This blog post has been a long time coming (just realized last post was in August!) and it will be
obvious why I’ve been lax writing here. I am at the point in my PhD where I not
only need to be frantically doing lab work, analyses, and writing for my
dissertation, but also writing and applying for grants, fellowships, and
advertized post-doc positions so I can be employed after I graduate. This is
both exciting and frustrating at times. With my first big grant proposal turned
in this week, I finally have the time to write down some of the things I’ve
been thinking about in terms of writing a good grant, and maybe get this online
to help those of you writing DDIGs, NSF Pre-docs and other grants due in this
fall’s grant cycle. You can of course take any of my advice with a grain of
salt, these are just some broad ideas that have been useful for me and you may
be advised otherwise..
The whole time I was writing the thing going through my head
over and over was “the first page is so important, got to hook ‘em in the first
page.” One of the things learned in my first semester when I was writing my
first NSF grant (thanks, Spencer!) was that you need to basically say
everything that a reviewer needs to assess your project in the first page.
These people read tons of proposals during these review panels and if they
haven’t been convinced your project is worth funding after the first page, it
is going to be tough to convince them in the subsequent pages. For example,
anyone who has graded a lab report knows that you can tell if the student knows
what they’re talking about after you’ve finished reading their first page,
sometimes the first paragraph. I think this must be similar to how it is
reading these proposals, although this time with a much higher bar than what we
expect for undergrads, hopefully.
You should be able to describe what are the big questions you want to address, why does it matter, and how you are going to accomplish it,
within the first page of the proposal, with the rest of the document following
up on the details that will probably just confirm that you are capable of
actually doing what you propose.
The first paragraph should state clearly what the big issue,
knowledge gap, or question in your field is that needs attention. Here it is
important to remember that an issue that may be obviously interesting or
important to you or someone in your immediate field. You are likely (probably
100% likely) to have a reviewer that is outside of your discipline a bit, and
that you will need to make this issue relatable to someone who hasn’t read all
the papers you’ve read, etc. For instance, why should a plant-fungal ecologist
or climate modeler think my project investigating co-infection patterns and
immune function in rodents is important? Even better, if you can describe how
your work will influence people outside the scientific community (remember
those “broader impacts”) that would make this first paragraph even stronger. Using
some well-placed references in this section can help make your argument
stronger.
Shortly after the first or second paragraphs you should
directly state what your research questions/hypotheses followed by a brief description
of how the proposed project is an innovative way to answer these questions. You
need to convince the reviewer that what you want to do is new and exciting enough
that it is worth funding. You do not need to go through every detail of the
proposed methods, but you should mentioning the general plan so they know you
have thought out how you are going to accomplish what you propose. Also, if you
are good at summarizing your methods in a way that is clear for an expert and a
non-expert, you are probably going to have a good complete description later in
the proposal. This will also make the reviewer want to keep reading and be
interested in learning more about this super-awesome project you just
introduced them to. Mentioning previous experience that will make you the best
person to successfully accomplish your project could also be beneficial here.
One thing to remember as you are figuring out the best ways
to get your ideas out on paper is that they are not only funding your project,
they are funding you as a scientist (thanks to friend and former IU EEB student
Britt for reminding me of this). They want to see in your proposal that you are
thinking about your research in an interesting and innovative way. The NSF
loves things that are “transformative” and “interdisciplinary” and it doesn’t
hurt to use those buzz-words strategically if you think your research in fact
is. What I think is exciting is when someone takes old/established ideas and
integrates them with new methods and findings that somehow makes a complex
problem seem simpler or more tractable. Go figure, I am a disease ecologist and
I think it’s totally awesome when theories describing population or community
dynamics that have been around for the last 40-50 years overlay onto disease
systems and perfectly (or close to perfect) illustrate host-parasite interactions.
When I was writing my NSF proposal it was kind of exhilarating,
scientifically, to get out my community ecology notebook, check out Jared
Diamond’s book on community assembly from the library, and refresh my memory on
some hard core ecology theory, and see how these concepts I had learned about
when I started grad school I could now see through my host-parasite lens. These
moments remind me that I am doing what I want to do, that I think my research
is important, and that all the pain and stress is worth it (hopefully).
Also, go through as many drafts as possible with your
advisor, lab-mates, and other science friends as you can. But, also know when
it is time to stop editing and let it be. This will probably happen the day
before the deadline. I did some last-minute editing the day-of this time, and I’m
not sure if it was the greatest idea. If you have worked hard on it, it is
probably in great shape the couple days before the deadline and anything you
turn in would be a good representation of what you want to do.
I hope this is helpful to anyone going through this process
right now. However, this will probably make any non-academics reading this
happy they don’t have to sing for their supper continually. I have to keep
thinking this process is making me a better writer, communicator, and scientist
and that it pays off when I graduate and become a more independent scientist.
Fingers crossed for funding for me, and you too!
