The new NIH R01 grant format
The NIH has thrown a lot of us into disarray over the new, shorter R01 grant format. I’m hearing reports of scores that are wildly variable and all over the map. I’ve also had quite a few questions...
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Crafting your NIH biosketch “personal narrative”
On a recent webinar about State of Grants in 2012, I mentioned that the personal statement part of the NIH biosketch is a great opportunity to additionally “market” your project. In my experience, most...
View ArticleScience for the sake of it, or science for dollars (euros)?
After a recent web seminar I hosted to help people write grants that are more likely to get funded, I got a note from a writer overseas that raised an interesting point about “fundability” and the...
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How could she get THAT proposal funded?!?
I get great questions from webinars and emails that give me a chance to illustrate important points about grant writing (I’ve got a webinar happening this Saturday, sign up here). I just got an email...
View ArticleNIH Grant Writing Tips: The new format – significance, innovation, approach
Recently the NIH completely redefined the format requirements for research grants. There were many changes, but one that seems to create a big mess of confusion is the redefinition of the sections of...
View ArticleNIH Grant Writing Tips: The Significance of “Significance”
Once upon a time, the NIH had you lead the body of your grant proposal with a section titled “Background and Significance.” Then they messed everything up by taking out the “Background” part, quite...
View ArticleEating crow about the NIH grant lottery
For years I’ve been teaching that grants aren’t a lottery. I’ve been teaching that if you write a sufficiently good grant, you can skew the odds enough in your favor to have a good chance of success....
View ArticleSpeed writing your grant proposal
Grants are now officially “hyper-competitive(TM).” I’ve seen more than one great grant not quite make the cut, because there were even better grants in the pool for that round. Dealing with this...
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Freezing Buns and Damn Good Advice
So I froze my buns off to bring a new video to you, and it has some killer content that you need to see if you’re writing grants. I didn’t want to bring you a plain old boring video. Nope. It would go...
View Article#1 Grant writing misconception killer
There is a huge misconception that most grant writers have. You may think you’re talking to another rational adult in your grant, but you’re not. You’re actually talking to the “lizard brain.”...
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The Grant Trifecta and Cycle of Doom
This video was shot at a seminar I gave for my high-end grant writing students last spring. It walks you through the 3 things you MUST HAVE to get your grant funded. Your “Trifecta”. And if you don’t...
View ArticleIt’s become lunacy
For many of us, the getting of grants is the one thing expected of us in order to get tenured, promoted, and recognized. Yet this function that is at the very heart of expectations for us, is one for...
View ArticleThe effects of sequestration… a report from the field
So I have it on reasonable authority that the pay line at the NSF/MCB is hovering at around the 10% mark (May, 2013). This is in contrast to their usual pay line, closer to high teens. In a few areas...
View ArticleSanta Claus for scientists? Not quite, but good news.
A few people are taking notice: with the sequester, science funding is faltering… badly. Well, Jim Lantry decided to do something about it. He started a SuperPAC to lobby for science and science...
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Downright stupidity: papers and grants
Wow. Not in a while have I been so infuriated as I am after reading the recent bit tiltled “Could the NIH payline be too high?” from Nathan S. Blow of Biotechniques (“From the Editor” piece for Vol 55,...
View ArticleWorking hard does NOT mean success (at grants or anything else)
There’s this persistent myth that I need to tear down once and for all. Maybe it won’t all happen in this one blog post, but by God I’m gonna give it a good start. The myth? It’s that all it takes to...
View ArticleThe NIH Significance and Innovation Sections, demystified
One of the great things about working with some top scientists to hone their grant-getting skills is that I get to hear really good questions that they struggle with. One question from a client was...
View ArticleGrants suck – ditching the fear
Grants suck. That’s funny, coming from someone who has been helping people with them for the past four years. However, working with so many people on them, I’ve seen the dark sides. There are several....
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What it takes to get a grant funded NOW
A few days ago, I got this email: The very same day, I got an email from someone else, which I’ve excerpted parts of here “I been a virtual attendee for a number of your past webinars, and have...
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Get someone ELSE to pay for MY success!
In this work, I see all kinds of crazy things. I label them as crazy not because I want to make judgement. I call them crazy because they lead to consequences that are at odds with the pronounced...
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