How To Get a Grant for Research or Teaching Roland F. Hirsch' and L. J. Cline Love Seton Hall University. South Orange, NJ 07079
Almost everv chemist who chooses an academic career will have to seek grant support. Yet relatively few of our graduate schools nrenare . their students adeauatelv in this imnortant activity. While success in grant proposal writing is unlikely if creative and sound ideas are lacking, even the finest ideas can he sabotaged by lack of knowledge of the ins and outs of the orocess. This article is intended to provide the first-time giant seeker with useful advice on how to ensure that her or his proiect idea gets a fair hearing. While most of the examples d d w i t h reseirch support, the concepts apply equally well to grants for teaching.
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Finding the RigM Source of Funding The first sten in obtaining a erant is to find the rieht places to ask. i n the unite2 st&, we are fortunate-in havine a hiahlv diverse set of sources for funding. This does, however, pLcd a greater burden on the teacher or researcher to seek out organizations that might provide support. There is no one central agency that provides all of the funds for research or teaching, even within a narrowly defined scientific specialty. For convenience, we can divide the sources of funding for your ideainto two categories, those that are nationalin scope and those that are regional or local. We can also separate governmental agencies from private foundations. While the most prominent organizations are national in scooe. thev are also the ones that have the greatest number of propos& and the greatest competition for the funds that are availahle. They are also likelv to have a more formal process and more rigid deadlines. These organizations include the 1J.S. government agencies and foundations such as the ACS-administered Petroleum Research Fund. The firsttime applicant should look for programs within these organizations that are intended for young investigators, where they will not be competing with scientists who have a proven track record as a result of orevious erant s u ~ ~ o r t . State and local organizations should also b e sought out. Manv states now provide substantial support for research and education in science and engineering:~ourinterest and experience may be a good fit with a need that has been identified by a state agency. You will have a much smaller number of competitors in your state than in the entire country. Although the amount of funds available will also he less, your proposal will probably get a more careful reading if the reviewers have only a few proposals to contend with rather than having to deal with 50 or a hundred in one session, as often h a ~ u e n at s the national level. Local f&ndations are a source of support that is generally overlooked by scientists. Corporate and family foundations may not seek proposals as actively as the major national and state granting agencies, and their criteriamay not be defined as na&owly.R-may he necessary to explain the project in nontechnical terms and to state explicitly the potential imnact of the work bevond the academic field. On the other hand, support may be provided with a minimum of red tape, and there mav be a sinele to deal with rather than a - nerson . bureaucracy. How do you locate all of the organizations to which you might apply for support? Your colleagues can offer sugges-
tions and perhaps will know the contact persnns at some of the more important agencies. Your grants and contracts office should be able to helo. at least in orovidine directories and program brochures anh'application forms. Even friends in churches and communitv oraanizations can helo identifv alocalfoundation. 1n theend, however, you are going to have to make the contacts, not your grants office. Only you can explain your idea and answer the questions of a program manager who will guide you to the right place in an agency for your proposal. This is particularly true for the major federal agencies, which often have many subdivisions (Offices, Institutes, Directorates, Divisions,. . .) that overlap to some extent in their interests, especially for research grants. Maklng Contacts wlth Program Managers Once you've found the right places to send your application, the next step is to make informal contacts with the program managers who will be reviewing your proposal. (In some agencies there will also be scientific administrators who set the technical priorities but do not supervise the review process.) Don't send in your proposal blind. The formalities involved within your institution and at the funding agency consume time and energy and may make it difficult or impossible to alter a formally submitted proposal without considerable delavs. Call the program managers. If it appears that your ideas fall within thescooe of their A oroeram.ask if vou should send - . a letter that describes your ideas in general terms, but in more detail than is convenient t o give over the phone. A program manager may want to consult with others in the office about your project or may need to check if another part of the agency would be a more appropriate place for your proposal to he submitted. Ask about this in your letter. Include renrints... orenrints. informal renorts. even nronos. . als submitted to other organizations, with your letter if they are relevant tothe -oroiect. It is better tosubmit a brief letter " (one or two pages) with accompanying documentation than to nut evervthina into a lonaer letter that dilutes the imnact of ;our ke; poiuki. The letter serves as the equivalent df an executive summary and should refer the reader to the places where more information is found. Don't, however,-overwhelm the recipient of your letter with an excessive number of papers and ieports. ~ o n ' include t everything you've ever published on the subject. The program manager will usually have a lihrarv where she or hecau read un on the subiect if necessary. ~ i u documentation r should b i just sufficikt to amplify the points in your letter and allow the reader to judge whether the concept warrants a full proposal. One
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This article is based in pall upon talks presented before a joint program of the Canadian Women Cnemlst s Comminee an0 the ACS Divisfon of Chemical Education at tne Third Cnemlcal Congress of North America in Toronto, June 1988, and at the Young professors Program at the National Meeting of the American institute of Chemical Engineers in Washington, November 1988. Current address: Biomedical Research Technology Program, Division of Research Resources, National Institutes of Health. Room 8All. Westwood Building, 5333 Westbard Avenue, Bethesda, MD 20892.
