Grant Proposal Advice

From Qwiki

Here are some simple principles for writing good proposals. They were given by an investigator who also participated in a number of review boards, and he ended-up working for the NIH and helped write the current PHS-398 instruction booklet.

He had a clever analogy with newspapers, using USA Today to illustrate how a large collection of diverse information can have a consistent presentation, and allows the reader to quickly find what most interests them.

"Now you may think that the New York Times or the Washington Post has better reporting," he said, "but I'm here to tell you that neither the New York Times nor the Washington Post gets grants."

His point was that people often write for their own interest--they write it to make themselves feel good about their work. The key, he insists, is to write for the audience of reviewers, and make it easy for them to understand your proposal and why they should recommend it for funding.

Good Timing

Will the idea be understood by others? Does it build upon existing knowledge? Does it build upon similar ideas? Do you have preliminary data? How will the idea be received?

Good Presentation

What do you want to do? Why do you want to do it? How are you going to do it? What is the expected outcome? Why is it a good thing?

Address the review criteria

Significance - commercial, social, scientific, technological, competitive

Approach - integrated, feasible, adaptable, ambitious

Innovation - challenging, novel, original

Investigator - capable, appropriate, relational

Environment - resources, stimulating, unique