Preparing and Submitting an External Grant Proposal: Tips for Navigating the Intersection of Science, Schools and SPA Moderator: Joanne Sobeck, Ph.D., School of Social Work Panelists: James Barbret, OVPR/SPA Andrew Feig, Ph.D., Chemistry Jeffrey Loeb, M.D., Ph.D., Center for Molecular Medicine and Genetics

Developing your idea for a grant proposal Planning for a successful submission Writing the proposal Submitting the proposal Critiquing the proposal, post-submission Re-submitting Overall comments and questions Today’s Topics

Develop an hypothesis Get preliminary data/review the literature Significance/Innovation Write specific aims Use your mentor(s) Developing Your Ideas

Be ambitious but not too ambitious Be innovative but not too innovative Consider “expansion of concept” ideas Be flexible and open to suggestions for change Best Tips

Eating yellow snow and school performance among children Hypothetical Proposal

A chemical compound in the yellow snow creates cognitive problems HypothesisHypothesis

Substantiate that children eating yellow snow have cognitive problems compared with children who do not eat the yellow snow Match on age, gender and SES Isolate and identify the substance(s) in the yellow snow Develop remediation/intervention/education to prevent children from eating yellow snow Specific Aims

Planning Identify the agency and funding mechanism that fits your idea Periodically contact the Program Officers Identify what preliminary data are needed Identify deficiencies Get collaborators/consultants for those deficiencies Modify the aims if necessary Use your mentor(s)

Make a commitment to find/make the time necessary to prepare and write a competitive proposal. Don’t assume you know what the funder wants. Download, read carefully and take to heart the funder’s mission and guidelines. Make sure your idea fits into their RFA. Be pro-active and make sure that your grant goes where it has the best chance of getting funded. Send an abstract with specific aims to see if this funder is appropriate. Write a stunning one-page specific aims page (NIH) and don’t send it until you run it by your mentor(s). Best Tips

Writing the Proposal Read and take to heart the instructions Write clearly for a general audience; make no assumptions Don’t make the reviewers guess on the significance, innovation, and relevance to the funder---sell your idea! Articulate the need in a maximally understandable way Revise, revise, revise Prepare your budget and revise more Make a check list for all required components (compliance human, animal, biosafety, facilities and equipment, WSU environment, biosketches) Be prepared to change your specific aims again Use your mentor(s)

Use OVPR’s review mechanism if you have sufficient time Align the budget with the aims. Grant administrators can provide accurate costs for salary figures, GRA tuition, participant recruitment, etc. Begin to meet with your departmental administrator/grants coordinator to plan for grant submission and required documents (subcontract letters, consultant letters of support) Continue to develop and refine the budget as you move the proposal forward Best Tips

Inform your Sponsored Program Administration (SPA) officer that you are submitting a grant proposal. Provide your officer with the RFA, PA. Work with Sponsored Program Administration (SPA) in the Office of the VP for Research to submit the proposal. Proposal Submission

Anticipate some of the criticism you might receive from the reviewers – (e.g., should I have provided more data? ) Expect rejection but don’t let it slow you down -- keep working in anticipation that you’ll re-submit. Post-Proposal Critique

Read the reviews with an open mind and say ‘thank you for beating me up’ Find out all you can about the review and discussion (read between the lines) Call the program officer to fill you in on the discussion of your proposal Consider delaying resubmission to truly respond to the reviewers Use your mentor(s) Re-SubmittingRe-Submitting

Mentoring/orienting new faculty What to do with the new NIH guidelines Communication with foundations, NIH and NSF regarding how your idea fits their mission Should you submit an R01 or R21 if you’re a new investigator? Additional Advice

Joanne SobeckAndrew Feig Director for ResearchAssociate Professor School of Social WorkDepartment of Chemistry Jeffrey LoebJames Barbret Associate Director, Center forAssociate Vice President Molecular Med and GeneticsOffice of the VP Research Thank You! Questions?