John J. Miles What makes a successful Project Grant Principal Research Fellow NHMRC Career Development Fellow Level 2 Molecular Immunology What makes a successful Project Grant

What makes a successful Project Grant Disclaimer: This is what worked for me. Will be different on different panels.

What makes a successful Project Grant Credentials Grants: chief investigator 27 Grants as chief investigator 1 Work plan from pharma 14 Different funding schemes CI on 9x NHMRC Project Grants CI on 1x NHMRC Development Grant

What makes a successful Project Grant Credentials Grants: associate investigator partner investigator 10 Grants as associate investigator / partner investigator 6 Different funding schemes AI on 4x NHMRC Project Grants AI on 1x NHMRC Development Grant AI on 1x NHMRC Program Also been on the NHMRC GRP twice

What makes a successful Project Grant Credentials Fellowships: chief investigator 7 Fellowships 4 Different funding schemes NHMRC: Dora Lush, Overseas Biomedical, CDF1 and CDF2

What makes a successful Project Grant NHMRC Project Grants Team Quality and Capability relevant to the application: 25% Significance and/or Innovation: 25% Scientific Quality: 50%

Team Quality and Capability relevant to the application: 25% What makes a successful Project Grant Team Quality and Capability relevant to the application: 25% Attachment A - NHMRC project grants category descriptors Tips Don’t start unless you have a fellowship or are highly competitive for a fellowship Use the time to improve your CV instead i.e. crank the papers

Team Quality and Capability relevant to the application: 25% What makes a successful Project Grant Team Quality and Capability relevant to the application: 25% Tips 20-100 papers in the last 5 years (unless top tier then fewer required) Senior authorships obviously preferred Papers are king followed by grants (proof you’ve done this before) Can factor in relative to opportunity (teaching, clinical load) Don’t include a weak CI Don’t be afraid to go CIB and split the award Be careful about ‘hiring a heavy’ Bringing in an international CI can be useful (no problems with program/grant caps)

Significance and/or Innovation: 25% What makes a successful Project Grant Significance and/or Innovation: 25% Attachment A - NHMRC project grants category descriptors

Significance and/or Innovation: 25% What makes a successful Project Grant Significance and/or Innovation: 25% Tips I just go with my killer idea Salami slicing won’t do it Incremental advances won’t do it Using cutting-edge technology has helped me here in the past

Significance and/or Innovation: 25% What makes a successful Project Grant Significance and/or Innovation: 25% Tips I spend a lot of time on the last section for significance and innovation. I polish it to a high gloss Make the grant sound good value Not just about knowledge advancement, papers and improving h-index How many Australians does disease X effect? How much does it cost the tax payer to treat disease X? Get $ numbers. Australian numbers are better. Example: One of my grants was on box jellyfish immunology and I focused of on economic angle. Jellyfish envenomations threaten the tourism industry which is Queensland's second largest export earner after coal. Tourism generates A$23 billion annually in Queensland with the Great Barrier Reef generating A$7.0 billion annually. One review showed that negative publicity from just two stinger fatalities in resulted in A$65 million loss in tourism revenue.

Attachment A - NHMRC project grants category descriptors What makes a successful Project Grant Scientific Quality: 50% Attachment A - NHMRC project grants category descriptors

What makes a successful Project Grant Scientific Quality: 50% Tips It’s got to be killer idea but feasible Keep to one idea/theme Make the aims flow or at least synergize Be careful making aims dependent on each other Feasible, feasible, feasible (NHMRC wants low risk) AIs can help you cover risky parts Fishing grants have not worked for me in the past (goes back to risk) Still hypothesis driven Make first page a summary of background hypothesis, aims and impact (significance/innovation)

What makes a successful Project Grant Other tips No spelling mistakes No grammar mistakes Don’t name possibly hostile assessors Spend time on budget details Keep in mind the PSP3 gap (75K)

Good luck and happy to answer questions