Preparing and Submitting an External Grant Proposal: Tips for Navigating the Intersection of Science, Schools and SPA

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Preparing and Submitting an External Grant
Proposal Tips for Navigating the Intersection of
Science, Schools and SPA

• Moderator
• Joanne Sobeck, Ph.D., School of Social Work
• Panelists
• James Barbret, OVPR/SPA
• Andrew Feig, Ph.D., Chemistry
• Jeffrey Loeb, M.D., Ph.D., Center for Molecular
  Medicine and Genetics

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Todays Topics

• Developing your idea for a grant proposal
• Planning for a successful submission
• Writing the proposal
• Submitting the proposal
• Critiquing the proposal, post-submission
• Re-submitting
• Overall comments and questions

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Developing Your Ideas

• Develop an hypothesis
• Get preliminary data/review the literature
• Significance/Innovation
• Write specific aims
• Use your mentor(s)

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Best Tips

• Be ambitious but not too ambitious
• Be innovative but not too innovative
• Consider expansion of concept ideas
• Be flexible and open to suggestions for change

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Hypothetical Proposal

• Eating yellow snow and school performance among
  children

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Hypothesis

• A chemical compound in the yellow snow creates
  cognitive problems

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Specific Aims

• Substantiate that children eating yellow snow
  have cognitive problems compared with children
  who do not eat the yellow snow
• Match on age, gender and SES
• Isolate and identify the substance(s) in the
  yellow snow
• Develop remediation/intervention/education to
  prevent children from eating yellow snow

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Planning

• Identify the agency and funding mechanism that
  fits your idea
• Periodically contact the Program Officers
• Identify what preliminary data are needed
• Identify deficiencies
• Get collaborators/consultants for those
  deficiencies
• Modify the aims if necessary
• Use your mentor(s)

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Best Tips

• Make a commitment to find/make the time necessary
  to prepare and write a competitive proposal.
• Dont assume you know what the funder wants.
  Download, read carefully and take to heart the
  funders mission and guidelines. Make sure your
  idea fits into their RFA.
• Be pro-active and make sure that your grant goes
  where it has the best chance of getting funded.
  Send an abstract with specific aims to see if
  this funder is appropriate.
• Write a stunning one-page specific aims page
  (NIH) and dont send it until you run it by your
  mentor(s).

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Writing the Proposal

• Read and take to heart the instructions
• Write clearly for a general audience make no
  assumptions
• Dont make the reviewers guess on the
  significance, innovation, and relevance to the
  funder---sell your idea!
• Articulate the need in a maximally understandable
  way
• Revise, revise, revise
• Prepare your budget and revise more
• Make a check list for all required components
  (compliance human, animal, biosafety, facilities
  and equipment, WSU environment, biosketches)
• Be prepared to change your specific aims again
• Use your mentor(s)

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Best Tips

• Use OVPRs review mechanism if you have
  sufficient time
• Align the budget with the aims. Grant
  administrators can provide accurate costs for
  salary figures, GRA tuition, participant
  recruitment, etc.
• Begin to meet with your departmental
  administrator/grants coordinator to plan for
  grant submission and required documents
  (subcontract letters, consultant letters of
  support)
• Continue to develop and refine the budget as you
  move the proposal forward

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Proposal Submission

• Inform your Sponsored Program Administration
  (SPA) officer that you are submitting a grant
  proposal. Provide your officer with the RFA,
  PA.
• Work with Sponsored Program Administration (SPA)
  in the Office of the VP for Research to submit
  the proposal.

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Post-Proposal Critique

• Anticipate some of the criticism you might
  receive from the reviewers (e.g., should I have
  provided more data? )
• Expect rejection but dont let it slow you down
  -- keep working in anticipation that youll
  re-submit.

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Re-Submitting

• Read the reviews with an open mind and say thank
  you for beating me up
• Find out all you can about the review and
  discussion (read between the lines)
• Call the program officer to fill you in on the
  discussion of your proposal
• Consider delaying resubmission to truly respond
  to the reviewers
• Use your mentor(s)

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Additional Advice

• Mentoring/orienting new faculty
• What to do with the new NIH guidelines
• Communication with foundations, NIH and NSF
  regarding how your idea fits their mission
• Should you submit an R01 or R21 if youre a new
  investigator?

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Thank You! Questions?

• Joanne Sobeck Andrew FeigDirector for
  Research Associate ProfessorSchool of Social
  Work Department of Chemistryjoanne.sobeck_at_wayne.
  edu afeig_at_chem.wayne.edu
• Jeffrey Loeb James BarbretAssociate Director,
  Center for Associate Vice PresidentMolecular Med
  and Genetics Office of the VP Researchjloeb_at_med.w
  ayne.edu james.d.barbret_at_wayne.edu