Funding agencies develop new programs for a variety of reasons, including to encourage interdisciplinary research, support collaboration among sectors, make progress towards technology development, and for capacity building.

These programs are often initiated by an organization’s leadership, making them highly visible. Thus, they can be heavily marketed. Everyone wants them to be a success, or at least not a failure. After all, if they didn’t get an adequate number of submissions, that would not reflect well.

Understandably, when PIs learn about what I will call special opportunities, they get excited if it appears that an opportunity was made just for them. And, if eligibility is limited to certain types of institutions, PIs may assume that competition will be low because, after all, not everyone can apply.

So, what’s the problem? These opportunities can cause PIs to lose focus. It’s important to avoid getting carried away over these opportunities and neglect the organization’s tried and true core programs. Here are some items to consider:

• Special programs may have lower success rates than core programs. You were forwarded an email about this exciting opportunity, but so were many other people. Further, these programs have hard deadlines, which has been shown to increase the number of submissions.

• You may need to coordinate submission with a team of performers. Special opportunities often require a team and, especially if you are a new PI without a lot of experience managing teams at different institutions, this can add considerably to the proposal preparation effort.

• With a new program, you may not be able to get much guidance from program officers, since they can’t speak about how things have played out historically. They have to wait and see what they get. And, yes, funders do worry about getting enough submissions, so they may hesitate to discourage submission for almost any reason.

• A resubmission may not be straightforward. Some special programs must be reauthorized each year. But, if the opportunity is offered again, it may have changed significantly based on how things played out the first year.

Today’s newsletter is not meant to discourage you from submitting for those opportunities. Even with the above warnings, submission can make sense. Just make sure (1) you are as informed as you can be about things like the total amount of funding available and how many awards are expected, which you can learn from the announcement. That is an important reality check. (2) Don’t let the special opportunity cause you to lose focus on more plain-vanilla programs that may be more likely to come through for you. And (3) when you consider a special opportunity, find out what the closest-matched core program is. Is there overlap in the program managers? Speaking with someone knowledgeable about both programs who can steer you towards one or the other, or perhaps both, is ideal.

Get a jumpstart on research funding for the new academic year

Yes, you can make great progress towards funding in just one day. In this video, I outline action items that will take you less than one day to accomplish and will set you up for success. Check it out!

Workshop for New Faculty & Researchers

For the Society of Research Administrators International (SRAI) PI Intensive for New Faculty and Researchers: Building the Tools for Your Career in Research

This day-and-a-half workshop will take place in Chicago on October 24-25th .

We will dive into topics such as

✔️ Understanding the responsibilities of a principal investigator

✔️ Developing competitive grant applications

✔️ Negotiating effectively with your institution

✔️ Employing project management approaches in research

I am co-leading this event. Please see this page for more information and to register. Note that this is an SRAI (not a Wise Investigator) event.

It would be wonderful to meet some newsletter subscribers in person in Chicago. Please send me an email ([email protected]) if you have any questions. 👋 

When you are ready, here’s how we can help

Need to get your research funded, this year? Check out our 10-week program to get you there.

Ready to book a call to discuss our program or to have Dr. Barzyk provide training at your institution? Let’s chat!