The Process

100% focused on YOU

What does '100% focused on you' mean?  It means that I don't have any major commitments except helping people like you. 

Whether we are doing 'grant writing', 'coaching', or a workshop, my focus is 100% on you. I’m not trying to rush through your grant to get to the thing that I really do.

The absolutely most common need I find among junior faculty is the need for someone to be focused 100% on them.  Typically a junior person's mentor has their own lab to run and their own students and postdocs to train.  Sure, you, junior faculty member, are important, and most senior faculty do spend untold hours helping junior faculty with grant applications.  And senior faculty give fabulous and invaluable advice (advice that I cannot give). But the junior person still needs someone to be completely focused on them, their words, their document, their thoughts, their what-ifs, their struggles. That's where I come in.  And that's what I enjoy doing and think I am good at.

I’ve found that the people who benefit most from working with me:

  • Like to start their grants early

  • Have a bit of a perfectionist streak

  • Like to work from/with a structure, at the paragraph and document level.

  • Want help structuring their ideas

  • Want the logic of their grant story to be precise

Let’s get your grant application done well, so you can get back to doing the things you love!

If you need someone who is 100% focused on you and your ideas Contact Me!

Grant Writing & Coaching

 
 

The process is always iterative.  You should expect your ideas to evolve.  You should expect that the types of edits, comments, and suggestions you get from me will evolve also, as I learn more about your project and as you move from early drafts to polished writing.

If we start with a draft, you send it to me, I read it, and then we discuss it, without me spending lots of time making edits or comments. If we start with your idea, we usually try to develop a cartoon that depicts your specific aims, and we draft your grant story.

I listen to you, ask questions, rephrase. I help you focus your ideas by talking with.  I assume you are the expert in your area, but since I have a fair amount of scientific background I use both directive and non-directive coaching.  I almost always will read some articles in your field (or some websites), but please expect me to need some education from you about the scientific details and the context in which you see your work.

Main areas in which authors request help with grants

  • Stating the Specific Aims

  • Identifying the grant story

  • Writing the Specific Aims page

  • Writing the Significance and Innovation sections

  • Making sure the application sounds as exciting as your know it is

  • Framing the project idea to align with funder’s and reviewer’s needs

  • Writing cohesive paragraphs (one topic per paragraph, please!)

  • Double checking the instructions

  • Editing for comprehensiveness, relevance, organization, framing, clarity, and concision

  • Reducing length (which is a combination of some of the above)

  • Anticipating a reviewer’s most likely objections and making sure they are addressed

  • Thinking about how to write so as to guide the reviewer through the proposal

  • Making the application 'highlighter-able'

Needs for NIH proposals Mar 2018.png

My philosophy about grant applications

Sorry to break the bad news, but your grant application is not about you.  Nope.  Your application is about the needs of the reviewer and the needs of the folks with the money.  So if you aren't sure whether to include x-and-such a piece of information, just ask yourself, 'does this help the reader grasp how I am solving a problem they care about?’ ‘Does this show the reader how I'm the perfect person to do it?’

Scientific Manuscripts & Other Documents

I occasionally will edit manuscripts.

I am happy to help with content for websites and documents working to counter scientific misinformation.