How Late Is FedEx Open:Thoughts About The Grant Writing Process

O. Dale Williams, PhD

Professor and Associate Director

Division of Preventive Medicine

UAB

Research Funding and Publications

• 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

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

Briefly on the Review Process

• 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

What Annoys Reviewers

• 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

The NIH Laundry Carts

How do you separate your application from others in the pile?

Key Components

• Brilliant Idea

• Outstanding Methods

• The Promise of Important Results

• Appealing, Easy to Read and Understand Package

Grants and Politics

The grant equivalent of the political statement:

“It’s the economy, stupid”

is:

“It’s the package, stupid”

The Challenge

• 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

A Most Critical Issue

• 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

Levels of Organizational Complexity and Management Burden

• 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

Management Challenge

• 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

Capacity for Excellent Proposal

Work Required for Excellent Proposal

Time Bulldozer: Time 0

Time 0 Drop Dead Date

The Time Bulldozer

• It just keeps moving toward the drop dead date

• No rewind

• No clicking on the “Back” icon

Capacity for Excellent Proposal

Work Required

Time 0 Drop Dead Date

Time Bulldozer: Mid-Phase

Time Bulldozer: Terminal Phase

Capacity for Excellent Proposal

Work

Time 0 Drop Dead Date

Time 0 Drop Dead Date

Focus on Excellence

Focus on Door

Implication of Time Bulldozer

Yogi Berra

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

Writing Goal

• 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

Battleships and Outhouses

• 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

Poetry versus Prose

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.”

Disease of Familiarity

Seeing what you meant to say when looking at text you wrote rather than seeing what the words actually say

Working from Back to Front

• The 1st 15 pages vs the final 10

• The abstract vs the proposal

A Grant may not be a Grant

• 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

The Biostatistics Dilemma

• 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

Who Owns the Hurdles

• 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

An old and tired, but useful expression

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.

The Grant Tourist

• After the review and you have been awarded the funds to do your proposed project, then you must do the project.