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This paper discusses the contrasting perspectives of academic prose versus grant writing, and lists strategies grant specialists can use to help researchers break old habits and replace them with techniques better suited to the world of competitive grant proposals. [This article is a reprint of "Why Academics Have a Hard Time Writing Good Grant Proposals," "Journal of Research Administration," v38 n2 p37-43 Fall 2007 (EJ902223).]

When they are new to the grant game, even scholars with fine publishing records can struggle with proposal writing. Many are surprised to find that the writing style that made them successful as academics is not well suited to crafting a winning proposal. To succeed at grant writing, most researchers need to learn a new set of writing skills. This paper discusses the contrasting perspectives of academic prose versus grant writing, and lists strategies grant specialists can use to help researchers break old habits and replace them with techniques better suited to the world of competitive grant proposals. (Contains 1 table.)

Limited submission grant programs force a sensitive gatekeeper role squarely on research administration. By limiting the number of proposals that an institution may submit in response to a program announcement, sponsors (both governmental and private) are, in effect, pushing down to the universities the initial triage of competitive vs. non-competitive grant proposals, thus reducing their own workloads to a considerable degree. At the other end, research administrators can view this role either as an onerous but necessary task, or they can seize opportunities tar constructive communications, proposal improvements, and faculty development. This paper describes a process at Virginia Tech that aims at the latter approach, using ten rules for managing limited submission programs., Introduction With sponsor budgets flattening as universities ramp up their research agendas, intensified competition has become the norm. In 2003 NSF underwent a near budget freeze, while the number of [...]

Review panels determine the success or failure of most proposals, and writers are well advised to polish their prose in a manner that will win their approval. Indeed, many successful proposal writers count their service on review panels among the most powerful learning experiences in their own research careers. Information on how review panels work is abundant, but little has been written on the personal perspectives of reviewers--the critical factors that lead to their support or rejection of any given proposal, how they view the strengths and weaknesses of the peer review system and whether serving on panels has shaped their own proposal writing strategies. This paper presents the findings of interviews with sixteen senior Virginia Tech faculty with extensive experience on review panels. Most participants strongly endorsed the peer review system, though reservations were expressed concerning its administrative complexities and the difficulties in assigning proposals to reviewers with appropriate expertise. The paper concludes with reviewers' recommendations to improve the overall system., Background It can be argued that most research administrators owe their jobs to a key power group in academe: grant reviewers. These folks are the gatekeepers who decide who will [...]

With pressure mounting to increase extramural funding, new faculty become increasingly important to the overall effort, as tiffs group has the greatest potential to add to the university's future crop of award winners. Ominously, evidence shows that those who fail to establish effective habits of research and writing early in their careers probably never will. The challenge new faculty present to research administration can be simply put: What is the best means to get them started on their research careers? This paper describes an approach led by the grants office that uses specially designed workshops to demystify sponsored research, build collegiality among new faculty and their more experienced colleagues, and stimulate greater participation in selected grant programs., The Challenge For research administrators, encouraging more proposal submissions is a constant challenge, and it is largely a game of numbers: The more proposals a given faculty member writes, the [...]

With increasing pressure to obtain extramural funding, success in proposal writing becomes ever more important to colleges and universities. Though the characteristics of good proposal writing are well understood, success ratios remain low and most proposals are rejected on first reading. This paper discusses the dimensions of the problem, identifies some common proposal errors and pitfalls, and suggests techniques to avert them. It concludes that grants specialists can employ intervention strategies centered around internal competitions, early career award workshops, funding search workshops and acceptance of preproposals to help faculty improve their grant writing skills., Introduction Success in proposal writing must be viewed as a low probability game. At the National Science Foundation (March 2002) and the National Institutes of Health (2002), two key federal [...]

The article reports that program development manager Robert E. Porter has received 2005 Rod Rose Award for the best paper published in a research journal. This award is given recognizing the achievement of the authors and to honor the best paper published in the Journal of the Society of Research Administrators. Porter is working as a program development manager in research division of the company Virginia Tech. Porter has also prior experience of 20 years of working as a education administrator and private healthcare consultant.