Managing a research grant (or the bits that nobody tells you) (or a list of the mistakes that I made) Fergus Doubal Jan 2010

Practicalities You have already approached a keen supervisor (ask), applied for and received ethical approval and been in touch with the R and D dep. You have applied for and won an award to fund you for three years You have 287,000 sterling What do you do after you have found a catchy name?

Data collection (without data you are nothing) What are you going to collect? Who will collect it? Can you trust them? Do not take too much but critical not to miss out key information Keep forms to one/two pages if possible Ensure collectable

Data collection (cont) Try and get quantitative data ie numbers or yes/no Definitions key – write them down Avoid free text (but have at least one box) Think ahead – plan analyses at beginning (which often means early statistician involvement) Keep it simple and thoughtful

Data Protection Data protection Anonymize data Do not use memory sticks Do not email identifiable data Watch out for hard drives on laptops Be careful about emailing linked documents

Entering data Dull But you need to be sure accurate Ask expert to help design database Anonymise data Make a data dictionary

Data backup Enlist IT help Paper copies of everything (therefore can be re-constructed if all computers fail) Backup up daily Errors – unavoidable but need system of data checking – can be various methods

The patient bit Who? How? When? Why should they do it? Money (also mention for the hospital) Company Interested Altruism Might improve their care

The patient bit Patients are patients first and researchees second Research must tie in with clinical Use simple information sheets Carefully design consent forms

Consent forms/information sheets Important Need to tell the pt what will be done with the data Why they have been chosen Good/bad points Can they refuse Remember to say that data may be shared

Site folders For external review Includes key papers Ethics, information leaflets, consent forms, delegation logs, research proposals, protocols for everything, definitions

Information flow Fellow to patient Patient to fellow Fellow to GP GP to fellow Patients often keen to hear results

Animals Special case Need welfare licences Need to meet certain criteria for animal husbandry Need to meet standards for experimental design

Finishing up a project Make definite stop dates/targets Then stop (and stay stopped) Analyse Publish – beware of author lists Reports for funding bodies Tie up loose ends Publish and then “sit back and bask in a warm glow safe in the knowledge that that it has all finished and you have made a significant contribution to alleviating medical suffering” PS just ask somebody for help PTO

Good points Autonomy Publishing a paper Talking at a meeting and somebody else being interested Being the first to know something