The Process

100% focused on YOU

Our process together is 100% focused on you.

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

Whether we are doing coaching, grant writing, 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 faculty mentor has their own lab to run and their own students and postdocs to train.  Sure, you, junior faculty member, are important, and senior faculty do spend countless 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

 
 

No matter how we choose to work together, the process is always iterative.  

Junior faculty: 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. You do not need to have a draft of the grant to start working together; in fact, it is better if you have preliminary data and ideas for specific aims, but have written nothing.

Senior faculty: My experience is that it’s best if we start with a Zoom/phone/Teams conversation about what you need.

Everyone: I listen, ask questions, rephrase. I assume you are the topic matter expert, but since I have a fair amount of scientific background, in many topic areas, I use both directive and non-directive coaching.  I almost always will read a few articles in your field to become more familiar with your topic; 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 you know it is

  • Framing your project idea to align with the 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 objections and making sure they are addressed

  • Thinking about how to write the text so that reviewers are guided through the proposal

  • Making the application 'highlighter-able'

Needs for NIH proposals Mar 2018.png

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.