1. Successful Approaches for Obtaining Grant Funding Ronald Turco, Purdue University Denice Heller Wardrop, Penn State University (with input from 1000s of reviewers)

2. Proposals – Turco & Wardrop Or, what do you get when you cross a Nittany Lion with Purdue Pete? A similar perspective >>>>>We must have grant money

3. Proposals – Turco & Wardrop Our background: Ronald Turco Professor / Microbiology My federal support has exceeded $ 11 M dollars (total) I have chaired 4 federal review panels and served on ~22 others I have written at least 140 grant applications Denice Heller Wardrop Fixed Term Research Faculty Federal support (alone and with other PIs) currently exceeds $3 M I manage the execution of research and the development of products “ Why do I need grant support? Because I’m only an inch away from teaching high school biology without it!” Denice Heller Wardrop

4. Proposals – Turco & Wardrop ….. If you want to start and then stay in academic research, you have no choice – proposal & grants ….. Grants are what we do & will always do (what you need to learn to do)

5. “You can have brilliant ideas, but if you can't get them across, your ideas won't get you anywhere.” Lee Iacocca Proposal sell your Ideas

6. Proposals – Turco & Wardrop Finding Ideas “Ideas are like rabbits. You get a couple and learn how to handle them, and pretty soon you have a dozen.” John Steinbeck "The value of an idea lies in the using of it.” Thomas A Edison

7. Proposals – Turco & Wardrop Your Reality Grad-School and your Post-Doc are/were hard! The state is not going to provide support! Your new school will only provide a little cash There is less money and more people looking for it. You can’t really on your major prof—you need to develop your own program (Your promotion package will look better with grants on your own)

8. Proposals – Turco & Wardrop Your Reality continued … You love research You need to be good at grants if you want to do your own work build on your own ideas You will find it difficult to support yourself 100% Proposals/Grants are now your life – your reality (your new job can be all consuming) as Proposals/Grants are your life – period

9. Proposals – Turco & Wardrop Motivations: Overarching Answering a fundamental question Solving a problem Transferring knowledge to this and the next generation Practical Promotion Prestige Students Publications Admiration More grants

10. Proposals – Turco & Wardrop Funding Opportunities Signup for e -mail alert services from the appropriate federal programs Community of Science: www.cos.com www.cos.com Check out: Grants.gov Read email from your on-campus office and other places Sign up for email/RSS/Twitter from sources

13. Proposals – Turco & Wardrop Federal, State, Industrial, University, and College sources Many Programs: 26 Federal Agencies (e.g., NSF, USDA-NRI, EPA-STAR, DOD, DOE, USGS, DO-Education) providing support Federal Programs total some $360 Billion Dollars Grants.Gov indicates there are ~2,000 active calls open. Grants.gov

14. Proposals – Turco & Wardrop The NEWS and your odds NSF Program: From 43,851 application about 10,380 funded (24%) Avg amt =$139,522 USDA AFRI Program: (3% of NSF) From ~3,000 application less than 14% funded 10% of Funds went to EPSCOR 1% went to new investigator (note: less money) 2005 Numbers

15. Proposals – Turco & Wardrop More news – EPA-STAR ~ $66 million dollars annually Received 3000-3500 grant applications; 200 new STAR awards, 40 awards jointly with other federal agencies Awarded 140 new fellowships All of the federal data: http://www.nsf.gov/statistics/nsf08315/content.cfm?pub_id=3880&id=2 2007 Numbers

16. Proposals – Turco & Wardrop The Process – The Idea Loop Do not wait Develop your ideas and then find the right RFP Starting out, be flexible Gather Information Input: Attend meetings Read and review Talk to others Serve on Review Panels Get outside your normal “comfort zone” RFP = request for proposal IDEA RFP Which is first? PRELIMINARY DATA

17. Proposals – Turco & Wardrop Don’t squander your startup funds! Preliminary Data The single most important component of any proposal. It will empower your IDEAS It will overcome your “age”

18. Proposals – Turco & Wardrop The proposals development process should be an intellectual effort on par with writing a paper…

19. Proposals – Turco & Wardrop Build a deliberate path? SUCCESS = PREPARATION + OPPORTUNITY Always be thinking one step ahead Preparation is not always obvious – collaborators are not always obvious Never stop learning Thinking is an “Important” activity (take time to think)

20. Proposals – Turco & Wardrop Think big – act locally Submit for all the local (on campus) programs you can find. Internal programs allow you to build “preliminary data sets and publications” Internal programs allow you to add students Internal programs are “missed” if lacking on your promotion document.

