One of the biggest funding-related struggles PIs face is making contact with program officers. For this reason, I regularly touch on this topic in newsletters. This week I’ll highlight one question you can ask yourself when you are composing an email to a funder, or to anyone else who you believe may be hard to reach. This could be because they don’t recognize your name and/or because they receive an unusually high volume of email.

The question to ask yourself is ‘Does my email create more work for this person?’ Of course, by sending an email that they will presumably open and read, or at least look at, you did create a small amount of work, but you want to consider if your email creates work beyond that.

When someone opens an email, there are number of places where the recipient can see and feel more work piling on. This can be for any one of these reasons on their own or, often, from a combination:

• Lots of text: If your email has full paragraphs of text, it is less likely that the recipient will read it completely. Even if they do, they may feel overwhelmed and just move on without taking any action. Some people stress when looking at what they consider a wall of text. Keep in mind that what ‘a lot’ of text means varies from one person to the next. So, err on the side of brevity.

• Asking numerous questions: Ideally, you will ask just one question in the email. Often this will be to have a meeting. When you ask multiple questions in one email, the recipient can feel that a proper reply would involve thinking it through and typing out a lot of verbiage. It’s too easy for them to choose not to reply. And there’s always a chance you may ask a question to which they don’t have an answer. In this case, the recipient might try to track down an answer immediately or, more likely, just move on.

• Too many attachments: If you send a lot of material as attachments, the recipient may feel they are not prepared to get back to you until they have read and considered all of that material. What can happen is that after reading your email, they mentally set it aside, planning to review it when they have time. Unfortunately, that time may not arrive before your email has been forgotten.

What you should do is introduce yourself briefly and get to your main question as quickly as possible. If you need to make multiple points, consider using bullets, which are easier to read then a dense paragraph. Also, before you attach a file, consider pasting the content as text beneath your signature in the body of the email. This way, the recipient doesn’t have to take an extra step to view the material. Also, text presented this way will be easier to read on a phone.

Before you send the email, remember that your ultimate goal should be just to get the recipient to agree to a next step. That might involve agreeing to read a white paper that you send subsequently, or agreeing to schedule a meeting. A single request, no more.

After you’ve developed a working relationship with a funder, you will learn whether they are comfortable communicating using with longer, more detailed emails, or if they prefer sending and receiving emails with just a few words, and then picking up the phone for a conversation. You will figure out what works best for them over time.

However, when you are reaching out and trying to build relationships, remember that shorter is almost always better to get that initial response.

How to learn what DOD has funded

Following on the DOD theme from last week, this video provides a walkthrough of how to use tools from the Defense Technical Information Center. Searching for keywords related to your research can help you gain an understanding of who is doing what within the many organizations that are part of DOD. For a comprehensive overview of DOD funding opportunities and how to pursue them, check out my free video course.

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!