Good Advice on Applying for Grants

Greetings again. I hope that all is going well.

Our spring semester ended in mid May, and summer school starts this week. Therefore last week I had no teaching to do. I also had no travel.

I had thought I would spend the week catching up on work. However, 2 colleagues asked me to help edit their grant applications (grant proposals). Of course, I agreed to do so.

To check instructions for one of the grant proposals, I went to the website of the (US) National Institutes of Health (NIH). On the website, I noticed an excellent section titled “Writing Your Application”.

I’ve added to the AuthorAID Resource Library a link to this section. Although some parts of this resource are specific to NIH, much of it applies to writing a grant proposal for any funding source. The lists of tips seem especially helpful.

Mentors are mentioned in at least 2 tips:

• “Solicit feedback from colleagues and/or mentors on your research idea while it is still in the concept state.”
• “Secure a mentor(s) who can provide advice and guidance on developing and writing a successful grant application.”

Mentors can help greatly in evaluating research ideas and preparing grant applications. Especially if you’re new to applying for grants, I hope you’ll consider calling on an AuthorAID or other mentor for this role.

I’m still behind in my work. But I hope I was helpful to my colleagues. And as always, I learned from the experience.

Wishing you a good week— Barbara