise overview of the proposed
  project
• Requires that you provide a great deal of
  information within a tightly prescribed format
• Who, what, when, where, why, and how
• Additional agency-specific information
• NIH Relevance of the research to public health
• NSF Intellectual merit and broader impacts
• Frequently becomes public record if the project
  is funded
• Should be written in third person
• Should not include confidential or proprietary
  information

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Introduction / executive summary

• Critically important
• Often the only part of the proposal that all
  reviewers will have an opportunity to read
• Must be able to stand alone
• Must be clearly written
• Must provide a conceptual overview
• Must generate enthusiasm
• Serves as a roadmap to the application

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First paragraph

• Introduce the project
• Relate the project to the agencys mission
• Educate the reviewer
• Summarize the important knowns
• Identify the gap in the knowledge and/or state
  the critical need
• Explain why the gap or need presents a problem
• Remember You must present a way to solve the
  problem or fill the need

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Second paragraph

• Describe your long-term research goal
• Should support the agencys mission
• State the objective of the proposed research
  project
• Should represent a step toward reaching your
  long-term goal
• Present your central hypothesis or statement of
  need
• If presenting a central hypothesis
• Make sure it is a real hypothesis, not a
  predetermined conclusion, i.e., make sure it can
  be objectively tested to determine its validity
• Explain your rationale
• Explain what it will be possible to accomplish
  when your research is complete

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Third paragraph

• Describe your qualifications
• Special training, and/or expertise
• Quantity and quality of preliminary data
• Unique approach, technology
• Describe your research environment
• Access to unique equipment and resources
• Access to research subjects
• Collaborations and partnerships

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Fourth paragraph

• Delineate your objectives / specific aims
• Provide a reasonable number of objectives
• Dont be under- or over-ambitious
• Present objectives in a logical order
• Make sure each objective can stand alone
• Make sure no objective is dependent on the
  successful completion of another objective
• Provide conceptual objectives that focus on your
  idea rather than descriptive objectives that
  focus on tasks

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Fifth paragraph

• Describe the projects innovation
• Delineate the projects expected outcomes
• List specific deliverables
• Summarize the projects significance / impact
• Fill a gap in the knowledge
• Advance the field
• Meet a need
• Provide an application

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Background

• Demonstrate your familiarity with the field
• Provide a context for the proposed project
• Literature review
• Preliminary studies

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Literature Review

• Cite only literature relevant to the proposed
  project
• Dont try to be comprehensive
• Provide a critical review of the relevant
  literature
• Dont simply summarize contributions
• Situate your proposed research project in the
  field
• Explain how your proposed research project will
  contribute to and/or advance the field dont
  expect reviewers to make this leap for you

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Preliminary Studies

• Provide an account only of the preliminary
  studies relevant to the proposed research project
• Determine how much preliminary data to include
• Published studies
• Summarize the results and provide offprints in
  the appendix
• Unpublished studies
• Describe the results in more detail to assure
  reviewers of the reliability of the results
• Present the results in a logical order
• Illustrate the results with graphics

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Project Description

• Organize the project description around the
  objectives
• Try to devote an equal number of pages to each
  of the objectives
• Use parallel structure to describe each of the
  objectives

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Project Description

• Title of objective
• Introduction to objective
• Hypothesis or statement of need
• Strategy
• Rationale
• Project / experimental design for objective
• Emphasize concept
• Be specific when describing approach /
  methodology
• Refer to your previous work, if appropriate
• Expected outcomes for objective
• Express confidence
• Anticipated problems for objective
• Provide solutions and/or alternative strategies

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Project schedule

• Indicate anticipated start date
• Obtain this date from the proposal solicitation
• Delineate key milestones
• Base milestones on the objectives
• Incorporate agency and program requirements
• Include dates for reports and other deliverables

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Project Schedule
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Biographical Sketch

• Highlight accomplishments that demonstrate your
  capacity to conduct and manage the project
• Adhere to agencys formatting requirements
• Use the required form (if applicable)
• Follow the prescribed page limits
• Include the required headings
• Place information in the required order
• If you are collaborating
• Format your colleagues resumes like your own

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Biographical Sketch

• Name
• Title
• Institutional affiliation
• Education
• Field of study, degrees, years degrees were
  earned
• Professional appointments
• Department, institutional affiliation, term of
  appointment
• Publications
• Full bibliographic citations
• Verify if inclusion of publications in press or
  submitted is allowed
• Grant awards
• Completed, ongoing, and pending support
• Collaborators
• Co-authors, co-editors, advisors, advisees

