Strategies and Resources for Funding in the Natural Sciences Gary W. Small Department of Chemistry & Optical Science and Technology Center CLAS New Faculty Orientation, 8/21/13

Issues to Consider  Current funding climate  Strategies and resources  Internal proposals  External proposals  The proposal process  Some final thoughts

Current Funding Climate

Current Funding Climate

Current Funding Climate Source: Source:

Strategies and Resources (Internal Proposals)  Submit as soon as proposal is viable    Provides funding for preliminary results  Provides informative feedback  Provides mechanism to crystallize ideas  Clear explanation of significance  Clear description of experimental design  Challenge of explaining to an audience of non- specialists (avoiding jargon)

Strategies and Resources (External Proposals)  Submit as soon as proposal is viable  Until funding is established, don’t let a deadline pass without submitting  Learn what has been funded recently    Note special Requests for Applications (RFA’s)   Look for special opportunities for young investigators  

The Proposal Process Idea or Hypothesis Preliminary Results Papers Proposal Papers Project Success Failure Acknowledgement: Mark Arnold, Department of Chemistry

Writing the Proposal  Follow instructions  Leave room to describe proposed research  Include a detailed experimental plan  Include preliminary results  Identify potential problems and suggest possible solutions  Include a timeline  Include reprints of your relevant publications (if allowed)  Don’t make it too expensive to fund  Don’t make it difficult to evaluate  Know evaluation criteria and process

Some Final Thoughts  Persistence is critical  Learn to limit your anger over rejection  Reviewers are usually trying to help  Address criticisms in any resubmission  Work on building your visibility  Meet program officers at agencies  Conference participation  Meet your competitors  Discover your supporters and detractors  Invite key players in your field to Iowa for a seminar  Develop your research niche  At tenure time, need to have an identifiable research program

Some Final Thoughts  Consider a mix of collaborative and individual work  Collaborative projects can be an important component of a research program  Allows bigger problems to be tackled  Important to be able to demonstrate your own contribution  Don’t ignore the mission-oriented agencies such as DOE, DOD, NASA  Important to develop contacts at Government labs  Take advantage of the proximity of your colleagues  Have successful colleagues read your proposals

Some Final Thoughts  Advice is plentiful  Consider it but in the end you have to take the path that works for you