21. Proposals – Turco & Wardrop Use your publications Your publications will help your proposals CITE YOURSELF in the proposal Your publications will prove your abilities Quality publications will trump quantity publications Learn about the “H-index”

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23. A ssemble a “mental” research portfolio Few people can predict the “tree”; at least envision one or two branches, or 5 years out Gradients and drivers: Disciplinary Short vs. long term Basic to applied questions Individual and team projects Scheduling (you need a calendar) Know the due-dates of major RFPs and funding cycles and embed them in your annual work plan

24. Proposals – Turco & Wardrop Time – the most important resource

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26. Time (workflow) is controllable Things you don’t control seem to take forever!! Budgeting; Cost Share; Budget Justifications Approvals (animals, people) Off campus collaborators Letters of support Take control work on them early

27. Proposals – Turco & Wardrop Resources for the new Prof (and others) Proposal Planning & Writing: Third Edition (Grantselect) (Paperback) by Lynn E. Miner Lynn E. Miner (Author)

28. Collaborative Work many timelines Sharing Ideas {More people but less money}

29. Proposals – Turco & Wardrop Collaborators how many? You need to develop your extramural portfolio This leads to development of your program (lab group) Not just money but this is how you want to spend your time (effort) You need to decide on the “number” of individual projects, and small and large collaborator projects you can “stand”. Don’t try and lead a large project before you have your program started.

30. Proposals – Turco & Wardrop Collaborators Rare to have a single PI proposal or project Many questions require a multi-faceted approach. Congress is pressing agencies for “real” answers. Many granting agencies are requiring multi- disciplinary teams for a grant application. USDA, EPA, NSF, NASA, NIH Develop contacts before the RFP – don’t get used!

31. Proposals – Turco & Wardrop Collaborators Three types of “Collaborative Projects” Linkage by “staple” No integration only a linkage of parts Forced or quick linkage in response to an RFP Often done at the last minute – idea development is poor Often done with “strangers” – limited trust Often done with top down management True multidisciplinary effort Constructed as an outgrowth of a shared idea Long-term interaction that leads to projects

32. Proposals – Turco & Wardrop Single vs. Multi Investigator Projects One leader One agenda One business office One department head One scientific approach One set of personal obligations Shared vision (Lead PI) Multiple agendas Multiple offices Many dept heads Multiple approaches, sampling needs and analysis methods Many obligations

33. Proposals – Turco & Wardrop If you collaborate… Learn team-building theories and skills (yes, it’s a real thing) Read a management book or two (this is real, too) Develop your leadership skills Good project management takes time

34. Writing the Proposal Lab Coffee

35. Proposals – Turco & Wardrop The Process for any proposal anytime– Read the RFP Read the guidelines (Read the guidelines) Adjust your ideas so they fit within program priorities (if you can’t, move on) consider eligibility consider relevance, review criteria Write the proposal for the reviewers and the funding agency not for yourself

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37. Get out the highlighter and mark the key points

38. Proposals – Turco & Wardrop The Process – Preplanning Obtain a successful proposal for the agency from a successful colleague Review abstracts of recently funded research in the programs of interest Obtain critical reviews of your idea from colleagues before you submit If you ask for help, use the help

39. Proposals – Turco & Wardrop The Process - staying on top of announcements Add estimated due dates of programs of interest to your calendar, due-dates should not come as a surprise. Make a digital file or hardcopy file of RFP’s and keep it in an accessible place in your office or lab.

40. Proposals – Turco & Wardrop Stay in front Get on e-mail lists of opportunities. Each College and Department has a process of informing would-be grant writers. Let your Advisor know you would like to be involved in grant writing as part of your graduate experience.

