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How to Write Successful Collaborative Applications

Writing a research grant application by yourself is daunting, and this feeling doesn’t go away, even when you collaborate with others to write the grant. Multidisciplinary collaborative research grant applications are becoming the norm for early and seasoned investigators. But navigating through these applications is different from writing an application as a single investigator. For… read more

NSF

The Most Important Part of Your NSF Proposal: The Summary Page

In last week’s blog I discussed the Specific Aims page for proposals that will be submitted to the National Institutes of Health (NIH). This week’s focus will be on the Summary Page for National Science Foundation (NSF) proposals. Each NSF Summary Page, which cannot be over one page in length (or 4,600 characters with spaces),… read more

not your money

Whose Money Is It, Anyway?

“You’re taking my money away from me!” the Project Director cried. He glared at me with contempt while I explained our institution’s position. A grant for which he was the PI had met all of its programmatic goals a few months early, and a progress report had been sent to the sponsor. Although satisfied with… read more

Beef Wellington

Writing a Grant is Like Preparing Beef Wellington

A great meal can be as complex to prepare as Beef Wellington, or as simple as roasted chicken. The same is true of writing a winning grant proposal. The grant writer, like the chef, must focus on ingredients, preparation, and presentation. For an epicurean presentation of Beef Wellington, a master chef with experience should be… read more