Nursing Care and Grantsmanship
What Is Grantsmanship,Job of Grant Writer,Good Grant Writing,Qualities of Grantsmanship,Nature of Grant Proposal.
What Is Grantsmanship
Grantsmanship
is the knowledge and skill needed to prepare a grant application. It is the art
behind the science. It cannot make bad science fundable, but poor
grantsmanship can keep good science from receiving the favorable review needed
for funding.
Although good science is a necessary prerequisite for success in
obtaining funding, good grant writing is what makes the good science shine.
Indeed, many characterize good grantsmanship as a type of salesmanship.
Job of Grant Writer
Everything
a grant writer does to make the grant reviewer’s job easier is part of good
grantsmanship. The grant writer wants to impress the reviewer with the
soundness, importance, and perhaps even the creativity of the science of the
proposal.
At the same time, the grant writer must stimulate an excitement that
turns the reviewer into an advocate or enthusiastic champion of the proposed
project.
Achieving
a balance between generating such enthusiasm and sticking with a some what
rigid formula in the actual writing is an artful enterprise. Grant writing
itself is not particularly creative. Rather, grant writing can be viewed as a
type of formula writing. Good basic writing skills are essential.
The grant
writer must methodically walk the reader or reviewer through a well-constructed
logical argument. The reviewer should have no question about where the grant
writer is going. Moreover, a good grant writer anticipates the reviewer’s
questions and answers them before the question is raised.
Good Grant Writing
Repetition
of important content is a key aspect of good grant writing. An important point
is worth repeating to ensure that a reviewer does not miss it. Repetition is
also essential in the choice of words for key concepts.
Once a concept is named
and defined, the grant writer should stick with the identified word, term, or
phrase. Altering a phrase or using alternative terms in order to provide some
variety only serves to confuse a reviewer trying to follow the specific ideas
presented.
Qualities of Grantsmanship
Good
grantsmanship also requires the ability to handle criticism. Many more grants
are written and submitted than are actually funded. Therefore, a good grant
writer will sack multiple reviews from colleagues before actually submitting a
grant to the funding agency.
It is wise to seek reviewers for a variety of
purposes. Some should be familiar with the content area of the grant
application to identify any important errors or gaps in content.
Others should
be unfamiliar with the specific content area to protect against assumed
knowledge by insiders and to determine if the grant is written in a manner that
convinces a knowledgeable but otherwise uninformed reviewer about the
worthiness of the proposed project.
Still others may be used for things such as
grammar, editing, and typographical errors not found by computer spell-checks.
The ability to handle criticism is needed to request and receive a brutal
review and to respond to all concerns and criticisms without defensiveness.
It
is far better to acknowledge the concern from a colleague and be able to review
the grant application accordingly than to have the very same concern raised in
the official review and result in a poor evaluation and no funding.
Nature of Grant Proposal
Although
the specific proposal is the heart of the grant, grantsmanship involves much
more than just writing the actual proposal. Good grant writers understand other
aspects as well. For example, a cardinal rule is to follow the directions.
It
seems simple enough, but it is surprising how many would-be grants writers
neglect to read carefully all instructions for a particular grant application
and to follow them faithfully.
Guidelines and Elements
Most
grant applications come with specific guidelines about such things as
eligibility to apply, budget limits, allowable costs, page limits, margins,
font sizes, section sequencing, the type of content expected, the number of references
allowed, what may go into appendices ( if allowed), who must sign where and
what, and so on.
It is imperative that the grant writer adhere to all the
identified specifications. Some funding agencies will return grants unreviewed
if the directions are not followed. Not following directions raises questions
about the careful attention to detail needed to carry out most projects and
thus may reflect poorly on the applicant.
Another
basic element of good grantsmanship is to know and understand the goals and
mission of the particular funding agency to which one plans to submit the
grant. For example, each institute in the National Institutes of Health (NIH)
has a specific mandate to fund certain types of research.
Furthermore, each
institute generally sets priorities identifying specific areas in which they
are seeking proposals. Prior to writing a grant, one should investigate and
determine which funding agency would be the best match for the intended
project. The grant writer should specifically address the stated priorities and
goals of the funding agency or foundation for support of the proposed project.
This is particularly true for foundation grants. A helpful strategy when making
these arguments is to use the exact language of the program announcement or the
foundation’s mission statement. It is rarely in the grant writer’s best
interest to try to convince a foundation or other funding entity of a
worthwhile project not clearly within its mandate.
There
are a number of references to assist a grant writer. One particularly useful
book is the Grant Application Writer’s Handbook by Liane Reif -Lehrer (1995).
In addition to general information about writing and applying for grants, it
contains extensive information about the grant programs of the NIH.
Over half
of the volume is devoted to appendices, with useful resources, references, and
information about the NIH, the National Science Foundation, and applying to
foundations. Although some of the specific information quickly becomes dated,
much remains valuable and timeless.
The NIH also publishes a volume titled
Helpful Hints on Preparing a Research Grant Application to the National
Institutes of Health that contains several useful and informative articles and
presentations. It is available free of charge from the NIH website.