Steven Dubinett, MD Director, UCLA Clinical and Translational Science Institute Associate Vice Chancellor for Research

GETTING FUNDED WHERE TO BEGIN AND WHAT TO CONSIDER

K Workshop July 9, 2015

THE TOP 10 REQUIREMENTS FOR FUNDING

UCLA CTSI

• Graduate and medical students

• Postdoctoral and clinical fellows

• Junior faculty

GRANT WORKSHOP PARTICIPANTS

• An experienced mentor is key to your success

• A specific mentorship plan is absolutely required.

• Describe how this mentored research plan will benefit YOU!

MENTORSHIP

• Criteria for reviewers

– Significance

– Investigator and mentor

– Innovation

– Approach

– Environment

REVIEW CRITERIA

1. Organize goals and priorities

2. Mentorship: get advice from experienced investigators EARLY!

3. Choose your funding agency and know your audience

4. Be up-to-date with the literature

5. Establish collaborations

THE TOP 10 REQUIREMENTS FOR FUNDING

6. Be aware of the overly ambitious pitfall

7. Respond to and learn from the critiques

8. Ideas are cheap but research is expensive

9. Advertise your results to leaders in the field

10. Writing a grant is creative and inseparable from ongoing research

THE TOP 10 REQUIREMENTS FOR FUNDING

Organize goals and priorities

• Establish an overall hypothesis

• Draft specific aims that address the hypothesis

• Draft, refine and edit with your mentor

1

Mentorship: get advice from experienced investigators EARLY!

• Review all aspects of proposal with your mentor

• Review your ideas with other experienced investigators

2

Choose your funding agency and know your audience

• Know your study section

• Follow requirements

• Think outside the NIH box

3

• Think outside the NIH box State agencies • Cancer Prevention and Research

Institute of Texas (CPRIT) • Tobacco-Related Disease Research

Program (TRDRP)

International agencies • Cancer Research UK • Israel Science Foundation • Dutch Cancer Society • Wellcome Trust • Swiss National Foundation Industry

Other government agencies • DOD • FDA • VA

Foundations & non-government agencies • ACS • Komen Foundation • LungEVITY

Be up-to-date with the literature

• Is my idea new? To determine novelty, read what’s been done in your field

• You learn something new each time you prepare a proposal

4 4

Establish collaborations

5

Be aware of the overly ambitious pitfall

• Don’t include every good idea you’ve ever had in a proposal

• Have a theme and stick to it

• Anticipated problems and alternative plans

6

Respond to and learn from the critiques

• Critiques are suggestions to improve your study

• Everyone will experience rejection

• Think about your revision as an opportunity to improve your study

7

Respond to the critiques

• Praise and thank the reviewer “We appreciate the reviewers’ comments. We have thoroughly revised the proposal in accord with their suggestions.

Our response to each of the reviewer’s comments is summarized below, and changes to the research plan are indicated in the proposal by a vertical line in the right margin.”

7

Respond to the critiques

• Go through the summary statement making a list of each criticism

• Respond to each point with specific answers

• State that each of these is addressed in the revised proposal

7

Respond to the critiques

• Review your responses with an experienced senior investigator

• Your response is the most important section of a revised proposal

7

Ideas are cheap,

research is expensive

• Good ideas are fundable ideas • Start by getting on first base

8

Advertise your results to leaders in your field

• Present at meetings • Engage with colleagues and

senior investigators at your poster • Each proposal tells the scientific

community who you are

9

Writing a grant proposal is creative

and inseparable from ongoing research

RESEARCH GRANT WRITING

10

“I got a rejection notice. Is my career over?”

Answer: No, your career is just starting. EVERYONE gets rejected.

Question #1

Question #2

“I’m angry with those reviewers. Are they out to get me?”

Answer: No, the reviewers are trying to help you. Answer the critiques politely and be respectful.

Question #3

“I’ll re-apply. Should I put in every good idea I’ve ever had to impress them?”

Answer: No, the reviewers’ most common criticism of a junior investigator’s application is that it is OVERLY ambitious.

“Hooray! I just got funded. Now do I get to celebrate?”

Question #4

Yes!

1. Organize goals and priorities

2. Mentorship: get advice from experienced investigators EARLY!

3. Choose your funding agency and know your audience

4. Be up-to-date with the literature

5. Establish collaborations

THE TOP 10 REQUIREMENTS FOR FUNDING

6. Be aware of the overly ambitious pitfall

7. Respond to and learn from the critiques

8. Ideas are cheap but research is expensive

9. Advertise your results to leaders in the field

10. Writing a grant is creative and inseparable from ongoing research

THE TOP 10 REQUIREMENTS FOR FUNDING

Everyone gets rejected Being angry won’t help

Think of new ideas for revision Celebrate success