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Funding Tips Archive

Funding Tips

• Words of wisdom on winning NIH Grants
• Proposal Development Initiative Graduate Assistance Program
• Funding for Nurses and Nursing Students

Funding Tips

Words of wisdom on winning NIH Grants
The following are remarks from a January 8 panel discussion titled "How to survive in a sea of sharks", or, "The secret of getting grants funded."*

George Malindzak, program administrator with the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, dispensed the following wise counsel:

• First and foremost, administrators want to hear from applicants—early and personally. It is vitally important that you contact your program administrator at the outset of the application process. Consider the benefits:
• You can receive guidance from the individual who runs the show.
• You can find out whether the Institute is in fact interested in your line of research.
• If the program administrator is interested, s/he will usually send an internal memo to the Review Group requesting that your application be scheduled for review—a request that is honored 80 percent of the time.
• The program administrator can line up appropriate reviewers in advance—an especially important advantage if your science is unusual.
• Early contact can save much time and help all parties concerned keep energy channeled efficiently.
• Young applicants—those under age 36—have the best success rate at NIH and are particularly encouraged to apply.
• Start thinking about a new grant proposal as soon as you get your first grant funded.
• Give credit for NIH funding, especially the specific Institute, in any published papers.

Other panelists' tips:

• Serve on study sections to familiarize yourself with the review process and to learn about the work of other researchers.
• Attend meetings; make yourself known in the field; be interactive.
• Ask yourself: is this proposal both feasible and worthwhile?
• Be innovative. Don't rehash old ideas or propose extensions of other people's work.
• Motivate the reviewer. Get him or her excited about your research.
• Make your proposal accessible, clearly and concisely stating exactly what you wish to accomplish. Avoid annoying errors such as unaccountably changing font size or rendering ideas in turgid or disorganized prose. Be reader-friendly.
• Address any issues raised in earlier reviews.
• At the end, summarize, highlighting important information and your primary message.

* Sponsored by the Research Administration Support Group

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Proposal Development Initiative Graduate Assistance Program
The graduate assistance program allows faculty members to request student assistance in a research program. It provides graduate students with the opportunity to be involved in the grant process and to formally become part of the proposal's research program by being written into the grant. Funding from this program is limited to student stipends of $1,500. Application forms may be obtained from the PDI web site or office.

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Funding for Nurses and Nursing Students
A new directory, Funding for Nursing Students and Nurses, 2002-2004, by Reference Service Press, has recently been added to the GrantSource Library collection. More than 600 grants, awards, scholarships, fellowships, loans, prizes, and other assistance programs are listed for nursing students and for nurses already in the field. These awards support study, research, projects, creative activities, professional development, traineeships, and other scholarly activities in the field. Each program description is prepared from current material supplied by the sponsoring organization. You can quickly read about the purpose, eligibility, monetary award, duration, special features, limitations, number awarded, and deadline date for any program that interests you. Handy indexes allow you to search for funding by sponsor, residency, tenability, nursing specialty, and even deadline date. This directory can be a very useful resource to supplement your online searches using some of the various electronic funding opportunities databases, such as Community of Science (COS) and Sponsored Programs Information Network (SPIN). Please check the the Library's funding opportunities web page for other funding information resources in nursing.

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For more information about the GrantSource Library's services and resources, please visit our web page at http://research.unc.edu/grantsource/library.html or contact

GrantSource Library
919-962-3463
gs@unc.edu