Straight Talk From Recent Grads: Grant Writing Tips for New Investigators

Abstract

There is an increasing demand and critical importance for those in academic positions to beconducting high quality research in addition to teaching well and successfully obtaining grants is oftennecessary to fund such scientific inquiry (Shaw, 2002). Faculty members in academic or researchpositions are likely to be among those spending the most time on such efforts as successful grantwriting to support both research and scholarly productivity is compulsory for flourishing in these jobs(Hasche, Perron & Proctor, 2009). In fact, most job announcements in the Chronicle of HigherEducation list the ability to acquire external funding as a leading factor in hiring decisions amongcandidates. Successful grant writing is every bit as important for keeping a new job once it has beenobtained as new faculty members failing to meet a high standard of funded research and scholarshipare typically released from employment after a predetermined period of time (Cater, Lew, Smith,2008). According to Inouye and Fiellin (2005), "the competition for funds to conduct clinical research isintense, and only a minority of grant proposals receive funding" (p. 274). Adding to the difficulty andpressure to secure extramural funding in a new research position, universities are currently receivingless federal and state funding and are relying more heavily on their faculty to obtain external grantmoney (Toews & Yazedjian, 2007).