Month: March 2018

Are Businesses Eligible for Research Grants Outside of the SBIR/STTR Program?

Did you know that businesses are eligible for federal research grants too?

Most folks know that government research grant funding powers academic research, but did you know that businesses are eligible for research grants too? Grant funding is non-dilutive, meaning the small business does not have to give the funding agency a share of the business, as it would venture capitalists. While most entrepreneurs are aware of their eligibility for SBIR/STTR funding, many are unaware they qualify for many other agency-funded opportunities as well.

[Read: How to Find Research Funding Opportunities: A Quick Start Guide]

Grant funding has been the coin of the realm in academic research for decades, and most of the funding in the mechanisms traditionally associated with academic research, e.g., the NIH R01, still flows into these institutions. In return for this funding, researchers are required to submit reports on their progress and spending and are expected (or required) to share their final outcomes with their peers and the public as appropriate.

What many small businesses don’t know is that they, too, are often eligible for these funding mechanisms. Today I reviewed the posted grant and cooperative agreement opportunities offered by the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the agencies within the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) that support a lot of research—Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Food and Drug Administration (FDA), National Institutes of Health (NIH), and Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA). This is not a scientific survey, just a snapshot in time, but it is worth noting that, of the 1,474 total opportunities available, small businesses were eligible for 1,118 (76%) and businesses that don’t qualify as a small business were eligible for 1,022 (69%)! Perhaps most surprising was that in this sample businesses were eligible for more funding opportunities than academic research institutions, and these opportunities ranged from research grants to center grants and cooperative agreements (and, of course, SBIR/STTR funding opportunities).

The upshot here is, if you are a business owner in need of some R&D funding and you haven’t considered the many non-dilutive funding opportunities available to you from government agencies, you should. If you are a global entrepreneur, there are great non-dilutive funding opportunities available to you outside of the US as well.

[Read: Non-Dilutive Funding Opportunities for Global Entrepreneurs]

Updated: 27 June 2019

Like What You See?

This article was published in the March issue of Strategic Grantsmanship News, a newsletter distributed monthly to subscribers to the Strategic Grantsmanship mailing list. If you like what you see and would like to learn more about how to win more grants in less time, then this is the list for you. Click here to join the mailing list!

What Is a Data Management Plan? Do I Need One?

A recent survey revealed that most researchers are not experienced in writing data management plans, nor are they getting institutional support or training on the topic. Never fear—tools and resources are freely available to your research team!

A recent survey revealed that most researchers are not experienced in writing data management plans, nor are they getting institutional support or training on the topic. Never fear—tools and resources are freely available to your research team!

DMPs outline how data from a funded study will be collected, stored, archived, and shared, and they are now required as part of funding applications by funders (public and private) around the globe. Each funder has its own requirements and expectations, and institutions have additional guidelines for their researchers. Some researchers may find they have copyright or ethical issues to consider, and private companies applying for funding will likely have their own guidelines and prohibitions against sharing proprietary data.

In other words, writing a DMP is not, in most cases, a simple matter of filling out a template. Developing and writing a thorough, competitive DMP can be a challenging task, especially for those who are unfamiliar with the process (whether they are a seasoned researcher or a newbie).

If you are applying for research funding, a DMP plan is most likely in your immediate future. If institutions are not providing training and guidance to researchers on how to develop a DMP, what is a research team to do? One tool that will get you started is the DMPTool. The tool includes templates and sample DMP plans, with a wizard that will walk you through the writing process and offer strategic advice as you progress through the process. Importantly, over 200 institutions are working with the DMPTool and integrating their guidelines into the tool, so research teams can develop a plan specific not only to the agency to which they are applying but also to their institution’s guidelines.

Still unsure of how it all fits together? Although there have been many useful articles written on the topic in the past few years, Nature published a great article this month titled Data Management Made Simple (by Quirin Schiermeier), and its 12 tips for writing a DMP plan will provide insight to all but the most veteran DMP writers. I have also posted a page of DMP development resources the DMP writer may find useful (links to data sharing guidance, data sets, data standards, etc.) on the Strategic Grantsmanship blog and will be adding to the list as new resources become available.

In my experience people can be in quite a rush to get their research going and they tend to “black box” the things they don’t understand or want to deal with, like the DMP, for as long as they can in the hope that things will magically work themselves out as the research moves forward. Sometimes it does, but more often researchers find themselves with unhappy biostatisticians and archiving issues. Writing a DMP plan while simultaneously writing a research plan can feel overwhelming, but for research teams that take advantage of the new tools and myriad resources now available for DMP development and writing, the process is faster and easier than ever.

This article originally appeared in the Strategic Grantsmanship blog’s newsletter, Strategic Grantsmanship News (15 March 2017 issue). If you found this article informative, subscribe to Strategic Grantsmanship News by joining the mailing list and receive the latest strategies and information directly to your Inbox.

Post-submission Strategy, Revisited

Last week, the NIH Office of Extramural Research posted a brief blog entry about the submission of patent citations post-submission. However, I found the blog entry left out a key bit of strategy that I share with you here.

Last week, the NIH Office of Extramural Research (the office that handles funding for researchers external to the NIH, which has its own intramural scientists and funding opportunities as well) posted a brief blog entry about the submission of patent citations post-submission (meaning, after the application has already been submitted) in its Extramural Nexus blog. However, I found the blog entry left out a key bit of strategy that I thought I would share with you here. Continue reading “Post-submission Strategy, Revisited”