Author: J. Kelly Byram, MS, MBA, ELS

Medical and scientific writer and editor. Cybersecurity and AI/ML specialist. CEO at Duke City Consulting, LLC and lead of our Medical and Scientific Communications Group and our Cyber Group.

The Chronic Problem of Predatory Journals

Predatory publishing is a threat to researchers publishing the results of their work and to the peer-reviewed medical literature itself.

I’ve blogged about the topic of predatory journals before, and not much has changed. But as a grant writer/editor/applicant, the more you know the better you can navigate the issue when presenting your biosketch and selecting appropriate citations. At the end of July, AMWA-EMWA-ISMPP* released a joint position statement on predatory publishing and its “threat both to researchers publishing the results of their work and to the peer-reviewed medical literature itself.” You can read the full statement in Current Medical Research and Opinion here.
*AMWA – American Medical Writers Association
EMWA – European Medical Writers Association
ISMPP – International Society for Medical Publication Professionals

Demand Secure Data Handling for Your Research Projects

Using a spreadsheet application you would use for tracking your institution’s office supplies to collect and store human subjects research data is just not competitive (or ethical).

Using a spreadsheet application you would use for tracking your institution’s office supplies is just not competitive (or ethical).

As admitted technophiles, we really enjoy working at the data-driven intersection of health and technology, and we are happy to see the new and continued opportunities in that area coming out of NIH, PCORI, and other funders. But we also remain dismayed by proposals from institutions with access to RedCAP that propose storing sensitive patient data in a spreadsheet program on a server (no indication of the security level of the server). I would encourage all research faculty and staff to enquire about the details of data collection, management, security, and storage when signing on to be part of a research project involving any research data, but especially patient data, and to work with research partners to develop a plan for the data that leverages the secure resources at hand.

Freelancer’s Guide to Cybersecurity

Learn best practices for securing your freelance business’s data without breaking the bank.

Concerned about the cybersecurity of your freelance business? Join me in San Diego at AMWA2019 to learn about best practices to protect your (and your clients’) data. But hurry–this session requires registration, and it sold out quickly last year. (For details about this session and to register, visit the conference web site.)

AMWA Conference 2019
Sheraton San Diego Hotel & Marina
November 8, 2019, 7:15 – 8:45 am
San Diego, CA

For freelancers and small business owners, data protection can be something they don’t think about until tragedy strikes: a new hard drive fails, viruses and malware attack, or data is taken for ransom. This can be heartbreaking when personal data is lost or destroyed—e.g., emails and photos—but the loss, destruction, or theft of data can be devastating for a business managing ongoing projects and clients’ confidential data. In this roundtable session, we will cover the basics of data protection by defining the universe of potential problems, then discuss best practices for securing data without breaking the bank.

Presented by Kelly Byram, MS, MBA, ELS of Duke City Consulting.

How to Write Strategic Grant Proposals for Research Collaborations

Learn about common collaborative models and about how to develop strategic grant proposals that will get your team funded.

Wondering how to write a strategic and compelling collaborative research grant proposal? Mark your calendars! I will be presenting on this topic with my colleague, Damiana Chiavolini (from UT Southwestern) in San Diego this November. Join us!

AMWA Conference 2019
Sheraton San Diego Hotel & Marina
November 8, 2019, 9:00 – 10:30 am
San Diego, CA

Whether a research question will be explored at the bench, in the clinic, or in the community, funders allow or, increasingly, expect funding proposals to involve shared leadership. Sometimes, an interdisciplinary approach to a question demands team science involving the collaboration of multiple research teams across institutions and countries, while other questions require researchers to combine forces with community stakeholders to perform patient-centered outcomes research or other community-engaged research. The savvy funding seeker realizes that the collaborative and shared-leadership models that support the execution of this research introduce an element of perceived risk not found in the lone-researcher model, and reviewers need assurance that the benefits of the proposed approach outweigh the risks. Learn about common collaborative models and about how to develop strategic grant proposals that will get your team funded. Funding opportunities discussed will include NIH, PCORI, and CPRIT MIRA.

