This past week, I attended the 2016 National Institutes of Health Regional Workshop in Chicago. The NIH puts on these workshops to help both faculty and those who assist faculty learn more about the institutes as well as their programs. I learned a great deal about the different programs, and have a better understanding of what are appropriate funding strategies based upon the PIs career stage. Below is one of the many helpful charts provided in the presentation slides provided by the NIH.

While this graphic represents a sample of NIH funding mechanisms, this is a good tool to look at some of the available options. I also heard program officers telling me the same pieces of advice that my staff are always relaying to faculty such as: 1) start early; 2) understand the agency’s process before you begin; 3) Contact your Program Officers. It is good to know that the agency is providing the same advice as well. While I could spend pages summarizing the different topics, I have decided to have all of the conference slides added to our website so that this great information is important to everyone. There are 38 different presentations all with a different focus from Grant writing and the grant review process to budgets and compliance. You can find these slides at https://research.fsu.edu/research-offices/opd/proposal-resources/. Questions? Let me know, I am happy to discuss. -Beth

With the First Year Assistant Professor (FYAP) deadline rapidly approaching, I thought I’d take this week’s blog post as an opportunity to describe one of OPD’s core services: proposal editing. While it may seem obvious that a research development office would provide editing services, the value-added prospect may not be as clear.

We focus primarily on the “grantsmanship” aspects of the proposal: things like presentation, structure, readability, and focus, as well as more basic concerns like spelling, grammar, and punctuation. These are all critical components of a successful proposal, but it’s very easy to get so engrossed in writing that you forget about them. This is especially true the longer into the process you get, as it’s human nature to avoid finding fault in our own work. Other times you’ve just seen something so much that you stop seeing the details, and only see the product as a whole.

Some of the questions we ask when editing include:

• Does the proposal follow the formatting instructions in the funding opportunity?
• What is the PI trying to accomplish? What’s the overall goal of the project?
• How is it done currently, and what are the limitations of that?
• What’s new in the PI’s approach, and why do they think it’ll work?
• Why is this important? What difference does it make it the project is successful?
• What are the risks and rewards of the proposed project?
• How much will it cost, how long will it take, and how will the PI make sure that it gets done?
• What are the metrics for success?
• Are all acronyms defined, and are all concepts explained?
• Is it structured like a proposal, and not a publication?
• Is it difficult to read? Are there lots of walls of text and run on sentences?
• Does the PI adequately explain all of their proposed tasks?
• Does the PI make it clear when and where they are addressing the review criteria?

Note on that last question however that OPD does not evaluate how well you’ve addressed the criteria. That’s up to the reviewers. What we try to do is make sure that the proposal has specific statements that are clearly intended to address the questions that the reviewers have to answer. Another question we often get is “How long before the deadline should I send my proposal?” The answer is as soon as possible! The level of detail we can give each proposal is directly related to the amount of time we have. A proposal sent two weeks before the funder’s deadline will get an in-depth review, while one sent 2 days before might just get a basic review. Also keep in mind that you’ll need time to make any revisions as well.

Looking forward to the impending flood of editing requests!

Research compliance is often a component of research projects, but do you know just how frequently? 

While the need for Human Subjects or Vertebrate Animal certification in a proposal is usually recognizable, other necessary certifications such as hazardous chemicals, biological materials, and radioactive materials are often overlooked.   

According to FSU’s Department of Environmental Health and Safety (EH&S), all wet labs throughout campus need to have, at minimum, hazardous chemical certifications.  That means that any proposals utilizing one of these labs will also need that certification, regardless of the personnel’s level of confidence in handling the various materials in question. 

EH&S concerns don’t apply to just STEM fields, however.  Many Fine Arts programs use hazardous chemicals such as solvents and heavy pigments in their projects.  Proposals associated with these types of materials would need to have hazardous chemical certification through EH&S.  Research projects in departments not traditionally associated with biohazardous materials – Anthropology, for instance – should also work with EH&S to procure the necessary certifications for their proposals.

