1 / 16

Developing Your Concept

Developing Your Concept. Thomas F. Hilton, Ph.D. Program Official for Organization & Mgt. Science Nat’l. Inst. on Drug Abuse/NIDA. Think – before you act. NIH applications require all your thinking and planning up front. Theory Development Research Design Research Team and Budget

hagen
Download Presentation

Developing Your Concept

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. Developing Your Concept Thomas F. Hilton, Ph.D. Program Official for Organization & Mgt. Science Nat’l. Inst. on Drug Abuse/NIDA

  2. Think – before you act. NIH applications require all your thinking and planning up front. • Theory Development • Research Design • Research Team and Budget • Sampling and Population Access Thus, Grant Applications are Expensive!

  3. Probe – before you plunge. Test the waters before you invest time and resources, or you risk getting soaked. • Is this this right institute – right branch – right PO? • Does my project align with the institute’s mission? • Does my planned level of effort exceed the value of the problem I want to address?

  4. Contact a Program Official. What do they call it when you want a million dollars just for sending in a form? A Lottery!

  5. Contact a Program Official. POs are an applicant’s insider advocate. • POs can tell you how welcome your idea will be. • POs help you align your application with the institute’s mission. • POs can advise you on they kinds of questions that are likely to arise on grants like yours. • POs advocate for funding after peer review. • POs advise you about resubmissions.

  6. Use of Concept Paper • Allows assessment of potential for success as a grant – by colleagues as well as POs. • Forces you to think through the project before you talk about it to others – no loose ends. • Forms the basis for application development – keeps you focused. • Helps collaborators stay on same channel you are tuned into – keeps your team focused.

  7. Useful concept paper contents.

  8. Grant Purpose • You want a grant for a how-many-year period? • To do what? • At what cost/level of effort? I want a grant for 3 years to find out the best ways to implement service orientation in drop-in clinics. I was thinking that this would involve 30 clinics and run about $250K a year.

  9. Problem / Background Explain why the literature or your research leads you to think this topic needs study. There are at least a dozen studies showing that drop-in clinic patients who drop out of treatment mention lack of staff concern as a contributing factor.

  10. Significance What is the payoff to science AND to public health? Jones & Smith showed in their 2003 study that retaining drop-in clinic patients in treatment could save $1,100 per incident in reduced need for re-treatment and lowered contagion.

  11. Question Derived from the background literature, what model will guide your hypotheses and what hypotheses will you test? I think that ASA theory will explain why patients will stay when service orientation is high, and what will re-engage patients who have left.

  12. Design • What is the study design that will enable testing your hypotheses? • Sample (power, population) • Intervention (Hi, Med, Lo impact; nature) • Controls • Measures, etc.

  13. Analyses What statistical approach will ensure a fair test based on your data? I want to run a lagged panel correlation and SEMs comparing dropouts, re-engagers, and stayers within and between clinics with SO training and without it.

  14. Team Who do you envision as helping on the project? • Disease experts • Statisticians • Economists • Field colleagues • Theory consultant

  15. Feedback • With a good concept of your project, you PO can provide the most accurate advice. • Ask the right questions to guide your application • Make you aware of related projects • Point out significant barriers/opportunities • Suggest the best grant program and mechanism • Your PO interactions help to build I/C enthusiasm for your project.

  16. Overview • Grant Purpose (Briefly, you want a grant for a #-year period to do what? At what cost/level of effort?) • Problem/Background (Explain why the literature/your research leads you to think this topic needs study.) • Significance (What is the payoff to science AND to public health?) • Question (Derived from the background literature, what model will guide your hypotheses and what hypotheses will you test?) • Design (What is the study design that will enable testing your hypotheses? Sample, intervention, controls, measures, etc.) • Analysis (What statistical approach will ensure a fair test based on your data?) • Team (Who do you envision as helping on the project?)

More Related