Tag: academic

Answering the So What? Question

A Grant Professional Association colleague of mine likes to challenge nonprofits and grant writers with asking them, “So what?”  Likewise it’s a challenge to researchers.  As an open-ended question, this stops people in their tracks about their or the organization’s mission and goals. It should stop academic scientists too. To me, it is about taking …

Myths of the Colleague Proposal Review

A frequent piece of advice in academic science is to have someone else read your grant proposal before submission. That advice usually means having a colleague review your grant proposal. Another pair of scientifically literate eyes can determine whether your ideas engage the reader and tell a good research story. An extra pair of eyes …

Some Thoughts About Academic and Scientific Grants

Grant consulting is hard work.  I am fortunate to belong to the Grant Professionals Association.  It is a great group and I’ve found some great colleagues.  Scientist members are pretty rare within the organization, but there are large higher education and health care special interest groups.  Once I got more involved with the local chapter …