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Volume 67
Number 2
February 1990
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caution: don't be overly concerned with what has been funded recently by a programoffice. What may be a hot topicnow may become an overcommitted area by the time your application has been reviewed. In this staee vou should also ask about proposal guidelines and find o u ~ h proposals ~w are evaluated. w h o wiil see your proposal and who will decide whether to support it? You . cannot submit a successful proposal without knowing your audience. If specialists will be rating your proposal, you must convey to them that you know the field, but you do not want to state the obvious. If the reviewers will be seeing a broad ranee of nrooosals. vou mav need to educate them in some funiamentais befoie descr;hing your concepts and plans in detail. You should also get as much information as possible about the factors that will be used in rating your proposal. For examde. if weight will be given to the institution's facilities, thenio" will need to address this point in some way in your proposal. We must point out that in some cases you will not have an opportunity to make informal contacts with the administrat&s of a granting program. The program guidelines may restrict or formalize this contact. I t may not be possible, for example, to talk with program managers once a formal solicitation of proposals has been issued. These cases are quite rare, however, and you should usually expect to be able to gain much valuable information from the funding organization before you have even started to write the proposal. Wrltlng .the Proposal Once you have decided where to send i t you are ready to henin writing the formal proposal. I t is perhaps obvious, yet in fact often overlooked. that vou must know the Drover format for the app~icatidn.YO; need to have on hand the guidelines that have been issued for the specific program to which you are applying and all required forms. Call your contact person if anv of the aidelines are unclear to vou. If one of them would bk onerous, ask whether in fact theagency will insist on your following it. For example, apage limit may or may not he enforced rigidly. Make several copies of the forms and fill in the copies first. Once your administrators have approved your draft you can fill in the official forms for the final copy. A few more bits of advice on appearance are in order before considering the substance of the proposal. Looks are important. A smudged or skewed copy will give a negative impression, which could be the difference between being funded or not. The copying machine you use must he in perfect working order. If you can't find one in your organization, use a commercial instant printing service. The cost is trivial, even if i t comes out of your pocket. If there are no instructions to the contrary and space limitations permit, we believe that you will give the best impression by double spacing all text (except tables), using one side of the paper only, and numbering all pages consecutively. There should be a detailed table of contents at the earliest possible point after the cover sheet. The same type size and typeface should be used for the entire proposal, to avoid eivine the impression that the proposal was pieced . together h & t i ~ ~ .- ~ The most important part of the proposal is the narrative. ideas and plans. Give Devote most of the narrative to just enough background information (and a set of current literature citations or bibliography, as required) to show that you know the current state of the field well. The more you havealready published on the subject, the less detail you will have to give to convince the reader that you are an expert. More important than a general background survey is a specific justification of the need and significance of your planned work. Make i t clear what you want to do and why. I t is perhaps surprising, but many grant proposals fail to do this. They are ~~
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verbose, meander around the subject, mix literature results with the investigator's preliminary data, and do not set out the applicant's own ideas and plans. ~ % n ga grant proposal can be a wonderful way of organizing your thoughts, if you are willing to make the effort. ~ e f o r e i o write u the narrative, examineyour plans carefully. Be certain that they represent the most efficient way to reach the objectives you have set for yourself. Read the article entitled "Strong Inference" by John R. Plat@ for sound advice on how to approach your project systematically. Show confidence in vour ideas. Make i t clear not onlv that you know the subject but also that you believe your woik will have an impact. This attitude can he conveyed to the reader without havingto brag about yourself. All that is needed is to lay out your plans directly with clear objectives and definite ideas for handline obstacles that mieht be anticioated. The proposal must justify the ;eed for t h e agency or foundation to sunnort .. the work. In some cases the apolica.. tion guidelines will require a separate section on this point. Usuallv. however. vou must work this into the narrative. The hest piaies will us;ally be in the introducmry section and at the end of the ~ropusal.You might conclude by explaining what the impact o i success in your project