41. Proposals – Turco & Wardrop The Process - Calling Formulate your (group) ideas into a briefing document (abstract) Email the program manager and ask for a time to call (be polite) Call (on time) and discuss your idea Listen for the subtle responses and make suggested conceptual changes The program manager is a key part in the process (especially with NSF)

42. Proposals – Turco & Wardrop The Process - Timing It takes significant time to prepare a strong proposal (there is NO substitute) Plan for: Writing / Talking Planning and clearing collaborations Talking / Writing Budget and approval and rebudget Grant processing (often a week) Allow time for a colleague to read it A poorly prepared proposal can leave an unwanted legacy (especially with NSF) If you are writing an interdisciplinary one, use time 3 rule

43. Proposals – Turco & Wardrop The Process - Writing What do you plan to do ? Objectives Why do you want to do it? Rationale How are you going to do it? Experimental design When are you going to do each step? Priorities and time line What are the outcomes? Data analyses and interpretation What if “it doesn’t work?” Pitfalls and alternative (we estimate 20% of the proposals we review lack this)

44. Proposals – Turco & Wardrop The Process - Writing A Well Written Proposal Convinces Reviewers the Proposal Merits Funding Clarity, Clarity, Clarity Clear hypotheses or research questions Clear Objectives Clear Outcomes USE your Preliminary Data; Use your publications Clear Outreach Plan No stupid mistakes: Proofread, Proofread, Proofread! (form is not the same as from)

45. Proposals – Turco & Wardrop The Rule of Threes 30 second message (the hook) 3 minute message (the abstract) 30 minute message (the proposal) Time spent is inversely proportional to length of message If the 30 second message isn’t great, you’ll never get to tell the 30 minute one

46. Proposals – Turco & Wardrop The proposal – some key points Diagrams are better than words Procedures are boring use a flow chart Sampling plans are also good as diagrams Photos can help explain findings Be careful with gel diagrams Be carful with modeling Caption information should be correct

47. Proposals – Turco & Wardrop The Process - Writing for Reviewers Assume they will be reading it at 11 pm Tell them what they want to know Style matters, too; pay attention to white space, readability, figures

48. Proposals – Turco & Wardrop Ideas and the Reviewer Novel and Innovative is best Grounded in the literature (run a good literature search, not everything is in “your” standard journals) Preliminary data (startup money?) Feasible for you and your Co-PIs Prove it with your CV(s) Feasible at your University Facilities section Within the scope of the RFP

49. Proposals – Turco & Wardrop What might a reviewer be thinking? Are there dependent aims? Is the experimental design consistent with aims? How are aims coordinated? Are experiments planned to obtain independent data (more than one way to answer the question?) What are pitfalls? Plan B?

50. Proposals – Turco & Wardrop Proposals writing as a lifestyle Setup a filing system for proposals Organize a hard drive location Backup location for copies Keep all proposals (reuse what you can) Setup referencing system for literature Setup your CV (keep it current) Each agency is different CV should indicate training, background, experience, and expertise Setup your Conflict of Interest forms Setup your current and pending forms Update!! Read the review comments

51. Proposals – Turco & Wardrop The Process - Budgeting Whatever process you used before you got here does not apply. Work with the Business Office but provide the following: Start date; duration Graduate students (number and rank) Post-docs (number) Travel number of trips and where (overseas) Summer Salary AY Salary Staff Time Supplies (disposable) Equipment (major and minor) Let them run your budgets Work with them early; make sure they have a copy of the RFP

52. Proposals – Turco & Wardrop The Process: The rules!!! Page limits; font size, margins; figure & table and CV rules, are real and enforced Leaving out a required section will be fatal Budget Justification is used as a “truth in asking” section. The budget/justification should match the work. Use this section…

53. Proposals – Turco & Wardrop The Process: The Agency rules!!! They control their money They make the rules You follow their rules

54. Proposals – Turco & Wardrop THE REVIEW / YOUR MOTIVATIONS If time is available

55. Proposals – Turco & Wardrop The Review Understand how the review process for the agency-of-interest works Ad-hoc only Ad-hoc with panel Panel only (no ad-hoc) Scientist only User groups and Scientist (USDA) Agency only, No outside reviewers (pretty rare) If you can get on a panel, drop everything and do it.

56. Proposals – Turco & Wardrop The Process - Rejection Project of little or no relevance to agency’s mission and/or Program priorities Insufficient preliminary data or evidence from literature Exceeds page limit, poorly written, unclear objectives or hypotheses Exceed budget limits or project duration

57. Proposals – Turco & Wardrop The Process - Rejection Fail to address review criteria (resubmission) Poor record of results from previous funding (e.g., publications) Experiments or objective not cohesive and are poorly integrated

58. Proposals – Turco & Wardrop The Process – Rejection Poorly Written Basic flaws in logic, demonstrates lack of scientific understanding Hypotheses or research questions were poorly stated Not innovative, little new information will be gained or were not clearly stated Inappropriate methods or methods too vague or poorly stated Not as exciting as other proposals (i.e., worth funding but had to draw the line, ran out of funds)

