Funding is Important You need to be prepared to address the issue in the long run You need more than a great idea You need to understand the logistics You need to persevere

Spirit of the Fighting Irish “To everyone who has ever faced adversity, whether in business, professional or personal life. I admire the person who says: Every day someone does something great. Today that person will be me.” -- Lou Holtz

Writing Great Grants: A Three Step Recipe

1) Choose a significant problem Bonus points if not much work has been done on the problem More bonus points if you have done the important work

2) Leave no question that you can accomplish your aims Established track record of publications Clear and convincing preliminary data

3) Write a clear, easy to read proposal “Calm down, understand the situation and communicate clearly” – We Were Soldiers

Big Hurdles and Pitfalls Navigating the Scylla of building on your accomplishments and the Charybdis of creating new research problems and attacking new research areas, given your situation: Laboratory techniques not yet working Students not yet trained/busy with classes Teaching and other responsibilities Proposing to do too much Not making clear the points and connections that are obvious to you

Ask important questions Do not redo your Ph.D. or postdoc work. Find a substantially new project if your proposal is rejected twice. Read deeply and broadly (several articles a day). Be creative. Do not be afraid to do something really different. Talk to lots of people about research.

Advantages of doing several projects at once Keeps you excited. When one project faces problems, another could be blooming. Increases funding opportunities. Synergy in thinking about different things can suggest novel pathways. Increases your visibility.

But… do not overextend yourself! “Do one thing and do it better than anyone” -- Orville Redenbacher

Funding - Logistics Identify a funding agency and learn everything you can about this agency (the web and your colleagues are good sources) Understand what is the mechanism for submitting a proposal from your institution (“Office of Sponsored Research”) Develop a time frame for writing and proofreading the proposal

Funding Opportunities (1/2) NIH - www.nih.gov CRISP – Database of funded projectshttp://crisp.cit.nih.gov/ NIH Review Criteriahttp://www.csr.nih.gov/guidelines/r01.htm Article: How to get NIH fundinghttp://nextwave.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/2000/10/12/1 NSF - www.nsf.gov CAREER programhttp://www.nsf.gov/home/crssprgm/career/start.htm Engineering Divisionhttp://www.nsf.gov/home/eng/ Article: NSF grant writinghttp://nextwave.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/2000/07/06/8 Private Foundations Coulter, March of Dimes, and many others [slide modified from Kinney, Neptune and Wilson]

Funding Opportunities (2/2) Office of Naval Research (ONR) and other federal programs NIDRR - The National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research http://www.ed.gov/fund/grant/apply/nidrr/index.html Miscellaneous Funding linksGrantsNet - http://www.grantsnet.org/Science Magazine – search for articleshttp://nextwave.sciencemag.org/Grant writinghttp://www.research.umich.edu/proposals/PWG/pwgcontents.htmlGoogle search for articlesBook – Research Proposals: A Guide to Success (Ogden and Goldberg) IndustrySBIR mechanism (NSF, NIH)Direct Funding from Companies [slide modified from Kinney, Neptune and Wilson]

Final Do’s and Dont’s Do not necessarily assume the person who reviews your grant will be an expert in your area or know why your research is novel The response to a revised NIH grant is very important. Never appear to be angry or emotional. Just stick to the science. If a reviewer got something wrong (which often happens), just lay out the facts. This is hard because you have put so much effort into the grant it’s easy to take comments personally Criticisms are of the science, not of you! Get grants done in advance and have colleagues read them! Resist the thrill of pulling it off on “third and long”

Do not Let Funding Consume You Your “growth” as a researcher is essential Publish, collaborate, discuss your ideas, read, be brave and be prepared to fail Funding is a means to an end, not an end in itselfIgnore colleagues who imply otherwise

Acknowledgements Raphael Lab Emily, Yong, Ryan, Jeff, Imran, Jenni, Louise Thanks for Believing in Us! NSF CAREER NIH NIDCD Whitaker Foundation Texas Advanced Technology Program National Organization for Hearing Research NIH NRSA (Greeson, Organ) NSF-IGERT Keck Center for Computational and Structural Biology DOE Computational Science Graduate Fellowship