For more information on this topic, please email Environmental Health and Safety at ehs@admin.fsu.edu, or the CRC Coordinator at gadkison@fsu.edu.

The Office of Proposal Development participated in the 5^th annual Whatever Floats Your Boat Regatta at the FSU Coastal Marine Lab on September 24.  The event is where individuals or teams build a boat out of recycled materials and then attempt to sail it while raising awareness about recycling and the impact plastics have in a marine environment.

The Office of Proposal Development became The Office of Pirate Development and we entered a boat that the four of us had created by spending our nights and weekends putting together (and shed some blood, sweat, and tears along the way).  Unfortunately, we didn’t win first place.  But we did win an award – the “Titanic Award” – for tipping our boat over before we even got to the starting line.  Most importantly though we had fun as a team and participated in a great cause!

See you at next year’s boat race!

Our office has had a busy couple of weeks hosting workshops! 

Council on Research and Creativity (CRC) Workshop

On September 9, we held the annual fall Council on Research and Creativity (CRC) workshop.  Grace Adkison, the new CRC Coordinator led the workshop to discuss the 8 grant programs and 3 honorary awards that the CRC offers.  The workshop can be viewed here.

Basics of Grant Writing – NIH

On September 16, Mike Mitchell from OPD facilitated a workshop for faculty in all disciplines on the basics of grant writing.  Joe Grzywacz from Family and Child Sciences and Alan Spector from Neuroscience then led concurrent breakout sessions specifically for faculty who were interested in applying to the National Institutes of Health (NIH).  The PowerPoints can be accessed here under “Past Workshop Materials” for anyone unable to attend.

Funding Your Arts and Humanities Activities: A Discussion with Florida Funding Agencies

Diane Wakeman from the Florida Humanities Council, Kevin Carr from the Council on Culture and Arts (COCA) and Hillary Crawford and Sarah Stage from the Division of Cultural Affairs led a workshop for our Arts & Humanities faculty on September 23 about ways to partner and potential funding opportunities with their respective agencies.  The video can be accessed here.

Our upcoming workshops include the Basics of Grant Writing Workshop again but with NSF breakout sessions on October 14 and a Data Management Workshop on October 21.

If you have a suggestion for a potential workshop you’d like to see the Office of Proposal Development have, please contact Kate Herron.

This week’s blog post highlights one of OPD’s signature services: Funding Strategy Sessions. OPD facilitates and hosts strategy sessions where faculty with similar research interests come together and discuss how they might collaborate with a specific focus on what kind of funding opportunities they could pursue.

OPD handles the entire event planning, including scheduling and meeting space, and also facilitates and guides the discussion. The goal of a strategy session is to discover common research themes and identify possible sources of funding. These sessions then lead to long-term “working groups” which better enable faculty (and by extension FSU) to position their teams to be proactive in pursuing large, multi-disciplinary, and center-level funding opportunities.

In addition to being a facilitator of these conversations, and assisting faculty to develop their strategies, OPD gathers information on the kind of support that will be necessary from us and the Office of Research.

Some of the key questions we ask at strategy sessions include:

• What are our strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and challenges as it pertains to (the selected research topic) funding?
• Who is our competition for (selected topic) funding?
  • What are our strengths and weaknesses compared to them?
• What are our goals for the next 1, 5, 10 years?
  • How do we achieve them?
  • What can OPD/Office of Research do to help?
• What resources currently exist, and what resources are still needed?
• What recurring funding opportunities for (selected topic) exist?
• What are the future trends in federal/foundational/state funding?

If you are interested in holding a strategy session for your team, contact Mike Mitchell or Kate Herron in the Office of Proposal Development.

See you next week!

Starting this fall, we will be posting weekly about upcoming events, resources on research and creative projects, fun things in the research community, and funding agency news… among other topics.

To start, we would like to introduce you to the staff that make up the Office of Proposal Development and tell you a little bit about what we do and who we are.

Stay tuned for our post next week!

-Beth, Kate, Mike and Grace

Beth Hodges

Position in OPD: Beth is the Director of the Office of Proposal Development.

