The Grant Writing and Crowdfunding Guide for Young Investigators in Science

The Grant Writing and Crowdfunding Guide prepares you, the young investigator, to step up to the challenge of funding your own research. And what a challenge. Writing a successful grant demands much more than a first-class inquisitive scientific mind. As you will soon discover, raw talent may keep you from drowning in the new world of grants, but staying afloat and learning how to swim are two very different things. This book presents the best strategies you should adopt prior to taking the grant plunge. It will help you draft a reasonable budget plan, assemble a winning grant team, write a stellar pre-proposal, and reassure the funding agencies that the financial risk they take by investing in you will produce great returns. The book also helps you write a grant title, abstract, and a specific aims section that highlight the significance, impact, and innovativeness of your project. It presents specific tools to catch problems early and avoid rejection. It even covers a source of funding you likely have never considered: the public. Crowdfunding not only helps you collect preliminary data within weeks, but also lets you share your passion with people who want to see you succeed.

New investigators are usually lost when attempting to write their first grant application. They need a compass to run through the grant maze. This book is that compass. It supplements the work of your mentor, and reviews the practices of your grantor and grant reviewers. Examples are taken from two of the largest grantors in the world, NIH and NSF, and their practices are applicable to other science funding agencies worldwide.

Better to be young and funded than old and unfunded.

Contents:

• Grant Ecosystem:

  • Grant Call — The Matching Game
  • The New Investigator — The First Steps
  • The Grant Team — Strength in Numbers
  • The Confusing Vocabulary of Grants

• Grant Parts:

  • Title — The Eye Catcher
  • Grant Abstract — The Marketing Pitch
  • Grant Specific Aims — The Work Plan
  • Grant Budget — The Movie Scenario Approach
  • Grant Significance — Unearthing the Value

• Grant Evaluation:

  • Novelty and Innovation — The Perception of Newness
  • Behind the Scenes — The Reviewing Process
  • Risk Management — The Reality Check
  • Not Granted — How to Deal with Rejection

• Funding Through Social Media:

  • Crowdfunding Science

Readership: Doctoral students, PhDs, postdocs, associate professors, principal investigators, junior faculty, research scientists, clinicians.
Key Features:

• The authors are supplemented by a palette of 8 grant experts whose advice is given in margins
• The book provides a novel way to develop the grant idea in story form: the synopsis, which easily translates into a list of tasks, cost, staff, and equipment
• The book features two chapters you will not see in grant writing books. Grants are rarely looked at as risks. We borrowed from the field of risk management to systematically review the risks to the grantor, the investigator, and the institution (grantee); For each risk identified, we propose ways to manage the risk. We even propose a new way, crowdfunding, to address the risk of having no preliminary work