My newsletters often describe ways that PIs can better understand what a sponsor wants and thereby achieve desired research funding results. Items that you should listen for and take guidance on include:

• Framing of a research question

• Taking an idea more towards one application area versus another

• Scope of project

• Timeline of submission

• Existence and scale of collaborations

However, the core of your investigation should always come from you. But it’s easy to get caught up in the above and forget that. This week, I’m pausing tactical advice to encourage you to follow your intuition when you have a hunch about the way something works.

In research funding, there are plenty of guardrails in place to ensure money is not wasted on ‘crazy’ ideas. Many have argued that funders are too cautious by requiring too much preliminary data, employing a far-from-perfect evaluation process, and refusing to take ideas from disciplinary outsiders seriously.

Despite these challenges, I encourage you to pay close attention to ideas that come into your awareness. You’ve been intimately involved with whatever combination of samples, data, and theories you work with. Just because you don’t yet have evidence that supports a nascent idea doesn’t mean it’s not valid.

As STEM professionals, we tend to be very analytical, and we want to see ourselves as objective and basing decisions on facts. This can lead us to discount ideas that are unsubstantiated, including our own. But just because an idea is not ready for funding doesn’t mean that idea should be thrown away.

Where do these ideas come from? I can’t say I know. But in the 10 years I was working with PIs as a program manager, I cannot remember a conversation in which a PI earnestly explained an idea that was later shown to be complete nonsense. Rather, those ‘crazy’ ideas were the ones that opened up new directions of inquiry. Sure, I read my share of proposals with many shortcomings. But a proposal is different than an idea.

Listen to your ideas, treat them with respect, and hold on to them. Even if the time is not right for them to make their way into a proposal. Learn the skills you need to sell your ideas so that when the time is right, you can present them in whatever wrapping the funder needs.

It’s rare, but it does happen that a sponsor wants you to go down a path that’s flawed or, more likely, a waste of time. Don’t do this. Never compromise the quality of your work.

Remember that in the world of basic research, where most awards are made as grants rather than contracts, you should always be the one steering the ship when it comes to the fundamental questions about how our world works.

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!