Presented by Kelly Byram, MS, MBA, ELS of Duke City Consulting with Damiana Chiavolini, MS, PhD, of UT Southwestern Medical Center. For details about this session and more information about the American Medical Writers Association Conference 2019, visit the conference web site.

Reminder of Policy Changes — NIH Extramural Nexus

Today we reblog this piece from the NIH Extramural Nexus blog summarizing recently announced policy changes as a reminder to everyone (administrators, researchers, grant writers and editors, etc.) that substantial changes impacting grant proposals went into effect at the end of last month. Some of these changes can potentially impact your research design, recruitment plan, etc., so be sure to review these changes sooner rather than later… Continue reading “Reminder of Policy Changes — NIH Extramural Nexus”

Six Easy Online Tools Every Grant Seeker Should Use

Funders proliferate mission and vision statements across their communications, which should, in theory, make it easy for grant seekers to strategically align their applications with funders’ expectations. Often, however, mission and vision statements can be too broad to help individual grant seekers determine the goodness of fit for individual projects, resulting in a waste of time and effort.

Web sites can be useful resources if they are kept current, but they, too, are often formal and fairly general, and research highlighted on web sites provides a glance in the rearview mirror—that research was funded years ago, which doesn’t help you necessarily understand what’s winning awards now.

Here at Strategic Grantsmanship, it’s all about efficiency and how to win more grant money in less time. Time unnecessarily spent on the grants treadmill indiscriminately pursuing every opportunity that comes your way and might be a fit for your project keeps you away from what you really want to be doing, whether that’s working in the field or lab, running your business, or running with your dog. So here are six easy online tools I use to efficiently achieve insight into the current wants, needs, and interests of potential funders and accurately gauge if a funding opportunity is worth pursuing. Continue reading “Six Easy Online Tools Every Grant Seeker Should Use”

New Grant Samples! Get Them While They Are Fresh!

The confidential nature of research grants poses a challenge for new writers and researchers who are unfamiliar with grant proposals. The best way to learn how to write grants—by far—is to start writing grants as part of a team with experienced grant writers. This allows one to learn while doing under the tutelage of those who have honed their skills writing proposals for a variety of projects and funders. And, as I have said before, serving as a peer reviewer should be a required experience for every writer of grants.

For those unable to enter grant writing through these tried and true avenues, or for grant writers seeking to better understand what a funder’s “ideal” proposal looks like, sample grant proposals can prove quite valuable…and extremely hard to come by. For obvious reasons, these proposals are confidential. Getting a mentor or a colleague to share a proposal can seem a major victory, until you start asking yourself some key questions: Was this project funded? What were reviewers’ comments? What worked (and is worthy of emulation), and what did not? How old is this thing?

For all of these reasons and more, vetted samples of funded proposals can be invaluable to new writers of grants. Fortunately, some researchers share their funded proposals via funders’ web sites. After all, funders want applicants to understand what they are looking for so they can receive high-quality proposals.
Continue reading “New Grant Samples! Get Them While They Are Fresh!”

Non-Dilutive Funding Opportunities for Global Entrepreneurs: Ireland

All business is global, so your funding should be too! Consider global non-dilutive funding options–here’s how to start.

If you are a start-up entrepreneur in search of non-dilutive funding for your business, you know that to be successful you need to go big or go home. Searching for funding beyond the Four Fs (Family, Founders, Friends, and Fools)—whether through venture capitalists or government programs—requires the same amount of vision you invested in developing your initial business idea. Increasingly, businesses in many industries benefit from having a global reach, not just in sales and supply chain, but in financing as well.

In the last issue of Strategic Grantsmanship News (March 2018), I wrote about how many businesses (large and small) are eligible for non-dilutive funding through US government grants and contracts. In fact, in my snapshot of available funding on the day I wrote that piece last month, businesses were eligible for more R&D non-dilutive funding opportunities than were academic institutions, which are typically considered the prime beneficiaries of research grants.

