MANAGING GRANT OPPORTUNITIES & NURTURING FACULTY NETWORKS

MICHELLE MELIN-ROGOVINNORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY

MICHELLE SCHOENECKERUNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN-MILWAUKEE

April 18, 2012

Who We Are

What we bring to this presentation: Institution roles Agency expertise Academic environment and the faculty we

serve

Overview

Knowing Your Faculty Member Early-Stage (not tenured) Experienced (tenured)

Shaping the Idea Let’s Talk Data Connecting People and Projects

Targeting the Right Opportunities Identification strategies Best practices

Challenges We Face

Economic Environment Department funding to cover faculty salary

between grants is scarce Investigators struggle to fund research

personnel Harder for junior faculty to jump on the research

track Experienced faculty are not renewed

Funding Announcements “Transformative,” “Significant,” “Revolutionary” Calls to collaborate and maximize funding

Challenges We Face

Early-Stage Faculty jump the shark Experienced Faculty rely on what works

without following changes in practice and policy

Total R&D by Federal Agency: 2013 Request

Total Budget Authority Requested (in Billions)

DODHHSNASADOENSFOTHER

DOD: $72.1 Billion

NSF: $5.9 Billion

HHS (NIH: $31.4 Billion)

Source: NSF Grants Conference, 2012

DOE: $11.9 Billion

NASA: $9.6 Billion

TOTAL: $140.8 Billion

Knowing Your Faculty Member

Where Do I Start?

Stage of research career Experience with conducting research

studies Proposal development experience

Research interests How well developed are these interests? Keywords

Publications Research ideas

Data supporting research ideas

Faculty Profile Review

Other Sources

Literature PubMed

Biosketch Important for early stage investigators with

few publications One-on-One Interview

Research and funding goals Create keyword list Lab tour

Early-Stage Faculty

Inexperienced Unfamiliarity with funding sources and

programs that benefit early-stage investigators Little to no proposal development experience Anecdotal knowledge (my colleague/advisor

said…) Highly Motivated

Must get tenure = must apply for everything Shoot at everything and hope to hit something Need strategic planning/mentoring

Experienced Faculty

Been Around the Block Established funding track record Established contacts (colleagues, program

officers) Familiar with federal/private funding sources

and programs, but don’t keep up with changes Seek Sustainability

Sustain current projects Seed funding for new projects Leverage expertise in large-scale grant projects

Helping Faculty Shape the Idea

Junior Faculty Type of Data

Do you have enough data? Applying in the right place? Is it prelim or more advanced?

Scope of Project Seed funding or other How many aims/objectives vs. years Budget

Helping Faculty Shape the Idea

Collaborators What are they contributing Experience level

Effort Current commitments

Helping Sr. Faculty Shape the Idea

Senior Faculty Type of “Data”

Are you pushing the envelope? Are you doing the “same old thing”? What’s new and innovative? What are the new questions to examine? Are you publishing?

Helping Sr. Faculty Shape the Idea

Finding a Collaborator Maximizes intellectual capital Maximizes laboratory/facility resources Interdisciplinary/multidisciplinary

perspectives Increases competitiveness Program requirement

Connecting People & Projects Tools

Proposal/sponsor workshops (internal/external)

Faculty referrals Program officers Databases

Targeting the Right Opportunities

Know the Sponsors

Know your faculty members’ primary sponsors and programs NIH, NSF, NASA, DOE Early investigator/career; mentored; pilot/seed

funding; clinical trials; centers/institutes Investigate unlikely sponsors

DoD funds medical research NIH funds polymer research for drug applications NSF and DoD fund large-scale instrumentation for

non-clinical applications

Use Data to Plan Submissions to Build Research Portfolio

Stage of Project/Idea

Experience of Faculty

Target for Funding

Developing Pilot Data to support research idea

New to conducting this research study, or new to research in general

Internal or foundation funding if PI has experience in conducting research

Data supports research idea, ready to apply for preliminary study

Some research experience with this idea; early stage investigator

Foundation funding, K-award

Data supports research idea, ready to apply for preliminary study

Some research experience with this idea; more experienced investigator (PI)

R-03, R-21

Successful research supports preliminary hypothesis, has a full 5 year study

Contact PI leads study R01, Center grant, U mechanism, etc.

