At a time when pay lines for research grants at the major funding agencies continue to be slim, and continuing to slim even further, there is a compelling need to improve grantsmanship skills among our faculty. Interestingly, this comment applies to faculty members at all levels, and not just the newly-hired junior faculty. So, what can a department chair do to help advance faculty grantsmanship? Considering just how overloaded we are, are there efficient strategies that work well?

 

Grantsmanship is an acquired skill that takes many years to develop. The best grant writers outperform the rest by a wide margin. If you read their written proposals, you will find that they are simple, lucid, and to-the-point. They make a compelling and persuasive case for funding their project. Importantly, their proposals cover all the bases and leave no "holes" that can be targets of criticism from reviewers. Which begs the question, can we use a questionnaire to ensure that a proposal answers the most important questions in an efficient manner? Happily, there does seem to be such a questionnaire that is applicable to a wide variety of grant proposals.

 

In this issue of the Source, we discuss some effective yet efficient "question driven" mentoring and coaching strategies for improving faculty grantsmanship.