That is all great news for businesses, but the US government is not the only non-dilutive game in town. In fact, it may not be the best option for your business. In addition to incredibly low success rates, the lengthy process and the limitations on investment and personnel in some programs can be prohibitive for some start-ups with global scope in industries with rapid development paradigms.

I encourage businesses to consider non-dilutive opportunities from other countries, either in addition to or in lieu of the US government funding (depending on individual circumstances). I recommend considering countries that have multiple opportunities and commercialization support programs. One country that fits the bill is Ireland. The Irish workforce is ample and well educated, and, in the past decade or so, Ireland has made great strides in developing an ecosystem of innovation for global multinationals, R&D centers, and start-ups to take advantage of this talented workforce. Today, Ireland, with a population just under 5M, is the 7th largest exporter of pharmaceuticals with a GDP in 2016 of €238.2B ($294.1B). As a member of the European Union (EU), Ireland offers companies access to the EU market. It is also worth noting that, post-Brexit, Ireland is the only English-speaking country in the Eurozone.

6 Strategies for Pursuing Global Non-Dilutive Funding Opportunities

Interested in exploring your non-dilutive funding opportunities? Here are six strategies for pursuing these opportunities:

  1. Research the opportunities and their immigration and legal requirements fully and consult an experienced lawyer. (For information about opportunities in Ireland, see below.)
  2. Create a timeline and integrate these opportunities into your business plan, both in terms of funding structure and personnel. Establishing your business in the country will take time, as will applying for support from government programs. Your pursuit of other funding opportunities, both through venture capital (VC) and non-dilutive funding sources, should be ongoing. Remember, even when pursuing funders offering non-dilutive funding, money attracts money.
  3. When developing your proposals, work with a writer/consultant who has experience applying for these funding opportunities. She should have experience and expertise in the market, regulatory environments, and specific strategies of the countries in which you wish to pursue funding.
  4. If you would like to establish residency or apply for a work permit or visa as part of establishing your enterprise in a country of which you are not a citizen, apply for these statuses through the business development programs themselves, if possible. These programs have teams that will facilitate your application, usually more quickly (and with more success) than applying directly through the general immigration process.
  5. Structure your funding with complementary funding sources. Funding opportunities are often complementary, and you can often structure your funding to include multiple non-dilutive sources. Remember, funders—even government programs—are looking to back successful ventures that attract an appropriate amount of funding from multiple sources.
  6. Female entrepreneurs should take advantage of funding and support programs for female entrepreneurs, e.g., Enterprise Ireland’s Competitive Start Fund for Female Entrepreneurs.

Resources

Where do you start? Two organizations that offer funding and other support for businesses in Ireland include:

  • Enterprise Ireland provides funding for companies of many stages of development. Companies with one or more founders with EU citizenship have broad access to these programs, but non-citizen entrepreneurs may also access some of these programs with a visa, work permit, or residency. (You can follow Enterprise Ireland on Twitter at @Entirl.)
  • The Industrial Development Agency (IDA) promotes investment in Ireland, and it too offers support (funding, training, international marketing consulting) to businesses interested in locating in Ireland. (You can follow the IDA on Twitter at @IDAIreland.)

Our group at Duke City Consulting is experienced in international funding and can help your team identify and pursue global opportunities. For more information, please visit our web site or contact us at (505)750-9272.

 

Should I Resubmit?

Seasoned PIs know that resubmissions generally have a much higher success rate than new submissions.

Seasoned grant seekers know that thick skin and abundant tenacity often separate the funded from the unfunded, and resubmission is just part of the process. Of course, getting comfortable with the concept of the sunk cost fallacy and being willing to walk away from untenable (read: unfundable) proposals is also a skill that will optimize your return on your valuable time.
Continue reading “Should I Resubmit?”

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

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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!