1 kim m. gans, phd, mph, ldn professor, dept. of behavioral & social sciences and director,...

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DRAFTING AN NIH GRANT PROPOSAL: SIGNIFICANCE AND

INNOVATION

Kim M. Gans, PhD, MPH, LDN

Professor, Dept. of Behavioral & Social Sciences and

Director, Institute for Community Health Promotion

Brown University School of Public Health

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Who am I? 1992-present: Assistant to Associate to Full Professor at

Brown University School of Public Health 2009-present: Director, Institute for Community Health

Promotion Starting in Fall 2014: Professor, Department of Human

Development and Family Studies and CHIP, University of Connecticut

Research: Intervention studies in community-based settings to improve eating habits, increase physical activity and prevent/treat obesity

Many grant review committees Past 4 years - standing member of CLHP study section

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Who am I?

Funded continuously on federal grants since 1986

PI grants: 1 USDA grant 1 R21 grant 4 R01 grants (Another R01 pending) 2 R18 grants (like R01 but translational

research) 1 R13 (pending) 4 Foundation grants (RWJF and Tufts Health

Plan Foundation)

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Overall ImpactFunction of Importance and Likelihood

1. Importance—the significance and innovation of the research problem—its ability to move the frontier of knowledge forward

2. Likelihood—the ability that you, the PI, can achieve your ends, as judged by your experimental design, the expertise of your team, and the resources at your disposal to execute the project

Impact = function of importance (significance, innovation) and likelihood (approach, investigator, environment)

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Significance and Innovation

The peer review criteria reviewers use to assess the importance of your application

Must highlight these factors effectively

“Sales job”

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Good quote

“NIH doesn’t want all the detailed minutiae about what reagent you’re going to use, who the vendor is, and what temperature you’re doing the experiment at.

If you’re conveying those things, without having spent the time (i.e. space) to convince the reader in the first place about the value of the work that you’re doing, then your proposal will be received much like a proposition for a long night of sex after one short speed date.”

http://morganonscience.com/grantwriting/nih-grant-writing-tips-the-new-format-significance-innovation-approach/

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NIH Study Section

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So if Significance and Innovation both speak to Importance, what’s the

difference between them? Significance

The positive effect that successful completion of your research project is likely to have as the result of solving an important, NIH-relevant problem

Innovation A new and substantially different way of considering/addressing

an important, public-health relevant problem that results in substantive departure from the status quo, thereby enabling new horizons that are pertinent to NIH

Both seek to advance the field and speak to the importance of the research

Russell, SW and Morrison, DC. The grant application writer’s workbook. National Institutes of Health Version

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Significance

Will your project advance your field and fit the NIH mission to improve health through science?

Whether the project is worth doing How important your research would be if

everything worked perfectly It does not take into account your ability to

conduct the research Assumes success - that the “aims of the project

are achieved” and/or will be “successfully completed”

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Significance: NIH Reviewer Criteria

1. Does the project address an important problem or a critical barrier to progress in the field?

2. If the aims of the project are achieved, how will scientific knowledge, technical capability, and/or clinical practice be improved?

3. How will successful completion of the aims change the concepts, methods, technologies, treatments, services or preventative intervention that drive this field?

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What is told to reviewers about Significance

Score the Significance criterion independently of your evaluation and scoring of the other 4 review criteria

Consider whether this specific project advances the field; not whether the field is important

Does the project address an important problem or a critical barrier to progress in the field, or has the ability to improve knowledge, technical capability or clinical practice in a major (1-3), moderate (4-6) or minor (7-9) way?

Relevance to human disease is not required for significance

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Significance: One Approach

Three parts to significance:

1. Review literature and write contribution statement

2. Statement of significance

3. Discussion of benefits


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Part 1: Review primary literature that substantiates why its an important problem that needs to be addressed

Explain the importance of the problem (i.e. prevalence data, morbidity, etc.)

Background of the field

Detail existence of research gaps/needs/opportunities

Frame why this is an important problem to solve

Conclude with a sentence that explicitly describes the contribution that you expect to make.

Should relate back to your specific aims

The expected contribution of the proposed research is…

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Part 2: Statement of significance Why the expected contribution is important /

significant.

What is the positive impact that your contribution will have?

Most important sentence that you will write in the application

Simple and direct

Specific and substantive

Use Bold or italics

The proposed research will have a significant positive impact on the field of public health because ….:

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Part 3: Discussion of benefits Advancement of the field

Relevant to NIH’s mission

How will proposed research enable subsequent thinking and research

How will it decrease morbidity/mortality, improvements in QOL and/or medical outcomes, reduction in costs, etc.

Provides support for the significance statement

Include references

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Another approach

Prepare an outline with Bullets of the points you want to make

Then Expand into sentences - Subheadings are one sentence that highlight a key point

Then evidence given for that point follows

Summarize all points of significance at the end

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Pointers

If you are using a specific Program Announcement, mention it , use specific language from it and cite it.

Scan review committee roster to see who potential reviewers might be Determine how well reviewers may know your field and

add write accordingly

Cite reviewers on the committee if possible

Preliminary studies?

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Pointers (cont.)

