Abstract
Junior perspective: before research funding grants. Tomislav Bokun
To do research is not an easy thing! Actually, it is difficult, time-consuming and often frustrating. However, many people have an inherent desire to do research and feel fun and pleasure while doing it, often becoming ‘addicted to it’. They know that research has the power to change and is the engine of development, granting them the feeling of power, importance and worthiness. One can start doing research anytime during his or her lifetime, but the best time to start probably is as early as possible, preferably during undergraduate studies or early after graduation. Nevertheless, everybody enters the scientific arena as a beginner and have to invest ‘to play’. Because in a way, doing research is a game, a highly competitive game with a lot of well-educated, hardworking, sharp-minded, passionate enthusiasts playing. One has to invest his time and devotion, but also these ‘scientific games’ can be expensive. This is where grants help.
In a broad sense, grants can have many forms, like educational, in the form of travel grant, visiting fellowship or exchange program, awards, etc. but research funding grants is the most desirable for many. Once involved with research, you should immediately start thinking of achieving grants.
Probably the first grants to start achieving are travel grants. Most commonly they will come to you as a reward for submitting or presenting a good research at a national or international meeting. Writing application for some kind of educational grant can be the first lesson in your grant writing education. It commonly has to include motivation letter where you can bring the best of yourself, but all should be true. Think from the perspective of reviewers i.e. people from where you want to go or collaborate with and adjust your motivation letter so they could feel that they need you and want you in their team. If you fail, this should not be discouraging for you. Remember that there are many brilliant peers out there trying to get the same thing. Be positive, do not give up. Try again. Make an effort to learn from the time your application was not successful. See whether you can get some feedback, official or even unofficial. Ask colleagues, especially senior ones, to comment on your motivation letter, research proposal, etc. Gain experience; it is precious in this highly competitive ‘grant market’.
It is much easier ‘to play’ when you are the member of an established (and possibly fruitful) research group or you have found an experienced mentor, as it is the case most commonly. This is why networking is important from the beginning of your career. UEG recognised this and created Young Talent Group and Young GI Network 1 . You have to meet people, talk about your ideas and interests, and start to collaborate. This is how your endeavors will be noticed and experience will increase. Eventually the chances for traveling to congresses, workshops, visiting centers of excellence and fellowships will emerge.
You should have in mind that research groups need young people’s energy and enthusiasm, and additionally seniors are often devoted to teach. Use it. Learn from seniors, they want to help. Remember that they want their team to be effective and productive, and that they care about this. They always think of every person in their team. Try to make a friendly relationship with them as much as you feel so! But always respect them and try to give your maximum, give more than you receive and your relationship will be fruitful. Because seniors are often the ones to encourage applying for educational grants by juniors or sometimes even hand grants on the plate!
Winning these ‘small’ grants enables you to further expand your knowledge and develop your ideas, which should be the main driver to further apply for grants, but winning grants also brings acknowledgment and reputation, and is a valuable reference for your career development. Other researchers will, among other, value your endevours through a track record of your grants and awards, and your wins will help you to be recognized by other members of the scientific community. All this will help you to go more deeply into your research niche, and eventually to prepare you for applying for research funding grants that will make you an independent researcher, which will together with useful practicalities be covered by senior in this article.
And remember, there is still much to research in the field of gastroenterology, with many kinds of grants available out there. So come, play and get some! Let your knowledge and scientific contribution help us all to reach the Golden Age of healthcare 2,3
Senior perspective. Gijs van den Brink
Of all the many talents an effective researcher needs to possess, getting your research funded is one of the most important. It should be the starting point of your academic freedom when you are a beginner and it is the life line of your research group when you are more advanced.
As you make plans to write a grant it is important to begin by putting yourself in the shoes of the reviewers, the people you write this grant for.
The reviewers will in general be colleagues that will be more or less knowledgeable in the area of your expertise. Do not overestimate the background knowledge of the reviewers and begin by briefly explaining the basics of the background of the problem you want to tackle. Check if you did this well by asking a colleague that is not researching the same subject.
Make your grant easy to read for your reviewers, think of writing a story with a natural flow. Avoid the use of jargon. As you want your grant to read like a story avoid the use of all abbreviations (you also would not like to read a novel littered with abbreviations). For example, don’t write about DC in CD if you write about dendritic cells in Crohn’s disease. Avoid clichés, for example, don’t start you grant with general statements such as ‘X cancer is the Y leading cause of cancer related death’ or ‘Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis are collectively called inflammatory bowel diseases’. Instead try to write a brief introduction that leads directly to the problem addressed by your grant.
Your reviewers will have little time to review your grant and will often come to a first conclusion on the outcome of their review on the first page of your grant proposal. If the format of the grant allows it, try to fit a brief summary of the background of the proposal, your hypothesis, research aims, potential outcome and a visually attractive figure that summarizes this all on the first page of your proposal. Focus on getting this summary right and show it to multiple colleagues.
They will generally look for the following aspects in your proposal. Is there a clear hypothesis with research aims that will test the hypothesis and explore the consequences of your hypothesis should you be correct? Is the hypothesis novel and interesting or relevant? Do you have sufficient evidence (preliminary data) that you are thinking in the right direction? Given the vital importance of good preliminary data it is probably a good idea to think well ahead about grants you may want to apply for in the future (a 3–5 year plan). If you have the possibility try to work on more than one good hypothesis, write the grant for the hypothesis for which you have obtained the best preliminary data.
The reviewers will want to see that you have a well thought out plan using state-of the-art methods that follows naturally from each of your research aims. So make sure the methods section is built around your research aims.
The reviewers’ opinion about your proposal is 50% about your hypothesis, aims and methodology and 50% about you. In order to obtain funding you will have to build a track record, something beyond the subject of this brief commentary. It is not unusual for grants to have a success percentage as low as 5–10%. This generally means you have to be in the top 20% of your peers as judged by some reasonably subjective criteria. In building your track record, especially in the beginning stages, realize that every small victory counts! An important aspect of your track record is do you have any published evidence that you know what you are talking about? Personally I have found that it is very difficult to get a grant funded if you have not at least published one relevant paper on the subject.
What if the reviewers knew you? It rarely hurts if the reviewers of a proposal know you professionally or personally. Therefore, make sure you build your network! Go to conferences and if you’re there, interact, don’t be afraid to talk to people! Play an active role in the societies that are active in your area of expertise such as the UEG.
If you manage to obtain your grant, make sure you use it to adapt your 3–5 year plan. How will you use the funds to obtain your next grant? Use part of the money to obtain preliminary data for your next grant.
Finally, getting granted is all about planning, make sure you know which grant(s) you should apply for in the coming year, plan sufficient time in your agenda and never submit on the last day!