wouid bk on the field of interest to the agency. If the funding program has very general guidelines, &en you should avoid overemphasis on this point. It would be sufficient to explain the impact on the field of research or education which is involved. In any event, he brief. Don't generalize, make unsupportable claims, or indulge in platitudes. If you have a new teaching concept, state how educators would make use of the results of . vour proiect. . - If vou are doing research, explain what new doors your success~willopen. f y o u are doing research with students, point out the role that the . proiect will . play in their . education; A common failure of proposals by new investigators is that they are too long. exceed stated limitations on length of the narrative. If there are no limitations, make the length appropriate for the amount of money requested. This relationship is highly nonlinear, but it is reasonable that a proposal for $500,000 will he longer than one requesting $15,000. Consider the following point: busy reviewers may read through a lengthy proposal by a major researcher because they know this person's ideas are likely to be significant, but an overlonn proposal from anewcomer will have to be exceptionally wefi k i t t e n to hold the reviewer's interest. Of course, it's also probably true that a seasoned investigator won't be expected to provide as many details as a newcomer, because the former's puhlications help the reviewers feel confident that the investigator has mastered these details. The additional materials are also important. Your resume should contain all the information reauested bv the aaencs. .. . but should be no longer than necessary. Makesure that your relevant qualificationsare included, but don't list every talk you've given and every committee you've served on. If yuu have publications fromyour own work, differentiate them in your iist of publicatio& from papers you coauthored as a graduate student or postdoc. The resumes of major collaborators should also be included, but should not exceed about two pages unless the proposal guidelines require more extensive information. Your collaborators may have an important role in the proposed work, for example by supplying a specialized instrument required for the research or by helping to test a ~~~~~
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It IS parhapsa prejudice, but we feel that alustified right margin is overly formal for the purpose of a grant proposal. The unjustified ragged edge is more like a letter and somehow proposals in this format are a more personal form of communication from you to the reviewer. Plan, J. R. Science 1964, 146, 347-353.
new educational concept in their classes. It is essential that you have their agreement to do what you claim for them in the proposal. They could he asked by the granting organization to confirm their participation if i t is central to the project. I t usually helps your application if you include letters from key collahorators that state their willingness to participate and indicate explicitly that they know what their role will be. General endorsements of your project are almost worthless. If many other investigators or teachers will be involved, you probahly only need include a few good letters from a renresentative eroun in vow oronosal. ina ally, ypu may wisi todescribe the iacilities that will be used. This 1s especially important if it is possihle that the reviewers might not he familiar with your institution. Be specific, hut don't overdo it. Endless lists of departmental equipment won't help your case. Tailor the list to your project. A hrief description of the institution will often he helpful, especially if you can work in some positive statements about the quality of the students who will participate. If your administration has agreed to provide tangible support, include a letter to that effect. A general institutional endorsement of vour nroiect is unnecessarv. unless . " nrobahlv the project guidelines suggest that bne should he kcluded. In any event the endorsement should indicate that the administrator knows something about your project (you will probably have to draft the letter). Once you have collected all of the items needed for the application, check to he sure that you have followed every guideline. Make sure that each page is neat and legible and check everything for spelling mistakes and other errors. All conies should he comolete and clean and hound bv a sinele staple in the upper leA hand corner, unless you are"requikd to do otherwise. The needed signatures must appear in the proper places, with one copy having the original signatures. Be sure to allow enough time for necessary institutional clearances by sending draft copies to the offices and committees that must review the proposal before it is suhmitted. Approvals concerning human subjects, waste disposal, radiation safety, venehrare animal welfare, rtc., should he sought well hefore the deadline for submission of the proposal. Submit the application in a sturdy envelope or box to prevent damage to the copies. Send under separate cover a copy of the proposal directly to the program manager with whom you have discussed the project, unless you are in-
structed not to do so. Enclose a rover letter, and include a conv of this letter with the official pronosal packaee. This heips to ensure that it will eventuallige
