Grant Writing: A Primer for the Initial Application Bruce Crosson, Ph.D. VA RR&D Brain Rehabilitation Research Center And University of Florida Department of Clinical & Health Psychology

Submission and Review Process Grant Assigned to Study Section (Review Committee) PI Writes Grant PI’s Institution Submits Grant Pay Line for Cycle is Determined Grant Receives Percentile Rank Based on Priority Score Grant Recieves Priority Score during Review Your Percentile is Below Pay Line: Your Grant is Funded Your Percentile is Above Pay Line: You Rewrite Grant if It Has Good Karma

A Few Basics Set aside time for grant writing and protect it. Start early!!! Grant writing is different from writing a journal article. Grant writing is a competitive process. You are writing your grant for the reviewers. Reviewers are overworked and have little time to read your application. Most reviewers will not know your area. Reviewers who do know your area are likely to be highly opinionated. Reviewers are inherently conservative; so, a little innovation is good, but too much is bad. Simple is elegant; complicated is hard to read. Keep in contact with your program officer. If possible, know the composition of your study section. If possible request assignment of study section and/or institute. Not every grant is eventually funded.

Parts of a Research Grant Specific Aims is a brief introduction telling what you are going to do, why you are doing it, and what you expect to find. Background and Significance is a relatively brief literature review and a brief synopsis of why your topic is important. Preliminary Studies (Work Accomplished) tells what you have already done that is directly related to your proposed study. Research Design and Methods tells how you are going to conduct your study (studies).

Specific Aims: 1-2 page (2 max) consists of: A brief rationale for the study. Specific Aims of the study. Hypotheses. For VA only: short- and long-term goals

Specific Aims Are the Key to Your Application. Everything in your application should be related to your Specific Aims in a tight coherent package. Hence, you must get this part of the application right.

Specific Aims must tell the reviewer in a nutshell: A rationale for what you are doing. What you are doing. What you expect to find.

Specific Aims: Rationale Write 1-3 paragraphs giving a brief rationale for the study. Use limited (or no) citations from the literature. Be compelling!!!

Specific Aims: Relationship to Hypotheses Specific Aims tell what you are going to do. Hypotheses tell what you expect to find. Hypotheses are derived from specific aims, NOT vice versa. Generally, there is one hypothesis (or set of hypotheses) per specific aim.

Specific Aims: Hypotheses Hypotheses must be testable. Hypotheses must be constructed to flow logically from your experimental design. Hypotheses should lead logically to your statistical approach; your reviewer should be able to anticipate your statistical approach from your hypotheses.

Specific Aims: Diagram A diagram may be helpful to convey the structure of and relationship between hypotheses.

Specific Aims: Examples The primary specific aim of the proposed research is to determine if repetitive initiation of word production with a complex left-hand movement leads to increased right-hemisphere lateralization of pre-SMA and lateral frontal activity and if these changes can be attributed to the intention component of treatment. . . . The primary hypothesis states that word generation will evoke a greater increase in right-hemisphere lateralization of pre-SMA and lateral frontal activity from pre- to post-treatment fMRI in the experimental intention treatment than in the control treatment.

90% 90% A C B D 40% 40% LEXICAL RETRIEVAL HYPOTHESIS SEMANTIC BYPASS Pre and Post Post No-Treatment Treatment (times 1 & 2) (time 3) Pre and Post Post No-Treatment Treatment (times 1 & 2) (time 3) PICTURE PICTURE PICTURE PICTURE SEMANTIC CONCEPT SEMANTIC CONCEPT SEMANTIC CONCEPT SEMANTIC CONCEPT LEXICAL ITEM LEXICAL ITEM LEXICAL ITEM LEXICAL ITEM A C B D 1c Naming 90% Naming 40% 2c Naming 90% Naming 40% 1a 1e 2a 2e 1d 2d * * 1b No change time 1 to time 2 2b No change time 1 to time 2 No

Background and Significance: Background Background is a literature review. EVERYTHING in your background should be relevant to your specific aims, hypotheses, and/or methods. Organize your background section so that your reviewer anticipates your design. Use diagrams or cartoons as needed to convey concepts.

Background and Significance: Significance Tell why your proposed research is important for your funding agency. For the VA, include figures for veterans. For NIH, include figures for the United States. Do so briefly; a paragraph or two will do.

Preliminary Studies (Work Accomplished) Detail your published and unpublished research relevant to the proposed research. If you haven’t published in the area of your proposed research, make sure you have solid pilot data. Your study (studies) should be a logical extension of your preliminary studies. Use this section to convince your reviewers that you are the only one in the world who can accomplish your proposed project.

Research Design and Methods: Subjects Give each type of subject (experimental and control). Give the numbers of each type of subject. List inclusion and exclusion criteria, with a rationale, supported by literature citation if possible.

Research Design and Methods: Procedures Make sure your experimental design is clear, logical, and coherent and an extension of your Specific Aims, Background, and Preliminary Studies sections. Detail is usually important. Describe any test instruments you will use for inclusion/exclusion criteria, to describe subjects, or to test hypotheses. Describe experimental tasks. Describe procedures for data collection, with attention to experimental control. Describe sequence of data collection. Use diagrams or cartoons where they can facilitate comprehension of the design.

Research Design: Statistical Analyses Design your statistics around your question, don’t design your question around your statistics. Restate your hypotheses before you explain your statistical analyses. Your statistical analyses should be a logical extension of your hypotheses. Provide a power analysis or some other method for estimating whether your number of subjects will be adequate for demonstrating the hypothesized effect(s). If you are not well versed in statistics, get a statistical consultation, or include a statistician as a co-investigator.

Research Design: Strengths and Weaknesses You will be expected to demonstrate knowledge of the strengths and weaknesses of your design. Sometimes this will be a separate section. Let’s not be naïve: If you list a weakness, tell how you are compensating for it, or at the very least, why it logically cannot be avoided.

Mentoring Plan Your mentoring plan is as important as your research plan. Your mentoring plan will be critiqued by reviewers. Your mentoring plan should form a tight, coherent package with your research plan. Tell reviewers why the granting agency should invest in your career. Tell reviewers how this grant is going to lead to the next logical step in your career (CDA-2, Merit Review, R01).

Mentoring Plan: The Mentoring Team Each person on the mentoring team has a purpose for being there. Members should have publications relevant to their purpose for being on the team. Each team member’s role should be tied to the research project in a logical way. You should be working VERY closely with your primary mentor in writing your application.

Mentoring Plan: Educational Plan Each component of your educational plan should some relationship to your planned study. In addition to formal courses, other educational opportunities can be included (e.g., CNS, grand rounds, etc.). Demonstrate that interactions with your mentors, in particular your primary mentor, will be adequate to accomplish your goals and advance your career. Demonstrate how the educational plan will lead to your next career step (next mentored or independent investigator award). The educational plan should form a tight, coherent package with your research plan.