To begin please email us with the following:
- Information about the funding mechanism - e.g., a link to the NOFO / RFA. (It's helpful to know if the award is a 'limited opportunity'.)
- An estimate of the funding sought. (We generally focus on grants that provide > $6M in total funding.)
- Application submission date.
- A project title and, if you have one, a draft of the Specific Aims.
We will review the provided info and then schedule a 15-30 minute follow-up conversation to learn more about what you have in mind and how we might be able to help. For example: have you spoken with the program officer (or equivalent); what other UChicago-based support have you engaged; do you need help with illustrations and/or graphics?
The RDT doesn’t need to be involved in all aspects of a grant application. Nonetheless, we imagine there will be roughly five distinct stages for any given project, and the earlier we're involved the more helpful we can be.
(1) IDEATION. We can convene and facilitate conversations between investigators that haven't worked together but, collectively, might be well-suited to pursue a particular NOFO (or anticipated NOFO). We can do the opposite as well - i.e., help individual investigators that already have a great, albeit unpolished, idea to identify potential collaborators and/or funding mechanisms.
(2) DESIGN. For complex, multidisciplinary grant applications this might begin in the absence of a particular NOFO; it should, ideally, begin 3-6 months before any known or specified submission deadline. By the end of this stage it should be clear who will be involved, how each person will contribute, and the primary goals that the proposed project aims to tackle.
(3) DRAFTING. The RDT pre-award administrator (or the equivalent in your Department, Center, or Institute) will often focus on project management and the budget, budget narrative, and other resource sections. With sufficient time and engagement we can help develop portions of the scientific narrative and/or a variety of administrative documents - e.g., Multiple PI Leadership Plans, Data Management Plans, Biosketches, and Letters of Support. (Note: our Resources page has links to helpful (a) guidance on specific sections and (b) templates!)
(4) EDITING. We like to reserve 4-8 weeks to edit iteratively, focusing on high-, intermediate-, and then low-level details – e.g., for text, focusing first on the order of ideas/paragraphs, then the structure of sentences, and finally word choice, punctuation, and grammar. Iterative processes take time but result in a better product and fewer frayed nerves. (Note: we can help develop and edit graphics as well!)
(5) FINALIZATION. We normally focus on basic copyediting, formatting, compliance, and high-level editorial comments in the 1-2 weeks preceding submission.