Category: Grant Strategy

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.

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”