Here's a quick run-down of points to keep in mind when you are tempted to apply for a grant. Many of these are expounded upon at great length in other sections of this Handbook (see links below)

To Go or Not To Go

• Is it worth it? Carrying out an externally funded project can sometimes interfere with your larger goals. Don't do it unless it furthers your scientific, educational or clinical aims.
• Do you have time to prepare an application? If not, would you have time to carry out the project if it gets funded?
• Think of grants as venture capital. Very few funders are willing to support your project for the indefinite future. Look on each project as the seed money necessary to demonstrate the need for ongoing institutional or agency support of a coherent program of research, training or service.
• Never apply for a grant just because it's there.
• Accomplishing the project is more important than getting the grant. Sometimes you will come across opportunities to use institutional resources, or even other people's grants, to get your project done. Don't turn down these chances on the assumption that you'll get your own grant. Honor the idea, not the money.
• Is it wired? Look for these characteristics:
1. The grant opportunity announcement is extremely specific about the type of institution that may apply.
2. The announcement describes the project to be funded in minute detail. (This red flag only applies to grants -- contract announcements are usually very detailed in their programmatic requirements. See RFA's, RFP's & PA's)
3. There are only one or two awards available.
4. The turnaround time, from announcement to submission due date, is very short (less than a month).
• What is the turnaround time allowed? Even if the grant's not wired, the time may be too short for you to produce a competitive application.
• How many will be funded? This tells you something about the competitiveness of the award.
• Did someone at the agency tell you about this one in advance? (This is a good sign)

See also Finding Funding Opportunities

Sources to check:

• Federal Register
• NIH Guide to Grants and Contracts
• Foundation Center Directory of Grantmakers
• GrantsNet (HHS)
• GrantsWeb (Society of Research Administrators)
• Donors Forum of Chicago
• The CCBHS Resource Room
• AAAS/Howard Hughes Grantsnet
• Your friends at the agency.

If don't have some, you should start making them. You will often meet project officers from funding agencies at professional meetings and conferences. You can also cultivate the appropriate people by attending educational events sponsored by the agency, or by phone or e-mail. People in these positions are expected to help you make competitive applications -- whether by encouraging you to apply to their agency or by referring you to a more appropriate one. You can get a good deal of informal feedback about the salability of your project and advice on how to make it more salable.

What to Look For In an Opportunity

• Is your institution eligible for this award ?

Go to the "Eligibility" section first. No amount of wonderful writing can make you eligible when you aren't.
• Does this opportunity fit your project?

You would not be willing to take on the effort -- not to say the trauma -- of making a grant application if you didn't feel strongly about carrying out a particular project. When you evaluate whether an opportunity fits, pay attention to the enthusiasm, or lack of it, you feel in altering your ideas to fit the opportunity.
• What is the expected amount of each award?

Don't shortchange your project. If you truly need $100,000 to carry it out, don't try to do it for $25,000.
• Can you meet the deadline(s)?

The amount of lead time you have between announcement and deadline can vary considerably. Typically, NIH awards offer several months to prepare an application, but other agencies, such as HRSA or CDC may give you 5 or even 4 weeks from the time the announcement first appears in the Federal Register (I once saw a lead time for a competitive federal grant of seventeen days)
• Is it an RFA, RFP, PA or open opportunity?

See RFA's, RFP's & PA's for an explanation of the differences among them when referring to NIH grants (other agencies may use "RFA" and "RFP" interchangeably).

You are most likely to encounter an "open" opportunity, with no set deadline, when applying to a foundation. Since foundations make awards through the decisions of their boards, you should call the contact person for the foundation and ask when the board next meets, and how soon before the meeting your application must be received for it to be considered. This is your real deadline.

• What's the competition like?

If you know your field, you will have a sense of who else might be applying for this grant. If only two awards are available, and you know that the two biggest names in the topic area are likely to apply -- and you're not one of them -- you may have an uphill battle to get funding.

How to Start

• Call the contact person listed -- remember that the program officer is your friend.
• Contact potential collaborators. Don't be afraid to approach big shots.
• Start a work group:

1. Meet regularly.

If meetings take place at a predictable time and place you will get more consistent support.
2. Divide the tasks.

Any application for larger-than-small project can benefit from a division of labor. One person, usually the Principal Investigator or Project Director, will act as the overall editor and manager of the application process. Members of the group should each be called upon to provide those sections they are best prepared for: to review the relevant literature in their areas of expertise; to compile statistics on local conditions; to describe their own previous research or programs; to solicit letters of support from persons and institutions they know best.
3. Serve food:

It is a fundamental fact of human nature that it's hard to get overly snippy when you're sitting around a plate of chocolate chip cookies. Serve coffee for the addicted -- they get headaches otherwise.
4. Brainstorm:

• First, outline your objectives and goals.
• Second, outline your current resources/capabilities.
• Third, ask yourself: "Can I get from here to there?"

Finally, what methods and money will get you from here to there?

Answering these questions -- clearly and convincingly -- is the essence of a successful grant application.

Preparing the Application

Follow the guidelines exactly.
Follow the guidelines EXACTLY.

FOLLOW THE GUIDELINES EXACTLY.

Not following guidelines is #1 reason grant applications don't get funded.

• Use a check-off system.

Go through your application materials and make a list of all required elements (many application packets provide this for you). Check off the parts you need as you finish them. This way, you won't be surprised that you need a budget justification or a letter of support just as you're about to send the thing in.
• Outline the whole document first, then fill in the narrative.
• Make your application easy to read. A cardinal rule of grantsmanship is:

DO NOT COMMIT EYESTRAIN!

