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Epi Wit & Wisdom Resources
Tips For
Getting Research Grants – Or – “How to Avoid Being Just One of the
Pack”
“The NIH grant application
process is not like a bubble gum machine where you insert your coin
and out comes the expected product”, says NIH’s Paul Strudler,
speaking at a special noon-time session at SER on the “NIH Grant
Process—Separating Fact from Fiction”. Strudler, who is Director of
the Division of Clinical and Population Based Studies in the Center
for Scientific Review (formerly Division of Research Grants) displayed
his characteristic candor and sense of humor in dispelling some common
misconceptions about the grant process and in urging researchers to
take a more active role in promoting their applications.
“At present, the volume to the
Epidemiology Study Section is too much to handle” said Strudler. “The
application process has become so competitive that you cannot just be
passive,” he added. Among the ways in which he urged applicants to
avoid being “just one of the pack,” were the following:
1) Read the NIH Guide to Grants
and Contracts and stay abreast of funding opportunities, particularly
targeted requests for applications. Avoid having to say later on...
“If only I had known...”
2) Help your cause prior to
submission by talking to the program officer in the institute of your
interest to make sure your application is relevant to that institute.
3) Help your cause at the time
of submission by writing a cover letter requesting assignment to a
particular study section. Target your application to the study section
that you believe will look most favorably on your application. To
learn which institute to target, examine the titles of projects that
are currently “in play” for given study sections. The grant award data
are in the public domain and can be searched on the CRISP database on
the NIH website. Search CRISP for 98 using a study section name as a
keyword and that will give you the titles that you can use to figure
out what your study section likes.
4) Learn who the members of your
study section are. Keep in mind the interests of these members, and do
not make the mistake of referring in your grant application to
“seminal work” in a field which excludes the work of the study section
members themselves. Assume they will always view their own work as
“seminal”.
5) Do not put a famous person on
your application just to get special consideration. In fact, if a
permanent or visiting member of the study section is on your
application for money, your application will be referred to a special
study section rather than the chartered regular study section. Avoid
this type of referral because special study sections may meet only
once and the quality of reviews may vary from one session when your
application is first considered to another when your application is
reconsidered.
6) Write good applications. Do
not be unfocused by including too many aims for your study.
7) Be familiar with the field
you are requesting to work in.
8) Do not propose to use essays
you are not familiar with or have not done.
9) Consider in earnest how your
data could turn out one way or the other, and do not come across as
too much of a true believer.
10) Do not take on too much
work. Focus on one doable idea in 3 - 5 years and “beat it to he—!
11) Display a command of the
literature, your proposed techniques, and your future direction.
12) Help your cause after the
review by seeking clarification for any points in the summary
statement and look for hidden meanings.
13) Resubmit rejected
applications as new applications if they still have not been approved
after two revisions.
Published July 1998
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