Grants & You: Fall 2024: Scholarly Innovation & Grant Resources

Tips for Writing Grant Applications

From Wendy J. Weber, N.D., Ph.D., M.P.H., Branch Chief, Clinical Research in Complementary and Integrative Health Branch, National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health.

1. Identify your research question.
   You need a clear, testable hypothesis. Don’t try to do too much. Be realistic about the scope of the research you can do with the available time and funds. Your hypothesis will shape your research design. Pick a topic you are passionate about; if you get funded, you will spend many hours of your life conducting the research. 
2. Develop a strong set of specific aims.
   Succinctly summarize your research idea, specific aims, and hypotheses in a single page. While only two to four reviewers will be assigned to read your entire application, nearly all the reviewers will read your specific aims. You should provide a clear idea of the research proposed. Be careful not to create confusion or leave out key elements of your research design. The aims set the stage for review; you want reviewers to be excited to read the rest of your application.
3. Find the right Institute or Center and program official.
   Next, figure out which Institute or Center (IC) at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) is the best fit for your research. NIH has a great tool called Matchmaker that allows you to search the RePORTER database of all funded research. You can insert your specific aims or project summary, find similar projects, and see which ICs funded them, which study sections reviewed the applications, and who served as program official for each award. This post by NIH describes how to use the Matchmaker tool. 
4. Share your specific aims with a program official to identify the best funding opportunity. 
   Once you have identified the best IC, review its website to identify the available notices of funding opportunity (NOFOs). For example, NCCIH has a page that lists all of our funding opportunities and a specific page that lists our clinical trial funding opportunities. Your application must be submitted electronically via an open NOFO. Reach out to the program official with awards most closely aligned with your proposed research. Email your specific aims to the program official and ask 1) if your aims are a good fit with their IC’s priorities and the NOFO you’ve identified; 2) whether you can set up a call to discuss your aims and application; and 3) if they are not the best contact, to whom you should reach out to at their IC. 
5. Prepare your full application and make sure it is complete and responsive.
   As you put all the pieces together, be sure you include everything the NOFO requires and don’t include anything that is not allowed. This video by Dr. Jessica McKlveen, director of NCCIH’s Office of Scientific Review, can help ensure your application is reviewed. 

Follow these steps and you are well on your way to putting together a strong application!

Sponsored Programs Coaching Memo

Sponsored Programs and the Finance Office are delivering a series of grants management
coaching memos to support project directors, principal investigators, project teams, ATSU
operations teams, faculty, and staff in fiscal management of grants awarded to ATSU.

Topic: Period of Availability

Detailed Information: 

The period of availability for the use of grant funds is limited to the budget period noted
in the Notice of Award (or contract or subaward agreement). Further, only costs that
result from expenses, obligations, and work completed in support of the project's goals
and objectives (explicit purpose) during the budget period (explicit time period) may be
charged to the grant.

For most expenses, this is easily monitored, however subscription, membership, timed
access, and other contracted services could have costs or portions of costs that occur
outside of a grant budget period. These items should be carefully monitored and only
those charges that correspond to the approved budget period can be charged to the
award. In these circumstances, unallowed portions must be allocated to another ATSU
cost center – usually a department budget.

Summary Conclusion
Costs incurred to a grant account must be for goods, services, and activities that are
required to achieve project objectives and occur during the specified budget period.

ATSU Departments Who Can Help
Please check in with Sponsored Programs or the Finance Office if, during the
implementation of your project, you require a subscription, membership, timed access,
or other contracted service that will extend past the end of your approved budget period.

Not a Blank Space: Policy Considerations for AI in Research

By Lyric Jorgenson

One of the hardest (and most fun) parts of my job is conjuring up my crystal ball to foresee the policy needs of tomorrow. Of course, forecasting the future isn’t really that easy. Technology moves at light speed, while policy… well, policy often moves slower (we can get into that in another blog).  How can we ready the biomedical research enterprise for the future when the future itself is a moving target?  Paradoxically, to quote Taylor Swift, “lookin’ backwards might be the only way to move forward.”

As policymakers, we are continuously striving to develop policies capable of evolving alongside science and technology, taking into consideration that we know there will be unexpected twists and turns along the way. This is why we built a certain degree of flexibility into the NIH Data Management and Sharing Policy – because new tools for creating, sharing, and accessing data are being developed every day.

This is especially the case for machine learning algorithms, natural language processing, and other forms of “artificial intelligence” that are creating new research opportunities and transforming a new wave of improved health outcomes. Artificial intelligence (AI) has been around in some shape or form for some time. However, the ease in which AI approaches can be developed and deployed (similar to what CRISPR did for gene editing) has leveled the playing field for researchers around the globe to find new patterns in rich and complex datasets.

