Short and Sweet: Selling
Your Science in 12 Pages
ASBMR Grant Writing Workshop
Friday, 15 October 2010
Toronto, ON
Jane E. Aubin, Ph.D.
Dept of Molecular Genetics
Centre for Modeling Human Disease
University of Toronto
WHAT HASN’T CHANGED?
THE MAIN CONCERN OF A GRANTS REVIEW PANEL IS TO SEPARATE
THE OUTSTANDING FROM THE MERELY REALLY GOOD BY
ANSWERING THE FOLLOWING:
• Significance: Is the question being asked really significant?
Does anyone care what the answer is?
• Investigator: Are you the person who can answer it?
• Innovation: Is the proposal innovative? Is it a really novel
question and/or are you proposing to answer it in
really novel ways?
• Approach: Is the proposal feasible?
• Environment: Is where you’re doing the work enhancing
your chances of getting novel answers?
Considering all the strengths and weaknesses, can you
convince the reviewer that your proposal will exert a sustained powerful
influence on the field?
WHAT HASN’T CHANGED?
YOUR GOALS re: REVIEWERS CONCERNS
1. To get the panel excited about the project
- the question is interesting/important/novel and this
proposal is so terrific, and the answer will have such
impact, it just has to be funded
2. To demonstrate that the project is built on a great foundation
- progress/published work (yours/others)
- preliminary data; feasibility of what is proposed
3. To convince the panel that you can do the work
- your track record
- your research team
- resources available (environment)
- how well you’ve written your story in the grant
WHAT HASN’T CHANGED
Why we don’t enjoy writing grants
“The trouble with the world is that the stupid are
cocksure, and the intelligent full of doubt”
- Bertrand Russell
You can do it!
GOOD GRANT WRITING IS FORMULAIC,
LEARNABLE
WHAT HAS CHANGED
YOUR FORMULA HAS CHANGED AND YOU
NEED TO LEARN THE NEW ONE
• where you used to have 25 pages, now you
have 12 (also have Specific Aims (1 page))
• but it’s not just about writing shorter proposals,
the emphasis has changed
• “If in the past, the devil was in the details, that
devil is gone!” http://funding.niaid.nih.gov/researchfunding/newsletter/2009/pages/1112.aspx#n01
• lengthy “boring” published or experimental details
are trumped by significance, innovation, impact
WHAT HAS CHANGED
OLD
NEW
THE RESEARCH PLAN
THE RESEARCH STRATEGY
Background and Significance
Significance-Less detailed history of a
field/more about why something is
significant
Preliminary Studies and Progress
Report
Gone (see Approach)
Innovation-It’s no longer buried! Are the
concepts or approaches
novel/paradigm-shifting?
Research Design
Methodology
Approach-Preliminary studies and
progress are wrapped into Approach;
is the rationale clear; are the overall
strategies, methods, analyses wellconceived and appropriate for the
goals (feasible); are potential problems,
alternative strategies, and benchmarks
for success presented?
WHAT HAS CHANGED
How logically and seamlessly does your story flow between
Significance-Innovation-Approach?
Significance - Why you want to do the studies proposed
Innovation - What makes your studies novel
Approach - How you want to meet your proposed objectives
If you can address these questions compellingly in one page
(Specific Aims), you can write your story in 12 pages!
WHAT HAS CHANGED
NEW
Specific Aims - Start here! A crucial page! Get this page right!
State the goals and the expected outcomes, including the
impact that the results will have on the field
List the specific objectives to test an hypothesis, solve a
problem, challenge a paradigm, address a critical barrier to
progress or develop a new technology
- Create interest by describing SIGNIFICANCE
- Demonstrate INNOVATION and NOVELTY
- Articulate expected IMPACT on the field
WHAT HAS CHANGED
NEW
Specific Aims - A crucial page! Start here!
Significance: Why you want to do the studies proposed
The Formula:
1-2 sentences: Introduce the big picture, and an important challenge
or uncertainty in the field or area being studied
2-3 sentences: Expand on the challenge/uncertainty and what is
currently being done to solve it
2-3 sentences: Concisely summarize the gap or hurdle or barrier that
your proposal will address and, by doing so, advance the field
This is where you make the reviewer INTERESTED AND
EXCITED!
WHAT HAS CHANGED
NEW
Specific Aims - A crucial page! Start here!
Innovation: What makes your studies novel
The Formula:
1-2 sentences: Propose an approach to solving the challenge
or uncertainty you identified. Explain why your approach is
novel or innovative.
2-3 sentences: Explain why you (and your team) are positioned
to solve the challenge or uncertainty. State your progress: Cite
one or more of your previous papers on the subject, or point to
unpublished work. State clearly how your field will benefit from
what you propose.
This is where you emphasize the NOVELTY of your approach,
its INNOVATION, and why YOU are positioned to do it.
WHAT HAS CHANGED
NEW
Specific Aims - A single crucial page! Start here!
Approach: How you want to meet your proposed objectives
The Formula:
1 phrase: To accomplish [the overall objective/goal], we will use the
following specific aims:
Aim 1: To achieve [objective/goal 1 of WHAT you wish to do], we will
[explain HOW you will do it]. You may wish to include subaims, but use
the same outline.
Aim 2: To achieve [objective/goal 2 of WHAT you wish to do], we will
[explain HOW you will do it], etc.
Maximum 2-4 Aims
1 sentence: The Denouement: Remind readers why the studies are
significant and why successful completion of the goals will advance the
field.
Together, this is how you emphasize expected IMPACT.
WHAT HASN’T CHANGED
Start EARLY!
Set up an internal peer review committee
Imitate great style - Get copies of a couple of great grants.
What did they do? How did
they say it?
Use 1st person, expository
style.
Get it down! Don’t caress
sentences forever!
1. Get it down
2. Get it right
3. Get it pretty
4. Get it out!
WHAT HASN’T CHANGED
The need for compelling proposal construction
• Base the 12 pages on the Specific Aims page.
• Tell an integrated story that engages the reader:
Significance-Innovation-Approach
• Write the Approach around each Specific Aim
• For each Specific Aim, identify your Objective/Goal, your
Rationale, your Approaches/Methods and the Progress that
will allow you to move forward; state your Expected
Outcomes, Potential Problems, Alternative Strategies, but
avoid unnecessary details. Use figures wisely and
selectively.
• Be bold but realistic; stay focused; don’t be overlyambitious
WHAT HASN’T CHANGED
The need to place yourself in a strong position
• Productivity (number and quality of papers)
• Number of other grants
• The independence issue
• Your research team: each member has a
clearly-stated and appropriate role and the
expertise required
WHAT HASN’T CHANGED
Sometimes, you aren’t funded!
“If at first you don’t succeed, then skydiving is not for you”
- W. Smith, Globe and Mail
References
NIH Web Sites
http://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/notice-files/NOT-OD-09-149.html
http://funding.niaid.nih.gov/researchfunding/newsletter/2009/pages/1112.aspx#n01
http://funding.niaid.nih.gov/researchfunding/ncn/grant/pages/titleabs.aspx
CIHR Web Site
http://www.cihr-irsc.gc.ca/e/27491.html