How to Win Research Grants - 10 Rules for Success

A few salient papers have remained timeless over the years, with information relevant across fields. One paper I came across recently offered advice on winning research grants. For scientists, writing grants is a huge time sink but absolutely necessary for winning research money and sustaining long-term careers. A paper from 2006 by Philip Bourne and Leo Chalupa presents valuable advice for developing, writing, and reviewing research grants that are applicable to any scientist interested in securing research funding. What follows is a very brief summary of the highlights, but more details can be found in the full article.

The 10 Rules

Rule 1: Propose new ideas

Propose something novel and fresh, instead of simply repeating what other researchers have done. Validation studies are important, but when research dollars are scarce, new ideas are more likely to get funded. However, the authors caution that overly speculative ideas will likely not be supported, so you must strike a balance.

Rule 2: Be Convincing

Convince researchers that you are the best person to perform the research by detailing your background and technical skills. You can also share an exciting preliminary result and cite all relevant work to get reviewers interested in your ideas.

Rule 3: Ensure you are applying for a suitable grant

Ensure that your ideas fit the particular grant you are applying for. If a grant does not fit, you will likely waste time and energy and would be better off applying elsewhere to save the effort. Even though current AI tools make applying for grants less burdensome, you still likely won’t find success with this shotgun approach.

Rule 4: Follow instructions

Follow all the instructions outlined in the grant application. Deviating from the requirements or refusing to follow templates will likely get your grant tossed and may aggravate reviewers, which will negatively affect your review.

Rule 5: Don’t ramble

Reread your application so that it is concise, clear, and complete. Do not put in extra text just to fill the allotted page count. Specify the scope up front and make sure it is realistic based on the funds that you are requesting. Be careful about proposing to do too much, which is a common mistake for inexperienced grant writers. Reviewers will consider these applications overly ambitious and rate them unfavorably.

Rule 6: Be considerate of reviewers’ time

Write concisely whenever possible. Reviewers could miss key points of your proposal if they are hidden within overly wordy text or prose that is difficult to read. Consider also using formatting rules such as bolding or restating your key points as appropriate to capture the reader's interest. Unlike a journal article, redundancy is less of an issue.

Rule 7: Leave time for internal review

Ensure that you complete your grant with appropriate lead time so that your colleagues have time for review. Feedback from colleagues with different backgrounds will be valuable when your grant goes up against a review panel.

Rule 8: Meet your grant administrator

If possible, learn who the grant administrator is at the funding institution. Your application will be stronger if they know you and your work. Ideally, talk to them by phone and at meetings when possible. They are there to help you with the grant writing process so a good professional relationship is a positive.

Rule 9: Volunteer to review grants

Volunteer to review grants early in your career. Serving on review panels will help you write better grants because you’ll see common mistakes, issues, and the components of a good grant as you gain experience.

Rule 10: Deal with rejection

Accept rejection gracefully. Don't be defensive, but respond to criticism by using facts and not emotional arguments. If you have the opportunity to resubmit, make it clear to the reviewer that you understand what was wrong the first time and why their comments were useful in helping you improve your new submission.

References

Bourne, P. E., and L. M. Chalupa. 2006. Ten simple rules for getting grants. PLOS Computational Biology 2:e12. https://journals.plos.org/ploscompbiol/article?id=10.1371/journal.pcbi.0020012