1. Use headings, sub-headings, etc. as signposts throughout the narrative.


2. Use tables, figures and charts where you can -- prepare these before you write the narrative that goes with them. Headings, tables, figures and charts break up the tedious gray mass of type that is a grant application. Headings make it easy for a reviewer to go back and check on points he/she may not remember clearly. Graphic presentations often save more text space than they take up.
3. Use the overall outline provided by the funder. This makes your application predictable, and makes it easy for a reviewer to confirm that all the parts are there. Within the major headings (e.g., Research Plan) you can use your own sub-headings (e.g., Pilot Study IA, Sampling Procedure).
4. Clarity and specificity throughout!
• Some stylistic pointers:
1. The Kavarik Rule for Punching Your Point Home: Use a simple declarative sentence at the beginning and at the end of each paragraph.
2. The Old Editor's Rule: You can always cut 20% from a first draft while keeping the entire meaning intact.
3. The Activist's Rule: Use the active voice, not the passive voice. Don't make nouns out of your verbs. Avoid "ing" words and "ly" words.

Compare these examples:

"It has been suggested (Pettifogg, 1992) that using alphanumeric codes for identifying subjects will lead to more compliance."

"Pettifogg (1992) suggests that more subjects comply when identified by alphanumeric codes."

1. The Optimist's Rule: Present everything with a positive tone, even negative results. Show that you can anticipate problems and have strategies to solve them. No whining!
2. Cut the purple prose. The funding agency knows how dire the problem is; that's why the money's available.
3. Use a few striking statistics to illustrate the problem. Use local statistics to show that you're in the thick of it.
• Neatness counts. Use a laser printer with a scalable font for your final printout.
• Don't cheat on margins or font sizes. They now use scanners to check those things.

Budget Tips

See also Constructing a Grant Budget

• Use a spread sheet program to develop your budget.

There is no excuse for wasting your precious grant preparation time punching the same numbers into your calculator all night. If you don't have a spreadsheet program, you can download a Wordperfect-based Budget Worksheet that acts as a spreadsheet.
• Make a detailed timeline and prorate your yearly costs according to scheduled activities.
• Start with a full-cost budget (all your wishes fulfilled) and then trim to fit funding limits. If you do this, you will be able to more clearly estimate what your institution will have to contribute to the project, and then get the appropriate approvals up front (see Who Signs What and Why). You will also be forced to prioritize your proposed activities. There is nothing like cutting a budget to focus the mind...
• Include contributed time and resources in the budget.

Do this to summarize for institutional officials what in-kind staff time will be necessary, and to make clear to reviewers the full array of resources to be made available for your project.
• Build in for inflation.

Increase salaries 3% yearly, fringe benefits by a 1% increment yearly. Not only will this help cover any cost-of-living increases in your payroll, if salaries and fringes don't go up in subsequent years, you'll have a little slack in your budget which you can reallocate as needed (It's always needed).
• Use an accurate fringe benefit rate.
• Use an accurate indirect cost rate.

To find out what the current fringe benefit rates and indirect cost rates are, contact the Office of Research Development, the Hektoen Institute or your institution's Finance Office.
• Keep equipment costs low.

Unless the grant is specifically for equipment, the funder will not want to buy much of it. If it's equipment normally provided by an employer, it will not likely be funded by an external agency at all. At present, federal funders are willing to buy pc's, printers, and fax machines if they are clearly needed for the project (this is where your Budget Justification comes in). These agencies will not buy photocopiers or medical equipment usually available in a hospital or clinic. For more information about federal policies on purchasing equipment see: NIH: Commonly Asked Questions about Equipment Under Grants and the PHS Equipment Policy.
• Be aware of the difference between staff and consultants -- the IRS cares.

Some big grant recipients ran a scam a few years back in which grant-funded employees were called "consultants" to avoid paying them fringe benefits. As Zoe Baird learned the hard way, an employer must pay certain fringes, such as Social Security and Workman's Compensation contributions. These grant recipients also learned the hard way, and paid both back taxes and penalties. To avoid a similar trap, see Consultant Or Employee?
• Your reviewers won't be impressed with under costing.

Remember, they do this sort of project themselves, and they know what things cost. Don't try to sell a Lexus at a Yugo price -- it will count against you that you haven't planned for adequate resources to successfully carry out your project. If you want to be funded in the margins of the agency's grant funds, sell them a great Yugo (a good small project at an appropriate price).
• Your reviewers can tell if you've padded your budget and they will cut accordingly.

Egregious padding shows. If you want some tips on building in budget slack, come to the Budgeting Workshop offered by the Office of Research Development.
• When you need to show matching funds for a service or training grant, use contributed time plus the increased indirects you would have gotten from a research grant. If this is Greek to you, sign up for the workshop mentioned above or call the Office of Research Development for help.

Sending It In

Make sure you get all the necessary signatures early (you can get institutional signatures before the whole application is in finished, polished form).
• Leave enough time to get the copies made. There is a corollary of Murphy's Law that says the Department copier will break the day your grant application is due. If it does, a copier is available in the Research Development Resource Room. As a last resort you may have to use a professional copy service.
• Double-check to see that you have all items required.
• Don't miss your deadline!
• Send your package by Federal Express or UPS -- not the post office -- and save your receipt.

Back to Top