Aggressive Grant Getting“A way of life”

Brian Gratton

Department of History, ASUhttp://www.asu.edu/clas/history/FundedProjects/Reources

All of the presentation today and more can be found at:

www.asu.edu/clas/history/FundedProjects/

Look under “Resources”

“The Four Legs of the Stool”“The Four Legs of the Stool”

Research and Publication Teaching Service Grants--Not simply as an aid to

research and publication

Why is it an essential?Why is it an essential?

1. It supports R&P

2. It supports grad students & their careers

3. It provides indirect cost recovery for travel, conferences, computers, etc.

4. It makes your Chair, your Dean, and your President cherish your presence in the institution

1st

2nd

3rd 4th

InterdisciplanarityInterdisciplanarity

Once just a word that wasn’t in the dictionary but received much lip service

It still isn’t in the dictionary but it now exists as a fact in granting agencies

Galaxy of possibility is, therefore, 5 times larger than it was, and extends outside the humanities.

Three CommandmentsThree Commandments

1. Thou shalt not receive a grant if thou hast not submitted an application.

2. Thou shalt not turn in an incomplete application. It won’t not be accepted.

3. Thou shalt not turn in a sloppy application, with bad English and incorrect formatting. Proofread everything before submission.

Six Magic Steps in the Zen of Grant WritingSix Magic Steps in the Zen of Grant Writing

1. Destroy your ego.

2. Subject the RFP and Instructions to meticulous technical review.

3. Do this again, with substantive questions.

4. Reinsert your ego. THE GREAT IDEA.

5. Find a mentor or colleague to review the application.

6. Have the final draft proofread.

1. Destroy your Ego1. Destroy your Ego

a) Get rid of the “I”: “what I want to do”; “what I think is important”; “why I should be given this money”; “my idea is great”; “I’m great”; “they are stupid if they don’t give me the money”; “the way I want to organize the work”;

b) Forget about your discipline and the humanities. Think as broadly as possible. Less “I” and more “we”: growing possibilities for collaborative interdisciplinary funding

c) Get the lists automatically sent to you

Grant listing services Grant listing services

The best: COS (Community of Science), allows you to set your own search terms.

The Institute for Humanities Research list run by Carol Withers CAROL.WITHERS@asu.edu

The one you already get…Read it! “New Limited Submissions for the Week of …”

Discipline or field-specific. See examples at the Funded Projects web site given above.

2. Examine the Technical Requirements2. Examine the Technical Requirements

a) What will the agency fund and what will it not fund? How much money will the agency provide? (If very little, forget it.)

b) What is the funding ratio, that is, funded projects to applications? (If lower than 1/20, forget it).

c) b. How long does the main argument have to be? (Conceive of the work as equivalent to the length and citation requirement for an article in a journal)

d) What other requirements are there? When must they be completed?

d) Do I depend on other people to get some of them done? Do I know how quick and correct they are in their work?

e) What skills must I have, and how do I show that I have them?

f) When is the due date? If sooner than 6 months, don’t do it.

g) How much time will all this take? Double that estimate! Do not put off bureaucratic part.

3. Reading below the surface3. Reading below the surface

a) What do they want to give money for? What are the deep objectives of the agency? What are they likely to object to even if technically allowed?

b) Who is the intellectual audience that I must convince? Can I adapt myself to this audience, even if it is not drawn directly from my field? If I were to work with colleagues from other disciplines could I then be a useful addition to research outside my field.

4. Reload Ego: THE GREEAAT IDEA!!!!4. Reload Ego: THE GREEAAT IDEA!!!!

a) How does your research fit in? What great idea do you have, what innovation in methods, in research evidence, in collaborative synergy?

b) Why is your expertise essential?

c) Do not promise too much: a realistic timetable and realistic objective outcomes

The Big Bad BudgetThe Big Bad Budget

Do it early…fit the initial ideas into the time and resources needed to accomplish them

Do it again Find your financial officer and see what

ASU requires Do it again

5 & 6. Write it and have some clown review it5 & 6. Write it and have some clown review it

a) The research argument: what you are going to do, why it is important, and how it fits into the goals of the agency. Innovative idea, innovative methods, innovative collaboration

b) The timetable: is it realistic: can you accomplish what you say you will do in the schedule you have laid out? DO NOT PROMISE TOO MUCH.

c) The budget: is it fair, is it realistic, and does it fit the budgeting guidelines of the agency?

Assume the Lotus and Wait for RejectionAssume the Lotus and Wait for Rejection

While waiting for the rejection, begin applications to two other agencies.

…when you get the rejection, wait 48 hours to cool off.

Then read the reviewers’ reports again Reapply. Fix only what is broken.