1 / 14

Early Planning for Grant Writing

Early Planning for Grant Writing. “Failing to plan is planning to fail”. Outline. Probable Outcomes/Contingencies Feasibility Fitting things together SMART Goal Setting. Probable Outcomes/Contingencies. What do you expect to observe?

abbot-casey
Download Presentation

Early Planning for Grant Writing

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

  1. Early Planning for Grant Writing “Failing to plan is planning to fail”

  2. Outline • Probable Outcomes/Contingencies • Feasibility • Fitting things together • SMART Goal Setting

  3. Probable Outcomes/Contingencies • What do you expect to observe? • What are your plans in case your experimental system goes awry? • You should not merely describe your experimental plan – the reader would not be expected to know how the studies are supposed to turn out • Under what circumstances will your hypothesis be: • Proved? • Disproved? • What will you do if something doesn’t work out that the rest of the project is dependent upon?

  4. Feasibility of Studies • Most grants are funded for a 2-5 year timeframe • You need to ensure that, whatever you propose, it can be accomplished within that window • Aim for 3 years, knowing that you have margin for error in that regard • Be careful about # samples and types of experiments you propose • For e.g., a microarray study on a cohort of 100 patients, prospectively over time (collecting 5 samples total) amounts to 500 array experiments, plus controls! • For Affymetrix GeneChip expression arrays, that’s easily $300K

  5. Complete this chart for yourselves…

  6. Each group should… • Know the points of collaboration • Know how all the projects “fit” together (what does the puzzle look like?) • Know the team’s failure modes • Know each other’s timelines

  7. SMART Planning • Always ask yourself the following: • Is this SPECIFIC? • Is this MEASURABLE? • Is this ATTAINABLE? • Is this REALISTIC? • Is this TIMELY?

  8. AOP Task 1. Making the project SPECIFIC WHY does this task need to be done? Identify your purpose/ objective Identify your actions WHAT steps need to be performed to execute this task? How many steps are there? Can any steps be performed in parallel? • WHICH resources are required to make this happen? • Human resources • Time resources • Skill sets Identify your obstacles Touch point: Do you have everything you need to make this task happen? If NOT – can you get what you need? Do we need to re-evaluate the task? WHO has to do this task? Identify your accountability Touch point: Do you need to recruit new people to make this task happen? WHERE does this fit within the work of the team? Identify your synergies WHEN does this task need to be completed? Identify your deadline

  9. AOP Task 1. Making the task SPECIFIC 2. Making the task MEASURABLE Does each step in the task have a defined BEGINNING and END? Identify your signposts Identify your stepwise deliverables How do we know when each step is done? Does each step in the task have a “measurable outcome?” Identify your outcomes How do we know that each step was successful? Touch point: Do you have a contingency in case a step has failed? Touch point: If something doesn’t work, can you understand why it doesn’t work? What are the end measures of success for the TASK? What are your PERFORMANCE INDICATORS? Identify your outcomes If the task is not MEASURABLE, was it developed properly? Does the MEASURABLE task lend itself to clearly identified next steps?

  10. AOP Task 1. Making the task SPECIFIC 2. Making the task MEASURABLE 3. Making the task ATTAINABLE Identify your resources • REVIEW: do you have everything you need to perform this task successfully? • Do you have the right resources? Touch point: If you don’t have what you need, can you go out and get it? Do you need to foster communications within your team to make this task work? Identify your collaborations Identify your failure modes Do you need to reconsider the task or involve the team in re-thinking the task’s framework?

  11. AOP Task 1. Making the task SPECIFIC 2. Making the task MEASURABLE 3. Making the task ATTAINABLE 4. Making the task REALISTIC • REVIEW: do you have everything you need to perform this task successfully? • Is the resource level sufficient for the purposes? • Is the timing appropriate? • Is the work too much, given everything else you have to do? • Is the task too big? • Is the task missing some necessary preliminary component? Identify task feasibility Identify your failure modes Do you need to reconsider the task or involve the team in re-thinking the task’s framework? If the task is not ATTAINABLE or FEASIBLE, is it because the concept or execution is flawed, or because the wrong people are driving it forward?

  12. AOP Task 1. Making the task SPECIFIC 2. Making the task MEASURABLE 3. Making the task ATTAINABLE 4. Making the task REALISTIC 5. Making the task TIMELY • REVIEW: do you have everything you need to perform this task successfully? • What are the realistic timeframes? • Do we need to change the grant to reflect more realistic assessments of the time it takes to get things done? • Do we have a good sense as to the length of the project? • How will we know when it’s done? Identify your timelines Identify your failure modes Do you need to reconsider the task or involve the team in re-thinking the task’s framework? If the task is not TIMELY, or it is delayed, what are the consequences to the Association of that delay?

  13. Apply SMART Goals • …To the team project • …To your contribution to the team project • …To each aim in your grant • …To how you work together as a group

  14. QUESTIONS?

More Related