
It ALWAYS Takes Longer Than You Think:
Managing Grant Proposal Timelines
Howard Goldstein and colleagues
CBCS Research Forum
October 20, 2015
Acknowledgment
 Lisa Cunningham, NIDCD (2015).
Crafting and vetting your first R01.
Presented at ASHA Lessons for
Success. Rockville, MD.

Study section should never see a grant
application that hasn’t already been reviewed
You have to nail the Specific Aims page 
• Why this research is critically important
• You have compelling preliminary data
• You have the expertise for this project
• Specifically, what you are going to do
• How the field will be advanced when
this project is complete
It takes a year to write an R01

The first 6 months:
Intensive
reading and
thinking
Talk
#1
Specific Aims
Draft #1
Intensive
reading and
thinking
Talks
#2 & #3
Specific Aims
Draft #2
10
Readers
Specific Aims
Draft #3
Plan malleability
Plan clarity and precision
Intensive
reading and
thinking
Specific Aims
Draft #4

It takes a year to write an R01
Months 7-12:
Collaborators
Writing
90 days
to go
60 days
to go
Readers
#1
Readers
#2
Full Draft
#1
Full Draft
#2
Back to
Aims
Full Draft
#3
SUBMIT
Administrative
Budget
IACUC/IRB
Do:



Read the RFP and instructions carefully. Get help from your friendly and
knowledgeable research administrator
Identify questions that have high scientific relevance

Talk to colleagues about most fundamental questions in your field

Consider bringing a new approach to a field where it has not been applied
Consider your skills and passions and find a niche




Your lab should offer something unique to the field
Show a drawing of your overarching hypothesis or your theory of
change
Share your summary statement with colleagues, especially experienced
grant getters
If at first you do not succeed, try, try again.
Do not:
 Propose domino aims or fishing expeditions
 Propose strictly descriptive research
 Be overly ambitious
 Leave room for concern about your independence
 Argue with reviewers or fail to adequately address their
comments
Fun or Daunting: The Timeline and
Process of Grant Proposal Writing
Alison Salloum, Ph.D.
Associate Professor &
Interim Director
School of Social Work
It ALWAYS Takes Longer Than You Think:
Managing Grant Proposal Timelines
CBCS Forum
October 20, 2015

Working Documents
 Monthly timeline
Read, think, unstick, read, think, unstick and repeat
 List of components
 AIMS
 Research Plan
 New/additional components
 Prioritize
 Student assistance
 Work with Administrators
Working Documents
 Notes from Project Officer
LISTEN
 Questions to resolve (consult!)
 Design considerations
Working Documents
 Co-Investigator meetings
 Application (subsections, special requirements, links)
 Readers/Reviewers
 Organization, easy read, perfect
Are You Hitting all Green Lights?
 Significance
 Investigators
 Innovation
 Approach
 Environment
MC
Cost
Tailoring
Physio/bio

“If we knew what we were doing,
it wouldn’t be called research”
- Albert Einstein