No more than 2 pages (shorter for non-R01)

Use bolding, italics, and sectioning to highlight key points and make it easier for reviewers to read

If significance section is somewhat long, summarize it at the end

If you have trouble writing significance, explain the significance to others verbally and tape yourself (or use Dragon software).

Complete Approach section before tackling Significance because you will have a clearer overall perspective of your proposal

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√ Significance Checkpoint

Point out the project's significance throughout the application (not just in significance section)

Should extend and validate Specific Aims section Describe importance of your hypothesis to the

field and human disease Shows that you are aware of opportunities, gaps,

roadblocks, and research underway in your field States how your research will advance your field,

highlighting knowledge gaps and showing how project fills one or more of them

Don’t forget to discuss sustainability, dissemination capability

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Innovation

How advancement of the field results from using innovative approaches that deviate from traditional approaches

Not just “novelty”

Implies not only newness, but a sense of unique utility

An innovative grant proposal will propose to solve a problem in new ways

Show how your proposed research is new and unique, e.g., explores new scientific avenues, has a novel hypothesis, will create new knowledge.

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Innovation: NIH Reviewer Criteria

Does the application challenge and seek to shift current research or clinical practice paradigms by utilizing novel theoretical concepts, approaches or methodologies, instrumentation, or interventions?

Are the concepts, approaches or methodologies, instrumentation, or interventions novel to one field of research or novel in a broad sense?

Is a refinement, improvement, or new application or theoretical concepts, approaches or methodologies, instrumentation, or interventions proposed?

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Innovation: One Approach

Part 1: Document ( with citations) what the norm has been to this point

Create a literature-based foundation that will allow reviewers to appreciate what the status quo is

Part 2: Statement of innovation: The proposed research is innovative, in our opinion, because [what sets your research apart from existing research]

Part 3: Discuss positive impact – advancement that would have been unlikely without the departure from the status quo


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Innovation Tips

NIH’s three bullet points for Innovation are good guidelines, but don’t make each a subhead and address them individually

Provide a narrative that demonstrates you have thought about the pioneering nature of what you are proposing and that you have considered how your approach is different from others

Highlight significance and innovation in other parts of the application, such as the Abstract, Aims, Summary of Strengths

http://www.i2at.msstate.edu/pdf/NIH_R01_Series_Part4_Research_Plan.pdf

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Innovation Tips

Length: No longer than a paragraph or two. ½ to ¾ page max

Don’t try to pretend that your science is innovative when it isn’t.

Describe how your project is new and unique, but not too far out of the box

Usually do not see grant applications that are shifting paradigms

They are using new approaches or models, working in new areas, or testing innovative ideas

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ExampleWe believe that the proposed research is very innovative because: 1) It is focused on FCCHs – a novel setting for obesity prevention research; 2) It will include Spanish-speaking FCCPs, which no prior studies in any child care setting have done; 3) It will utilize peer counselors to support and empower FCCPs to change FCCH environments, a novel approach for obesity prevention interventions in childcare settings. Moreover, while peer counselors have previously been shown to be effective in changing individual health behaviors in certain populations outside of childcare, studies have not adequately evaluated their ability to foster environmental change, which will be our focus.; 4) It will integrate peer counseling with tailored written materials and videos, which is a novel intervention strategy never before studied. Dr. Gans has piloted this approach with families; but only using tailored print materials, not tailored videos, and not in childcare settings. The proposed research will expand our knowledge about the efficacy of this innovative approach. Overall, the intervention setting, target population and intervention approaches are all novel. The proposed research will move the frontier of obesity prevention research in childcare forward.

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Difference between impact of significance and innovation

Positive impact of significance stems from the concrete benefit that is relevant to NIH’s mission.

Positive impact of innovation stems from advancement because of the departure from the status quo.

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Formatting and Writing Tips

Writing style Clear, Direct, Succinct writing

Simple declarative sentences

NIH suggests no more than 20 words per sentence

If the writing is unclear, often the thinking is unclear.

Write so that reviewer can summarize in 2 to 3 sentences

If you want to make a number look large, precede it with the word “fully,” (fully 30%). If you want to make a number look small, precede it with “only,” (only 70%).

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S and I Checkpoint √

Application makes a solid case for the reason your research is important

Focus on how your project addresses critical research opportunities that can move the frontier of knowledge in your field forward

Highlight significance and innovation in other parts of the application, such as the Abstract, Aims, Summary of Strengths at end of grant

http://www.niaid.nih.gov/researchfunding/grant/strategy/pages/3significance.aspx

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References and Additional Reading

1. Russell, SW and Morrison, DC. The grant application writer’s workbook. National Institutes of Health Version

2. Pequegnat, W; Stover, E and Boyce, CA. How to write a successful research grant application. A guide for social and behavioral scientists 2nd edition

3. Morgan Giddings: http://morganonscience.com/

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Sample grants from NIAID

http://www.niaid.nih.gov/researchfunding/grant/Documents/Ratnerfull.pdf

http://www.niaid.nih.gov/researchfunding/grant/Documents/Parrishfull.pdf







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How are grants scored?

http://public.csr.nih.gov/ReviewerResources/MeetingOverview/Documents/OrientationtoPeerReviewFinaltoPostCAK.pdf

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Questions