Warning/opportunity: geekery ahead.

[rivka]

As I mentioned last week, Lydia and I are gearing up to write a Very Big Grant over the next month and a half. I'm excited about this project and my role in it - which is much more central than I've ever been before on a grant this size.

My sister had mentioned to me recently that she was baffled by the process of research - how to come up with an idea and a study design, and how to go through the process of convincing people to pay for it. I've decided to write about the process for her, as it unfolds, from vague idea to 100+ page submitted proposal with all the details nailed down. It'll also be interesting for me to have a record of my first major r01 grant proposal. (I've been more peripherally involved in helping out on others, but this will be different: I'll be right in the middle of things from the beginning.)

I thought I might post about it to LJ, but I don't want to do so in open entries. It's a paranoia thing - we haven't submitted or published these ideas as our own, and even though the odds are infintessimally small that some other band of HIV researchers will stumble across my journal, I just don't feel comfortable spelling everything out in a public place. Plus, there will be impossibly high levels of HIV geekiness involved, and not everyone is interested in that sort of thing.

If you'd like to be privy to the gory details of how a vague idea becomes a grant proposal, leave a comment (or e-mail me) and let me know. If you're not on my friends list, I'll almost certainly be willing to add you for this purpose. If you don't have a Live Journal account, I can offer you an account creation code... or e-mail you the entries, I suppose, if you have your own reasons for staying away from LJ.

If you wouldn't be interested, I won't be offended or hurt in the slightest. No one has to be a research geek to be my friend. *grin*

Comments

[minnaleigh.livejournal.com]

Ooh! Ooh! Sign me up! Please!

[klwalton.livejournal.com]

I am *immensely* interested. I've written some grant proposals in a small way, but never anything this big, and never for research. Please, yes, put me on the list.

[geekchick]

Yes, please. =)

[kalikanzara.livejournal.com]

Color me curious.

[kalmn.livejournal.com]

i am not a research geek, but i wanna be one when i grow up! pick me!

[redbird]

Coolness. Count me in. Oh, and if you run out of codes, I have a few to spare.

[brian1789.livejournal.com]

One observation that I've had of the NASA grant process is that there often seems to be no correlation with the time/effort/size of the proposal vs. the size of the prospective grant. I've dashed off quick back-of-the-envelope 4-page proposals that attracted $500K, and spent weeks agonizing over a 50-page proposal for a mere $50K/yr.

So I'd be interested in discussing how the process is different over in the NIH/CDC world... although I won't be at all hurt or offended if you hesitate to add me to your list.

[jenett]

Me! Me! Over here! Very interested and stuff :)

[kiya]

Colour me unsurprised with little orange Grecian pot images. (Hey, it's the shirt I'm wearing.)

I'm interested too, by the way. ;)

[geminigirl]

Welll

I'm a research geek and an HIV geek...but I don't want to read the entries twice ;)

I'd love to read them if you want to share. The grant you're writing is far from the kind of stuff that I'd be looking to do grant wise, in case that is a concern, and besides, we're not allowed to apply for any new grants for six months-the moratorium came from the executive director...too much growth, too quickly and we need to be sure everything is settled before we look for anything new.

[gundo.livejournal.com]

Oooo...please include me in the list of interested parties.

[elusis.livejournal.com]

I'd be very interested. I've got ideas for grants relating to outcome studies here at work, plus I may need to pursue some small grants for dissertation research. If I revise my dissertation topic, I may even be doing something with HIV and applying to NIDA (don't worry, it'll be from a family therapy angle which I doubt would infringe on what you're doing? And I have my research question already. ;> )

[wcg.livejournal.com]

Yes, please. I'd be quite interested in seeing how it's done in your field.

[mactavish.livejournal.com]

. . . in her field, out in the woods, the meadow by the barn, etc.

Re:

[rivka.livejournal.com]

. . . in her field, out in the woods, the meadow by the barn, etc.

Hey mactavish, have you ever considered an exciting career as a research assistant? ;-)

[mactavish.livejournal.com]

Why yes, I was just pondering that very thing. ;)

[wcg.livejournal.com]

No Mary, that's not what I'd want to see necessarily. It's more what I'd want to do.

[therealjae.livejournal.com]

Count me in, baybeh. ;-)

-J

[eeyorerin]

Very interested, yes. (Researchers in my field occasionally study how people write these sorts of things, but that's not my area of interest. I just like watching people process-geeking about writing or design.)

[diony.livejournal.com]

I'm very interested -- I have no idea how it happens, either, and a lot of curiosity.

[ex-helygen254.livejournal.com]

I am interested, please.

Yes, please

[kightp.livejournal.com]

Geek away. The program I work for administers and distributes research grants (not Your Sort, alas, unless you want to *really* narrow the subject area to something like "HIV in the Pacific salmon fleet"). I've always wondered how people come up with some of these proposals...

[micheinnz.livejournal.com]

Oooo, process geekery... yes please!

[aiglet.livejournal.com]

Me, um... Me also!

[jinian.livejournal.com]

yeah please.

Me too, please!

[kyttn.livejournal.com]

I used to love working on grants when I worked for our local hospital. One of the doctors I was working for was working on a grant reasearch he was doing to create a possible HIV vaccine. It was fascinating and FUN!

[almeda.livejournal.com]

Sign me up for the Academia Porn. :->

(oh ... oh baby ... FOOTNOTE me!)

[maureenkspeller.livejournal.com]

I'd love to know.

M.

[sashajwolf.livejournal.com]

I'd be interested.

[submarine-bells.livejournal.com]

I'd certainly be interested in reading about the grant-getting-process. I've not done it yet myself, but I'll certainly need to for the next phase of my research, so hearing about how yours works would be really useful to me!

[saoba.livejournal.com]

On the off chance you didn't already know this, I'd better say...

Sign me up.

[ororo.livejournal.com]

Hell, yes. I love reading about your research!

[anisoptera.livejournal.com]

yes, please, if I'm not too late.