How Late Is FedEx Open: T houghts About The Grant Writing Process

1. How Late Is FedEx Open:Thoughts About The Grant Writing Process O. Dale Williams, PhD Professor and Associate Director Division of Preventive Medicine UAB

2. Research funding, or “Grants” and Publications are the currency of the realm Small improvements in the process of generating proposals for grants and manuscripts can have important consequences Research Funding and Publications

3. The Creative Writing Process Writing Grant Applications vs Writing Papers Common Elements • Both are peer reviewed • Abstract most read component Major Differences • Papers don’t have a budget • Papers don’t have a hard deadline • Audience for papers larger

4. Two reviewers read everything, including some of the appendices All reviewers will read abstract Some reviewers will read more An annoyed reviewer is not a good thing Briefly on the Review Process

5. Having to search for key information Incomplete and/or unclear text Having to go to an appendix for information that should be up front Having to read the text several times to understand what the grant is about A budget that doesn’t make sense or with components that are clearly wrong What Annoys Reviewers

6. The NIH Laundry Carts How do you separate your application from others in the pile?

7. Brilliant Idea Outstanding Methods The Promise of Important Results Appealing, Easy to Read and Understand Package Key Components

8. The grant equivalent ofthe political statement: “It’s the economy, stupid” is: “It’s the package, stupid” Grants and Politics

9. Life begins with 25 pages of real estate That is 2,337.5 square inches to fill with 11 point text Early fear is blank pages Fear near end is cramming into 25 pages The Challenge

10. The process used to fill the 25 pages on time is a management process Who is in charge How will decisions be made How will deadlines be set and what will be done when they are not met A Most Critical Issue

11. You by yourself is easy You with colleagues is harder Your team with other local teams is harder still Your team with other institutions is harder still Large scale, long term, multi-center collaborations are the hardest Lead-time requirements increase exponentially as complexity increases Levels of Organizational Complexity and Management Burden

12. Managing the grant writing process may not be easy Good organizational skills can be most helpful Small issues, such as keeping track of the different drafts, can be very time consuming Management Challenge

13. Time Bulldozer: Time 0 Capacity for Excellent Proposal Work Required for Excellent Proposal Time 0 Drop Dead Date

14. It just keeps moving toward the drop dead date No rewind No clicking on the “Back” icon The Time Bulldozer

15. Time Bulldozer: Mid-Phase Capacity for Excellent Proposal Work Required Time 0 Drop Dead Date

16. Time Bulldozer: Terminal Phase Work Capacity for Excellent Proposal Time 0 Drop Dead Date

17. Implication of Time Bulldozer Focus on Excellence Focus on Door Time 0 Drop Dead Date

18. The great philosopher Yogi Berra said “It ain’t over til it’s over The moral: Cultivate the ability to do great work at the last minute Yogi Berra

19. Write the proposal in such a manner that the primary and secondary reviewers become your advocates during the review Write the abstract in such a manner that it entices others on the review panel to read the full proposal and become advocates Writing Goal

20. Harry Truman described congresses approach to military appropriations as “Everyone knows how to build an outhouse so they get extensive discussion. No one knows how to build a battleship so they get no discussion” The message—Be clear and concise about those topics on which all reviewers are likely to have an opinion Battleships and Outhouses

21. Grant writing is a little more like writing poetry than writing prose in that the page limit makes it more important to make sure each word “counts.” Poetry versus Prose

22. Seeing what you meant to say when looking at text you wrote rather than seeing what the words actually say Disease of Familiarity

23. The 1st 15 pages vs the final 10 The abstract vs the proposal Working from Back to Front

24. A grant is your idea, a contract is not--so pay close attention to what you are contracting to do Different funding agencies have different requirements Foundations often require a very short proposal A Grant may not be a Grant

25. A competent statistics methods section can be essential Get input as early as feasible Make sure it is easy for you to understand—if it is not clear to you it is not likely to be clear to the reviewers No review by a statistician is possible The Biostatistics Dilemma

26. Various certifications Division/Department/School reviews Contract and Grant reviews Discovering a “new” hurdle at 4:30 pm on the drop dead date is not good Who Owns the Hurdles

27. There are two problems with “grants.” One is writing and submitting them, the other is winning the award and then having to do what you proposed to do. An old and tired, but useful expression

28. After the review and you have been awarded the funds to do your proposed project, then you must do the project. The Grant Tourist