Renewal/Multi-site study

Opportunities Based on Role, Funding Offered (Type of Grant)

Contact Principal Investigator

Principal Investigator on a Pilot Study/Early Phase Trial

Principal Investigator on a multi-PI plan (not the contact PI)

Co-Investigator

Opportunity to think strategically about developing the experience of the faculty member in light of the project, the science, and the funding mechanism (dollars).

Identification Strategies

Go to the well (manual searching) or turn on the faucet (auto-aggregation/notification services)? Benefits of the well

Allows for very refined/granular search May find links/references to new sources Increased knowledge/familiarity with sponsor Better organization

Drawbacks of the well Can be very time-consuming Difficult for busy offices/departments

Identification Strategies

Benefits of the faucet Receive notices from the agencies/orgs of your

choice Set parameters once and change as needed Faster and easier to sift through a collection of

opportunities Repetition can help make sure you didn’t miss

important opportunities Drawbacks of the faucet

Easy to put aside; easy to scan through too fast Can be easy to miss a good match Deadlines can be too close

Dissemination Strategies

Do not waste faculty members’ time Send only relevant opportunities Do not send too many, too often Briefly summarize the most important

information Create a format that is easy to skim Include links to full solicitation, program

Web page, and other relevant sources Solicit feedback often – are you providing

the right kinds of opportunities?

Dissemination Strategies

Entice faculty members to read your information Determine how they prefer to receive opportunities

Visit a Web site? Receive an email or e-newsletter? All of the above?

Use language and formatting strategies (keywords, headers, boldface, underline, bulleted lists, numbering)

Use lots of white space to increase readability Maintain standard format for consistency,

familiarity

Dissemination Strategies

Provide ample lead time before the deadline Keep track of deadlines

Create a database, Excel spreadsheet, or other system

Keep a record of distributions E-mail folders Organize by faculty member, sponsor, month,

etc. Send Reminders

Determine preferred frequency Remind yourself!

Mentoring Faculty

Using NIH RePORTER

Pinpointing Topics and Sponsors

Helping faculty pare down ideas to target sponsors Use the RFA/guidelines to identify aims that

are most responsive Formulate budget to determine what’s

doable Ask the faculty member to consult mentor

or peer to ask their opinion

Using NSF Award Search

Develop Strategic Plan

UWM and UW System Grants

National Science Foundation (NSF)

National Institutes of Health (NIH)

Other Federal Government

Agencies

Other

Research Growth Initiative

Due October 4, 2010

Fall Submission Windows:

Aug. 15 – Sept. 23, 2010

Sept. 1 – Oct. 31, 2010

Sept. 7 – Oct. 7, 2010

R01 Submissions

Oct. 5, 2010

Feb. 5, 2011

June 5, 2011

R01 Resubmissions

Nov. 5, 2010

March 5, 2011

July 5, 2011

U.S. Dept. of DefenseCongressionally Directed Medical Research Programs (CDMRP)

Note: 2011 deadlines TBD

CTSAOctober 29, 2010

CTSI K12 MentoringDecember 1, 2010

 

Catalyst Grants

Announced in Jan. 2011

Pre-proposals due in March

Invited full proposals due in April

Fall 2011 dates not yet determined

UW System Applied Research Program

Announced Sept.-Oct. 2010

Full proposal due Jan. 14, 2011

Spring Submission Windows:

Jan. 7 to Feb. 7, 2011

Jan. 15 to Feb. 15, 2011

Feb. 1 – March 3, 2011

R21 Submissions

Oct. 16, 2010

Feb. 16, 2011

June 16, 2011

R21 Resubmissions

Nov. 16, 2010

March 16, 2011

July 16, 2011

Corporate Support

Meet with Mike Krauski, Director of Corporate Relationskrauski@uwm.edu414-229-6772

Private Foundations

(non-research grants):Meet with Anne Panter, UWM Development Officeanpanter@uwm.edu or414-229-3296

  CAREER ProgramDue July 20-23, 2011

     

Resources

Gathering Ideas NIH Reporter NSF Awards

Proposal Writing Templates Web sites

Collaborators

Thank you!

Questions?

Michelle Melin-Rogovin, M.A.Northwestern Universitym-melin-rogovin@northwestern.edu or 312-503-2856

Michelle Schoenecker, M.A.University of Wisconsin-Milwaukeeschoene7@uwm.edu or 414-229-4421