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 …