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April 18, 2012

Managing Grant Opportunities & Nurturing Faculty Networks Michelle Melin-Rogovin Northwestern University Michelle Schoenecker University of Wisconsin- MIlwaukee. April 18, 2012. Who We Are. What we bring to this presentation: Institution roles Agency expertise

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April 18, 2012

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  1. Managing Grant Opportunities & Nurturing Faculty NetworksMichelle Melin-RogovinNorthwestern UniversityMichelle SchoeneckerUniversity of Wisconsin-MIlwaukee April 18, 2012

  2. Who We Are • What we bring to this presentation: • Institution roles • Agency expertise • Academic environment and the faculty we serve

  3. 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

  4. 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

  5. Challenges We Face • Early-Stage Faculty jump the shark • Experienced Faculty rely on what works without following changes in practice and policy

  6. Total R&D by Federal Agency: 2013 Request NSF: $5.9 Billion DOE: $11.9 Billion DOD: $72.1 Billion NASA: $9.6 Billion HHS (NIH: $31.4 Billion) TOTAL: $140.8 Billion Source: NSF Grants Conference, 2012

  7. Knowing Your Faculty Member

  8. 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

  9. Faculty Profile Review

  10. 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

  11. 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

  12. 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

  13. 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

  14. Helping Faculty Shape the Idea • Collaborators • What are they contributing • Experience level • Effort • Current commitments

  15. 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?

  16. Helping Sr. Faculty Shape the Idea • Finding a Collaborator • Maximizes intellectual capital • Maximizes laboratory/facility resources • Interdisciplinary/multidisciplinary perspectives • Increases competitiveness • Program requirement

  17. Connecting People & Projects • Tools • Proposal/sponsor workshops (internal/external) • Faculty referrals • Program officers • Databases

  18. Targeting the Right Opportunities

  19. 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

  20. Use Data to Plan Submissions to Build Research Portfolio

  21. Opportunities Based on Role, Funding Offered (Type of Grant) Opportunity to think strategically about developing the experience of the faculty member in light of the project, the science, and the funding mechanism (dollars).

  22. 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

  23. 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

  24. 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?

  25. 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

  26. 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!

  27. Mentoring Faculty

  28. Using NIH RePORTER

  29. 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

  30. Using NSF Award Search

  31. Develop Strategic Plan

  32. Resources • Gathering Ideas • NIH Reporter • NSF Awards • Proposal Writing • Templates • Web sites • Collaborators

  33. 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

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