59. Proposals – Turco & Wardrop The Process – Recovery Where you ranked is important “The wrong side of high priority” YOU WILL RESUBMIT and indicate your ranking in the response to reviewers section Reviews indicate Very Good Resubmit and indicate your corrections and rank Reviews indicate other things Resubmit and concentrate on the corrections Next year’s panel will have copies of this year’s comments and some panel members may overlap Don’t ridicule the reviewers in the resubmission

60. Proposals – Turco & Wardrop The Process - Resubmission A rejected proposal becomes the basis for your next effort. FIX YOUR FLAWS; Listen to the panel DO NOT call the program manager and complain Call and ask how to make it better They see +1000 proposals per year

61. Proposals – Turco & Wardrop What does a Review Panel teach you? The mathematics of review (how much what weighs) Are there separate programmatic reviews? What are dealbusters and doorclosers? What are specific disciplines that are problematic for reviewers?

62. Proposals – Turco & Wardrop Federal, State, Industrial, University, and College sources State: Some agencies have programs Develop a relationship with staff – flexibility in your area is the key Work with them on panels and programs Industrial: Highly individualized Contacts are the key Performance on tight time schedule is key Rare to see a RFP from industry

63. Proposals – Turco & Wardrop Your Pathway: Budgeting Submitting (rules) Reviews Rejection Recovery Resubmission The Proposal Motivation Reading (Guidelines) Pre-Planning Calling (Program Staff) The Writing

64. Motivations for Writing a Proposal? Finding problems to work on is easy, it is much more difficult to define problems that are important. Work on important problems get funded!

65. Proposals – Turco & Wardrop The Process – Ideas Except in politics and infomercials, a bad idea is a bad idea no mater how well it is presented. With proposals, a good idea presented badly will not be funded. The IDEA is the make or break point for the proposal. Note: if after four submissions you can’t get the idea funded -- move on.

66. Proposals – Turco & Wardrop Have a good idea! It can be said with complete confidence that any scientist of any age who wants to make important discoveries must study important problems. Sir Peter Medawar, 1979 Dull or piffling problems yield dull or piffling answers. It is not enough that a problem should be interesting –almost any problem Is interesting if it is studied in sufficient depth.

67. Proposals – Turco & Wardrop One approach to an idea I had been reading Wired Magazine and C&E News and figured out that Environmental Implications of Nanomaterials had been overlooked. In the Fall of 2003 I attended “NanoDays” at Rice University (CBEN) … Covered nanomaterials and I met the “players”. Came back and put together a group, shared a few papers, started a couple of experiments, developed a literature review and waited. (NSF and EPA both had RFPs in 6 months) Payoff: $1.97M in combined EPA and NSF support

68. Proposals – Turco & Wardrop The Review (Typical Process) Program Director/Agency Staff setup process Proposal is assigned for peer-review Possible for 3 to 6 external ad hoc reviewers 3 panelists - 1 o, 2 o and 3 o (“reader”) Maybe as many as 25 panelists in room The 3 panelist write their own reviews and will see all ad hoc reviews ( if ad hoc is used ): 1 o on 5 2 o on 5 Reader on 10 The rest of the panel only sees the abstract

69. Proposals – Turco & Wardrop The Panel (Typical Process) Primary reviewer summarizes proposal Primary, secondary, and reader provide evaluation and critique in order Ad hoc reviews are summarized They are not at the meeting The power is in the panel Ad hoc info not always used Discussion of your proposal takes place Ratings available to all panelists (except those with COI)

70. Proposals – Turco & Wardrop Two Types of Findings: Ranked (you are arranged by the panel) Authorized (you are acceptable to the panel) (often hidden ranking)

71. Proposals – Turco & Wardrop The Review Panel Every panel is different but the goal is the same: Rank a huge number of proposals from: outstanding to do not fund (DNF). Your goal is to achieve an outstanding ranking (puts you in automatic funding category) Very Goods can be subjected to rearrangement Good is not good enough 3 days

72. Proposals – Turco & Wardrop The Tote Board – Ranking Outstanding Very Good Good Fair Poor Ranked Within 1 10 $ Do Not Fund Proposals

73. Proposals – Turco & Wardrop The Tote Board – No Ranking Proposals Acceptable Unacceptable

74. Proposals – Turco & Wardrop Large Programs Panel A Panel B Excellent Proposals Excellent Proposals Combined & Funded ? Done by the Agency