We hope many of you have had at least a little time to settle after the end of the Spring semester. Summer may offer more flexibility and, hopefully, some rest but it is also a time when many PIs try to move important work forward and prepare for whatever comes next.

In the weeks ahead, I want to focus on how to prepare for short-turnaround and new funding opportunities.

These are not exactly the same things but the preparation they require is similar. A short-turnaround opportunity may be something familiar that has a compressed timeline or deadline sooner than expected. A new opportunity may not have a particularly short deadline but because it did not exist previously it may lack institutional memory around it. No examples of funded proposals or available training, for example.

In today’s environment we are seeing more of both.

As funding organizations change, priorities shift and new programs appear, researchers may feel both curiosity and stress. Some opportunities that people expected to become available may have been eliminated. Others may appear with new language, requirements or timelines. When a new opportunity is announced -- especially in a difficult funding environment -- it can generate excitement. It also creates pressure to figure out quickly whether it is worth pursuing.

On the one hand, you do not want to ignore a real opportunity just because it is unfamiliar. But you also do not want to spend time and energy chasing something that is not actually a strong fit for you. A risk in this environment is that a PI starts moving toward an opportunity before having determined whether they should be pursuing it at all.

Another risk is losing too much time in the assessment stage. It is reasonable to need time to read the announcement, ask questions, talk with your Research Office and determine whether the opportunity fits your work. But if that process takes too long, you may lose time that would have been better spent preparing the submission.

Over the next four weeks, we will focus on recommendations to prepare yourself to respond to short-turnaround or new funding opportunities more effectively.

First, keep your professional presence current.

This includes your LinkedIn profile, Google Scholar profile, ORCID, institutional profile, lab website and any other source someone might quickly look at for information about you and your work. I covered this in a series last fall and will here refer again to some of those resources.

People need to be able to quickly understand who you are and what you do. That has always been true but it is even more important when timelines are short, opportunities are new and those evaluating or discussing your work may not already know you. Program staff, collaborators, institutional leaders, reviewers and others will  look you up. Increasingly, your online presence may also shape how AI tools summarize or interpret your work.

Second, learn to assess the fit of an opportunity quickly.

New funding opportunities and even revised versions of existing ones can arrive with lengthy announcements and broad topic language. It may feel like an opportunity covers everything under the sun. It may seem like your work could fit. But that broad language can also make it harder to determine whether the fit is real.

You need to move through the announcement efficiently, identify the most important requirements, recognize possible dealbreakers and assess who can help you interpret what you are seeing. This may involve software, talking with your Research Office, reviewing agency materials or directly contacting the funder if appropriate.

Third, organize your proposal materials and support system before you actually need them.

This becomes even more important when timelines are compressed. Boilerplate documents, biosketches, facilities descriptions, collaborator information, current and pending support, budget materials, and other components should all be pre-organized.

Your support system matters, too. If you need help with editing, figures, formatting, or other parts of a submission, it is easier if you already know whom to contact. If you have not already developed relationships with people in those roles, it may take weeks just to find someone who is available.

Short-turnaround opportunities often require more delegation than faculty are used to. You may need to focus your attention on the scientific or technical substance while others help with pieces of the submission that do not require your full attention. This is easier to do when you have already identified the people and resources you need.

Fourth, keep fundable concepts available and ready to adapt.

This does not mean writing proposals in advance. It means having a clear sense of project ideas you could develop, adapt, or discuss with a funder when the right opportunity arrives.

We advocate for using a research menu to communicate with funders. Think about that as a related practice. Even if you do not have a formal research menu, it helps to have a set of fundable concepts that you have already started to think through. What is the problem? Why does it matter? What would you do? Why are you well positioned to do it? What kinds of funders might care?

Then, when a new solicitation appears you are not asking, “What idea can I invent from scratch to fit this announcement?” Instead, you are asking, “Is one of the ideas I have already been developing a real fit here?”

Do not wait for the solicitation to clarify your ideas. If you do, you may be defining the project, assessing the fit, gathering materials, identifying collaborators, contacting the funder and preparing the submission all at the same time.

But this is the environment we are in. The best response is not to chase everything or freeze until things feel more certain. The better response is to prepare.

You may not be able to predict which opportunity will appear next. But you can ensure your professional presence is current, your process for assessing fit is sharper, your materials and support system are organized and your fundable concepts are ready to adapt.

Over the next four weeks, we will treat each of these in greater depth.

In 2024, I recorded an eight-part course on how to get DOD funding. I previously hosted it on another platform, but I have now moved it over to YouTube.

Even though the course was recorded two years ago, it is still highly relevant because it focuses on the why behind how DOD funding works. Based on what we are seeing with clients who are having success with DOD right now, these principles still hold.

You can check it out on YouTube through the playlist linked below.

Need to get your research funded, this year? Check out our 12-week program to get you there.

Check out our storefront where you can access our free Unlocking DOD Funding for University Researchers course and other resources, including for faculty applicants.

Ready to book a call to discuss how our program can support faculty at your institution? Let’s chat!