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Resources

• Demonstrate that it is feasible to conduct the
  proposed research project at your institution
• Facilities
• Office, laboratory, library
• Equipment and instrumentation
• Clinical
• Animal
• Computer
• Other
• Demonstrate that you are part of an
  intellectually stimulating and supportive
  research environment
• Collaborations and partnerships
• Affinity groups

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Completed, Ongoing, and Pending Grant Support

• Show that you have a clear research agenda
• Show that you have been productive on past
  projects
• Presented results of research at professional
  conferences
• Published papers in peer-reviewed journals
• Demonstrate that you have sufficient time to
  conduct and manage the proposed research project
• Demonstrate that there is no overlap between one
  of your already funded projects and your
  proposed research project

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Completed, Ongoing, and Pending Grant Support

• Contract number
• Principal investigators name
• Sponsors name
• Project title
• Project period
• Project summary
• Investigators role
• Investigators percent effort
• Annual and/or total direct costs

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Budget

• Adhere to agency and program requirements
• Include only allowable costs
• Request what you need to complete the project
• Make sure the budget reflects the research
  projects objectives, scope, and duration
• Base budget on real costs
• Remember that reviewers know what things cost
• Factor in cost escalations for multi-year
  projects
• Factor in both direct and indirect costs

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Budget

• Understand typical budget categories
• Direct costs
• Personnel
• Equipment
• Materials
• Travel
• Indirect costs

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Budget Justification

• Use this section to continue to persuade
  reviewers that you are a thoughtful investigator
• Provide a clear and persuasive explanation of
  why each budget request is needed
• Include sufficient detail
• Enables program managers to understand how the
  budget was calculated so that they can see that
  the request was reasonable
• Allows program managers to negotiate the budget
  in the most appropriate way

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Supplementary Materials

• Verify that supplementary materials are accepted
• Avoid using supplementary materials to circumvent
  page limitations
• Include only supplementary materials that support
  the application
• Offprints or photocopies of publications
• Samples of curricula
• Samples of surveys, questionnaires, or data
  collection instruments
• Clinical protocols or informed consent documents
• Photographs, graphics, or other media
• Letters of support or other endorsements

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Vetting, editing, and proofreading the application

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Vet your application

• Identify colleagues to review the application
• Select reviewers carefully
• Provide reviewers with the information they need
• Proposal solicitation
• Complete application
• Give reviewers ample time
• You want them to conduct a thorough review
• You want them to help you catch fatal flaws
• In scholarship and/or science
• In grantsmanship
• Review, evaluate, and incorporate feedback

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Revise your application

• You will have to write and put away or burn a
  lot of material before you are comfortable in
  this medium. You might as well start now and get
  the necessary work done. For I believe that
  eventually quantity will make for quality.
• Ray Bradbury

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Edit your application

• Set aside the instructions and application for a
  few days
• Re-read the instructions and application
• Ensure that you have included all required
  sections
• Confirm that you have placed sections in the
  required order
• Verify that you have addressed all review
  criteria
• Ask yourself if you have told the story of
  your proposed research project in the most
  clear, compelling, and convincing way possible

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Proofread your application

• Check for errors
• Facts
• Spelling
• Punctuation
• Grammar
• Usage
• Style
• Run a spell check

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Route and submit your application

• Remember that your institution will submit your
  application on your behalf
• Allocate ample time to route your application
  for institutional approvals
• Allow time to finalize application
• Paper submissions
• Allow ample time to photocopy, bind, and mail
  application
• Electronic submissions
• Allow ample time to e-mail and upload application

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Wait for news

• And wait . . .
• And wait . . .
• And wait . . .

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Receive review comments

• If your proposal is funded, celebrate!
• Or, if it is not funded, . . .
• Deal with rejection

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Deal with rejection

• We have read your manuscript with boundless
  delight. If we were to publish your paper, it
  would be impossible for us to publish any work of
  lower standard. And as it is unthinkable that in
  the next thousand years we shall see its equal,
  we are, to our regret, compelled to return your
  divine composition, and to beg you a thousand
  times to overlook our short sight and timidity.
• Rejection slip from a Chinese economic journal

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Revising and resubmitting the application

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Revise and resubmit your application

• Respect the views of reviewers
• Review the reviews
• Discuss the reviews with senior faculty and with
  your program manager
• Decide whether or not you have a viable project
• If you dont, revise the idea or come up with a
  new one
• If you do, revise and resubmit the application
• Verify that the targeted program is the best one
  for the project
• Respond to reviewer comments
• Focus on submitting a great proposal

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Revise and resubmit your application

• Never give in, never give in, never, never,
  never, never in nothing, great or small, large
  or petty never give in except to convictions or
  honor and good sense.
• Winston Churchill

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Questions