Of course, with great power comes great responsibility. At NIH, we prioritize the safe and responsible development and use of algorithms and models for research. We also implement policies and practices to ensure deposition of AI-ready datasets that are reliable, representative, and robust. To achieve these aims, NIH relies on its forward-leaning policy infrastructure to safeguard our work. While these policies might not specifically state AI in the title, the anticipated use of AI and risks from those uses is what we intended to address. To help the research community understand how these policies guide AI-related research, OSP recently released a centralized NIH policy resource illustrating the applicability of existing policies to AI, including policies related to participant protections, intellectual property, peer review, and many other topics.

An important thing to keep in mind is that NIH’s current policy landscape is well positioned to ensure the responsible use of AI technologies. However, as a policy office, we know that sometimes new policies are indeed warranted to capture new risks as science and technology progresses.  NIH is committed to monitoring the field of AI and other emerging technologies and we will continue to update this resource to make sure we are keeping pace from a policy perspective. I invite you to check out this new resource and let us know your thoughts.  Research that leverages the most promising technologies in a responsible manner will lead to better health for all.  That is a future we can all hope for.

Scaling Up Your Research Webinar

Many researchers who have experienced initial funding success are faced with the same question – where do I go from here?  This session will focus on grant-seekers who are aiming to expand the scale of their research, whether it’s broadening the scope of their work, adapting to target larger-scale grant opportunities, or exploring collaborations across disciplinary lines.

Speakers include members of Hanover's Grants Team:

- Tom Kuhn, Senior Grants Consultant

- Clinton Doggett, Senior Grants Advisor

Register here!

NIH All About Grants Podcast – Why Would NIH Withdraw an Application?

It can be quite stressful to hear NIH has withdrawn your submitted grant application before it went to peer review. In this NIH All About Grants podcast episode, the hosts get into why and how administrative withdrawal of applications happens. Dr. Ray Jacobson, the Acting Director of the Division of Receipt and Referral at the Center for Scientific Review, walks through the process. He discusses the reasons for withdrawing an application, how often it may happen, what you will hear from NIH staff, next steps you may take (including appealing a determination), the difference from when applicants request a withdrawal, and other advice to reduce the likelihood your application may be withdrawn.

“We don’t withdraw applications lightly at all…we actually will do quite a bit to try to avoid withdrawing an application because our primary intent is to…get applications to review.” – Dr. Ray Jacobson

NIH’s All About Grants episodes can also be heard on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and on the NIH Grants YouTube channel. Have an idea for a future podcast? Email ExtramuralNexus@mail.nih.gov. 

Figure It Out: Your Application's Visuals

Well-designed figures (tables, charts, and other visuals) are a great way to enhance your grant applications and manuscripts. You can summarize data, clarify key elements of your research, and boost visual interest for your reviewers and other audiences. 

To aid your illustrative efforts, check out our new Tips for Tables, Charts, and Figures. The page summarizes advice and ideas from multiple federal sources. Learn to: 

• Make figures and text work together in synergy. 
• Visualize data in different formats. 
• Use illustrations to emphasize your ideas and plans. 
• Find further guidance on data visualization and design, including how to make figures accessible. 

These tips are suggestions for consideration. You are best positioned to decide how to illustrate your unique science.  

How to Find a Fit for Your Research at NIH

As you begin your search for NIH research funding, it’s important to understand the structure of NIH and to figure out which NIH institutes, centers, and offices (ICOs) are most likely to support your project. 

The new online resource, Find a Fit for Your Research: NIH Institutes, Centers, and Offices (ICOs) can help. It includes newly compiled ICO funding profiles that provide links for each ICO’s funding opportunities, strategies, general information and special initiatives, as well as guidance on using Matchmaker to find a home for your research.  

Check Out RGSI's Online Portal

The Division of Research, Grants & Scholarly Innovations (RGSI) consists of an administrative core and 3 departments: Sponsored Programs (SP), Research Support (RS), and A.T. Still Research Institute (ATSRI).

RGSI is dedicated to nurturing

a strong and supportive

environment for research

and scholarly activity at ATSU.

New NIH Grants and Funding Site Coming Soon

NIH will unveil an all-new NIH Grants & Funding website on September 24, 2024. Designed with you in mind, the new site will enhance your journey through the NIH grants process with a modernized interface and powerful features to make finding critical information easier than ever.

You'll experience:

• Clear navigation. Quickly find what you need with intuitive navigation, drop-down tab menus, and On This Page jump links.
• Centralized funding resources. Leverage our reorganization of information into broad, plain language funding categories to quickly drill down to relevant content and opportunities.
• Expanded NIH Guide search capabilities. Take advantage of additional search features and an expanded detailed view for search results in the NIH Guide for Grants and Contracts.
• Improved grants process information. Use the visual navigation and tight integration with our How to Apply - Application Guide in our new Grants Process tab to walk through each step in the application process and complete your grant applications. 
• Easy access to the latest news and events. Stay informed with the latest NIH news, webinars, events, on-demand resources, and social media.
• Mobile-friendly design. Access the full range of resources anytime, anywhere, on any device.

Check it out!

Take a video tour of the new site.