How long she’s worked at FSU: She has been at FSU since the spring of 1997, and is coming up on 20 years—all within the Office of Research.

Where she went to college: Beth received her undergraduate degree (Psychology and Social Work double major) from FSU as well as her Master of Social Work degree.

One piece of advice to faculty: Study what you enjoy. If you are excited about your work, it will be evident in your proposals and you will (usually) enjoy greater success.

Favorite FSU moment: Sharing in the excitement of faculty who have received funding where OPD has played a role.

Favorite place in Tallahassee: Beth’s favorite place in Tallahassee is the St. Mark’s Trail.

When she’s not working on proposal development, you can find Beth…: Usually, home with her husband and dogs. If not there, she is with her husband biking, canoeing, traveling, or at church.

Kate Herron

Position in OPD: Kate is the Research Development and Training Specialist for OPD. She meets with the first year assistant professors, helps execute workshops and trainings across campus and sends targeted funding opportunities to faculty.

How long she’s worked at FSU: She has worked for Florida State University for the past three years, after working as an AmeriCorps volunteer and in career development for four years prior.

Where she went to college: Kate received her Bachelor’s degree at the University of Florida and just finished her Master of Social Work degree this past fall here at FSU.

One piece of advice to faculty: Always keep in mind the value of reaching beyond the walls of your area for potential collaborators, and advice.

Favorite FSU moment: Kate’s favorite FSU moment is graduating from FSU and officially becoming a bona fide Seminole!

Favorite place in Tallahassee: Her favorite place in Tallahassee is the Tallahassee Museum’s (aka Junior Museum) zip-line course.

When she’s not working on proposal development, you can find Kate…: Watching Disney movies with her two year old son or telling the same three jokes around the dinner table.

Mike Mitchell

Position in OPD: Mike is OPD’s Proposal Development Coordinator. Think of him as an all-purpose grants consultant. His primary role is to help PI’s coordinate large proposals, to free up their time to work on the research component.

How long he’s worked at FSU: Mike has been with FSU for 8 months. Prior to coming to FSU Mike was a Program Manager at the Florida Office of Energy working on Alternative Fuel Vehicles and Renewable Energy. He had successfully funded his projects through $17 million of grants from the US Department of Energy and US Department of Agriculture.

Where he went to college: Mike received his B.S. in Economics from FSU.

One piece of advice to faculty: A lot of people are intimidated by grant writing, but you don’t have to do it alone.

Favorite FSU moment: Mike always enjoys finding out that proposals that he coordinated or edited have been selected for funding.

Favorite place in Tallahassee: One of his favorite places is the 22^nd floor of the capitol building. It’s the highest point in Tallahassee and has an amazing view of FSU, Cascades Park, and downtown. It’s open to the public on weekdays.

When he’s not working on proposal development, you can find Mike…: Dreaming about the Tesla Model 3.

Grace Adkison

Position in OPD: Grace is the Council on Research and Creativity Program Coordinator and assists the CRC by coordinating their efforts in granting over 150 internally-funded awards to faculty for use as “seed money” for their research.

How long she’s worked at FSU: She has been working at FSU for 5 years next month.

Where she went to college: Grace went to FSU and received her B.S. in Interior Design.

One piece of advice to faculty: Make sure you read the terms and conditions! This is vital to the success of your award! Pay especially close attention to budget requirements and deadlines. If you ever have a question, just ask the sponsor to clarify; it’s always better to know for certain what they are looking for than to guess and miss the opportunity to receive the award.

Favorite FSU moment: Her favorite (recent) FSU moment was when the football team won the National Championship after the perfect 2013 season. She’ll never forget staying up way too late, glued to the TV in that nail-biter of a game!

Favorite place in Tallahassee: One of Grace’s favorite places in Tallahassee is Dorothy B. Oven Park. She loves the peacefulness of the pathways and gardens, and, in the winter months, the decorations and lights are a must-see!

When she’s not working on proposal development, you can find Grace…: Working on her latest DIY project. From gardening to crafting to refinishing furniture, Grace always has a project (or 5!) that she’s working on.