Transcript Grant writing tips by Sean Gallagher

Grant Writing
Considerations
Sean Gallagher
Three key things
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You
Your science
Your proposal
You
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Start during your PhD, i.e. now
Don’t wait till you’re finished to write
up, publish now
Track Record
You
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Conferences
Awards
Scholarships
Grant writing for your boss
experience
You
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Significant contribution to science
Community involvement
Conference organisation
Self-promotion – how do you do it?
(without being seen to be arrogant)
What is ‘relative to opportunity’?
Your science
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How well do you know your science?
Do you have a strategy?
What’s the common theme?
What is the big picture?
Your science
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How does your science rate
internationally?
Is it stamp collecting?
Are you competitive?
Are you at the forefront?
What strategies can you employ to
get there?
Your science
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How valuable to society is your
science?
How do you find out?
Why should it matter?
Your proposal
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Why apply for funding?
How does the university benefit?
What is the peer-review process?
1. Ambition
• impression of importance – a
combination of content and
perception
→ this project is worth doing
 there should be some measurable
health outcome
 Aims & hypothesis – strong & bold &
profound
Language
• active, exciting – “doing, not being”
• Means to an end: attain, evaluate,
obtain, assess.
→use determine, develop, design,
establish…
• avoid unnecessary repetition
Language
• turn negatives or shortcomings
into opportunities. “challenges
that need tackling” or “problems
that need solving” – if possible, set
up your prop such that this can be
achieved or partly achieved.
→ this leads to innovation.
2. Structure
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Title
Short intro (1/3 page) (SMH level)
- outline broader theme
- relevance/importance
- stats (% and numbers)
- humanise
- key issues/hot topics of area
- problem
→ Aims & Hypothesis
Aims
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Strong, bold
3 Maximum
Ambitious
→ project
→ you
Linchpin for the whole proposal
Hypothesis
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Not too many – 1 per aim
Bold
Fact-in-waiting
In the positive
Background
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Background relevant to the aims
what’s relevant?
→ what does the assessor need to
know to understand this proposal?
keep literature review to what is
needed
Build your case
Keep tight
Research Plan
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Clear and strong link between aims
and methods
→“to achieve the aims, the project
employs a three-phase strategy…”
Bold key words in aims and repeat
them in headings of relevant phases
Use an accepted method
No clangers
Outcomes and significance
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Don’t forget it!
Short-term and longer-term
outcomes
Health outcomes
Impact
New knowledge
National Research Priorities
2/3 page
4. Layout
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Sub-headings
Diagrams
Graphs
Flow charts
Photos
Dot points
Short paragraphs
Rule of thumb
→ there should not be a single page of
just text
What is your point?
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Subheadings – use them to convey
information
E.g. Exercise
→ Lack of exercise leads to
obesity
Pack the punch at the beginning of
the paragraph
→ space saver!
Brownie points
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Finish your proposal in less than 9
pages!
5. Innovation
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What is it? Or What is a project?
It can be the ‘what’
It can be the ‘how’
Problems or obstacles are
opportunities to be innovative
Not just the outcome but the process
How do you show innovation?
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Not just once or twice in the prop
The whole document should have a feel of
innovation
new, novel, for the first time, break new
ground, innovative, never before, etc
But how?
→”The challenge will be to solve X. To
achieve this, we will use a new method…”
One last point on innovation
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What problems are you solving along
the way to achieve your aims?
6. New Knowledge
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What new knowledge are you
creating?
Who will be interested in this new
knowledge?
Think beyond end-user and your field
Think about other fields
Think wider impact
Think laterally
Knowledge is your currency
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Try to avoid “understanding,
address, consider, investigate”
Knowledge is the currency
Talk about creating new knowledge
or creating new science or creating
new medical knowledge…
Big picture
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Who will be interested in this new
knowledge?
Educators, clinicians, researchers,
health planning services, W.H.O.,
drug companies, manufacturers…
What perception are you creating?
→ connected with the big picture or
60 hours a week in the lab?
7. Impact and Significance
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‘NOW’ factor
→ why should this project get funded
now?
Impact – end-user
- field of research
- other fields of research
- wider
(what new knowledge are you creating?)
NOW
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Urgency – crisis
- worsening problem
- small window of opportunity
Strategic – will this project lead to
bigger and better things?
→i.e. more research
8. Return on investment
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Self check
Now, with an objective eye, ask
yourself:
→”Is the NHMRC going to get a
good return on their investment?”
9. Pilot Studies
1.
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Key results – showing that aims are
achievable –proof of concept
Method – it works
You – you have learnt from the pilot
and are proficient, skilled-up.
10. Track Record
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Relative to opportunity
Don’t be a whinger or negative. Instead
be positive:
→”In addition to the papers reported here,
I teach 3rd year physics, supervise 5 PhD
students and am actively involved in the
running of the department…”
If you don’t say, they won’t know
→ sickness, parental leave, caring duties
TR
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select a few seminal papers and mention the
citation/year rate for them (even if outside 6
years). Add one line of comment about the
paper.
demonstrate wider interest in your work “my work has been cited in several fields, not
just biochemistry, such as…”
do NOT include ‘submitted’ papers. put
“manuscript submitted” or “manuscript in
preparation” in your progress reports
TR
 do NOT ‘inadvertently’ put in an extra
year of your papers – keep to the
maximum of 6 years
 be careful about book chapters – have
they been reviewed?
 avoid “leader”, “pioneer’ type labels –
demonstrate by outcomes such as
awards, prizes, elected to this board or
that council, etc.
TR
 don’t be too grandiose about
achievements but rather use more
impersonal statement of fact.
→“Our group developed this method,
which is now being used in labs in
Cambridge and MIT.”
How to get started?
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Apply for internal funding
• Faculty
• Sesqui
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Apply for New Investigators Grant
Be an associate investigator on
projects
Come and see me
Read Research Office Bulletins