Writing a Grant:Some Basics

Landon S. King, M.D.

Why Should Anyone Write a Grant?

• Get money

• Forced organization of thoughts

• Get money

• Consolidate plans and support

• Get money

• “Educational opportunity”

• Get money

Writing a Grant:A Few Basics

• When is the time to put in a grant– Mandated– Elective– From idea to money: time to liftoff

• Who are you writing to?• What’s their agenda?• Applicant, context, project, environment• Get help early: if you have 25 formatted

pages it’s too late

It starts with the project…

• What are you studying?• Who cares?• Why does it matter?

But it may be more complex…• Candidate merits• Project merits• Larger program goals

Who reads these things?

• Grants are reviewed by overworked, under-appreciated, insecure faculty—meaning all of us, and you soon

• Imagine yours is one of 5-10 grants to be read, and the reader has two kids in soccer and lots of her/his own work to do

• Imagine that she/he is submitting grants too; maybe just got triaged

• That’s who reviews these• So----Grab them, and make it easy

Writing a Grant:More Basics

• Start early

• Get the instructions

• Read the instructions

Grant Basics:Always four main concepts,

maybe four sections

• Hypothesis / Specific Aims

• Background and Significance

• Preliminary Data

• Design and Methods

Hypothesis

• Better have one

• Statement of overarching question or theme, not the details of execution

• Specific aims should facilitate confirmation, or at least exploration, of the hypothesis

Specific Aims

• What do you propose doing to evaluate the stated hypothesis?

• Who cares?• Opening paragraphs should justify the

specific aims; shouldn’t be a mystery where the aims come from

• Aims should be constructed to address hypothesis

• 2-4 is usual number depending on grant

Background and Significance

• What information is needed to support the case for the hypothesis and aims?

• It’s not a literature review; you get to pick the supporting pieces, but …. better be fair

• Get to the point

Preliminary Data

• Better to have some no matter what the instructions say

• Data should support the aims

• Feasibility: Biological, technical

• Validity of the proposed hypotheses

Design and Methods

• Overview• Timetable for execution of the work• Aim by aim: what are you actually proposing to

do for each study• Make it easy to tell what the question and

experiment are• How much detail? Depends• Don’t forget the extra stuff – power calculations,

proposed animal numbers; analyses• Potential problems and alternatives

Some words you don’t want to read …

• Ambitious

• Incremental

• Descriptive

• Diffuse

• Preliminary