Research proposals and grants

This branch covers making and reviewing a case for research funding, organised by the decisions and components of an application, from funder fit to resubmission. It leaves the choice of grant writing as a specialism to career development, journal-article summaries to publications, and the protocol used to run a funded trial to clinical study protocols.

• What a research proposal contains — proposal structures, the question and plan, summaries, rationale, methods and timetable
• What grant reviewers judge — scientific merits, feasibility, patient impact and use of results
• Finding a funder and testing fit — funding routes, opportunity searches, eligibility, priorities and early contact
• Stating the need and the goal — distinguishing problems from solutions and defining measurable goals
• The Specific Aims page and the research strategy — the one-page case, its outline and coherence across significance, innovation and approach
• Arguing for a disease's share of a research programme — programme allocations, policy commitments, spending estimates and proposals for coordination
• Rigour, reproducibility and data-sharing requirements — NIH requirements for prior and proposed research, biological variables, resource authentication and data sharing
• The budget and supporting documents — costs and justification, forms, institutional information, letters and attachments
• Writing a proposal a tired reviewer can score — persuasion, information density, navigation, figures and presentation
• Running a multi-investigator application — team coordination, responsibilities and consistency across components
• Reviewing and editing a draft proposal — scientific scrutiny, self-editing, staged reviews and document flow
• Reading the review and resubmitting — interpreting decisions and critiques, seeking advice and choosing a revision or resubmission route