Betty Lai, Boston College, Chestnut Hill, MA, USA, presents a checklist to help figure out which grants to apply for and which might be a waste of time. She is currently writing the book “The Grant Writing Guide: A Road Map for Scholars”, due out next year.

She wrote that she submitted an application last October to the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development in Rockville, MD, USA, which is part of the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH). Writing this application on the computer, she says, took her 68 hours and 11 minutes – a time she tracked accurately. That was less time than usual, she said, because she had previous research in the field, experienced collaborators, and pilot data to draw on. The success rate for this type of grant is currently 24 %, for the London-based funder Wellcome it is about 13 %, and for the European Research Council about 16 %.

To rule out opportunities that are not a good investment of time, she advises looking closely at the funding announcement and going through a list of questions:

1. Are you eligible?
   (are there any requirements, e.g., residence, degree, type of position)
2. Do you do the kind of work the funder wants to support?
   (who or what will be supported)
3. How much work will this require?
   (how involved is the request and how competitive? Also important are the potential grant amount, required documents, time to submission, and current workload)
4. How competitive is the application?
5. Does this call fit your priorities?
6. Does this budget match what you’re interested in doing?
   (e.g., the work you want to do, the resources you need, the collaborations you want to enter into)
7. Will this be a learning experience even if you don’t receive funding?
   (an unsuccessful application can help flesh out ideas; resubmit an application if you are convinced of the importance of the work)

---

• Seven questions to ask before pursuing a new grant,
  Betty Lai,
  Nature July 14, 2022.
  https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-022-01905-7

 

Also of Interest

• Funding Information 
  Regularly updated links to funding and similar information — last updated June 16