Grant Writing for Women. Just kidding!

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Corey Hensley
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1 Grant Writing for Women Just kidding!

2 Principles of Grant Writing AdvanceVT workshop Nancy Dudek Grants Coordinator Friday, February 21st 1:00 p.m.- 2:30p.m Graduate Life Center (Room G)

3 Agenda What is a grant? What is a request for proposals? What is a proposal? Finding Funding Strategy and Argument Writing Fundamentals

4 What is a grant?

5 A GRANT IS Money given to complete a specific purpose in a given amount of time.

6 What is a grant? SMART Specific NOT A GIFT NOT your money Measureable Attainable Relevant Time-bound

7 What is an RFP?

8 aka Request for proposals Solicitation FOA Funding Opportunity Announcement PA Program Announcement

9 Request for Proposal Highly structured document Advertises a funding opportunity Specifies what service, product, or program the sponsor wants Describes eligibility requirements Lists submission requirements Describes the review, selection, judging process

10 What is a proposal?

11 What is a proposal? A persuasive argument to convince a sponsor to fund your idea SMART Specific Measureable Attainable Relevant Timely

12 Heilmeier s Catechism See handout LCD display inventor Director of DARPA Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency Composed a series of questions that reveals your argument

13 Heilmeier s Catechism 1. What are you trying to do? Articulate your objectives using absolutely no jargon. 2. How is it done today, and what are the limits of current practice? 3. What's new in your approach and why do you think it will be successful? 4. Who cares?

14 Heilmeier s Catechism 5. If you're successful, what difference will it make? 6. What are the risks and the payoffs? 7. How much will it cost? 8. How long will it take? 9. What are the midterm and final "exams" to check for success?

15 GTP GET TO THE POINT ON PAGE ONE

17 Example of a grant

18 US Fulbright Student Program

19 US Fulbright Programs International education exchange Education, culture, science, art +140 countries Students, scholars, teachers, professionals

20 Notable Fulbright Alumni Aaron Copland, composer Renee Fleming, soprano Jonathon Franzen, author Gabrielle Giffords, congresswoman Philip Glass, composer Julie Taymor, designer & director Sylvia Plath, Poet John Lithgow, actor James Watson, scientist John Steinbeck, author

21 Parts of a proposal: Fulbright Biosketch Affiliation letter Foreign Language Forms References Transcripts Portfolio Title Abstract Statement of grant purpose Personal Statement (Budget)

22 Fulbright Due date October us.fulbrightonline.org

23 Where can you find funding?

24 R&D Spending by Federal Agency FY2014 (President's Request) $millions USDA $2,476 Interior $945 DOT $922 EPA $550 DOC $2,632 DHS $1,348 VA $1,150 Other $1,696 NSF $6,124 DOD $68,202 NIH* $29,923 HHS $31,450 DOE $12,502 NASA $11,389

25 Funding for the arts is very different, see me afterwards for numbers

26 At Virginia Tech

27 FINDING FUNDING See handout*

28 Public Funding Databases Grants.gov Sponsor websites NEA, NSF, NIH, EPA, USDA The Grantsmanship Center Tgci.com 28

29 VT Subscription Databases Grantforward.com Foundation Directory online professional fconline.foundationcenter.org VT OVPR 29 dingopps/

30 *Not listed: crowdsourcing

31 Strategy

32 Know the sponsor

33 Contact the program manager

34 Search the award database Search by: Keyword State Institution (VT) Program Program Manager

35 Know the requirements Times New Roman, Arial and Garamond walk into a bar. The bartender points at Garamond and yells, HEY! We don t serve your type in here!

37 Know the review criteria

39 Remember that reviewers are fatigued

40 Volunteer to review proposals

41 Compose an argument

42 What is an argument? Reasons presented to the audience to support your debate, hypothesis, or claim A set of reasons persuading the grant reviewer that your project will fulfill their mission Your proposal must anticipate the reviewer s critiques and offer a rebuttal

43 What are arguments made of?

44 What is an argument? Ethos or credibility of the project leader Pathos or emotional appeal to the reader s & sponsor s values Logos or intellectual reasoning

45 A complete proposal argues with both brains

46 Writing Fundamentals

47 USE THE ACTIVE VOICE Have you ever noticed how children talk?

48 I want pumpkins! Pumpkins are wanted by me!

49 Use the active voice The ball was thrown by Nancy Nancy threw the ball Fifteen subjects were recruited We recruited fifteen subjects

50 Use verbs instead of nouns Water consumption was an average of 100 liters per person per day. Residents consume an average of 100 liters of water per person per day.

51 Keep Subject,verb,object close One study of 235 mice with ataxia demonstrated that only 0.05% of the mice had the gene. One study demonstrated that of mice with ataxia, only 0.05% had the gene (n=235).

52 Use simple words A variety of crop improvements that may pose negative externalities are in development. A variety of crop improvements that may pose unintended consequences are in development.

53 Avoid qualifiers Community building is very important for economic success Community building is essential for economic success The use of GMOs has become very controversial The use of GMOs is controversial

54 Spell chek

55 Readability

56 Be early

57 ACTIVITY Write a Subject Verb Object sentence for the following photo:

59 ACTIVITY Write a PASSIVE voice sentence and an ACTIVE voice sentence for the following photo. (The subject of the photo is Hokie Bird mascot, Jared Parker)

61 Writer s Block

62 BEFORE YOU BEGIN Write down the answers to the following two questions: 62

63 Answer these questions: What is the sponsor s mission or purpose? How does my project fulfill the sponsor s mission? 63

64 Talk it out

65 Writer s Block Prompts I can t write about X because. We know that. We don t know. We want to know because

66 Professional Conduct

67 Plagarism Most serious offense in your professional work Easily caught with plagiarism software Several types of plagarism You can not cut/paste your own work

69 Help With Writing VT Writing Center drop-in sessions and graduate students only Graduate Life Center Thursdays 4:30 p.m.-7:30 p.m., Room D Supports Developing Country Researchers in Publishing Their Work

70 Electronic Submission

71 OSP

72 Office of Sponsored Programs Every department has one OSP pre-award administrator and one backup admin OSP develops the budget OSP submits the proposal OSP requires departmental and college approval before submission No one can submit their own proposal

73 Office of Sponsored Programs SPAF is due two working days before the deadline Entire proposal package due 1 working day before deadline

75 Summary You should only pursue the right grants (strategize) Know the sponsor Know the requirements Budget lots of time Get to the point You should use argument and persuasion You should write with style and clarity ALL THE TIME

76 THAT SUBMISSION WAS SO MUCH FUN, LET S DO IT AGAIN*! *SAID NO ONE EVER

77 Questions?

Writing Effective Grant Proposals

Writing Effective Grant Proposals Writing Proposals is an Essential Activity of Scientists You will likely write proposals for many reasons as a scientist or engineer: NSF or DOE grad fellowship proposals