Recognizing yourself as the expert

In your interactions with funders, do you make the following assumptions?

• The funder point of contact is a technical expert in your research area.

• The funder’s strategy comes from a ‘higher source’.

• The funder point of contact is ‘above’ you in status.

These assumptions can be detrimental to getting the results you want. Here’s the reality:

• The funder point of contact may or may not be a technical expert in your research area.

• The ‘higher source’ of ideas in science and engineering is actually you and your peers in academia, not anyone within the government.

• The funder point of contact is your intellectual peer.

Let’s consider an example of how this plays out:

In fall of 2023, I participated in a DARPA Connect event in Greensboro, North Carolina. At the program manager panel discussion, DARPA PMs gave some very specific advice on the Young Faculty Award. The PMs stated that the best time to get in touch with PMs (and/or their support staff) was in March.

You may be thinking: Why March? The YFA topics and announcement are not published until the fall. It’s because in March, PMs are hashing out what topics they will announce for next year’s YFA.

The academic community informs these topics. A PM must scout for ideas within the community, then synthesize and strategize to generate topics that are ripe for investment.

March is the time that you can plant the seeds of new ideas with PMs and educate them on the bleeding edge of your field.

If you discuss technical ideas with PMs and a topic is announced related to that area, you will still have to compete for it. A topic won’t be written for just one performer.

When funders put a challenge out there, they want to consider a variety of strategies to tackle the problem. Even if your ideas are not incorporated into a YFA topic, there’s enormous value in becoming a trusted advisor to a DARPA PM.

To come back to funder points of contact more generally, here is what they are an expert in:

• The mission of their organization and how their portfolio support this

• The evaluation and administrative processes relevant to your submission

• Synthesizing information from many sources, big-picture thinking and strategy development (e.g., avoiding duplication of effort)

• Budgets

• Timelines

The funder point of contact may also have a high level of technical expertise in your research area, very little, or somewhere between. You will learn this by speaking with them and should adjust your communications accordingly.

You want to develop a relationship in which you bring your expertise and the funder brings theirs. Then you can work together to get resources to the ideas that are going to move society forward.

It can be hard to recognize just how far you have come in your career. I know that from helping clients with chair letters. When writing chair letters, you must make it clear that you are a leader or even the leader in your research area.

That can be challenging to assert, but it’s well worth getting over this hurdle. I touch on chair letters in a video on letters, generally, that I link to below.

What’s up with all these letters?

Are you submitting a proposal that requires a letter of some kind? Or, would inclusion of a letter with your proposal make a stronger case for the research? In this video, I describe the main types of letters you may encounter in the proposal-preparation process. Check it out!

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.

Want a done-for-you website that highlights your research impact? Let us do that for you. (We even write all the content for you!)

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