COS/COP Untenured Faculty Grant Mentorship Program

Goal: To provide an intensive training environment for constructing a successful grant proposal.
Eligibility: Tenure-stream, untenured faculty (Assistant and Associate Professor only) with a FTE appointment within the College of Science and/or College of Pharmacy.
Expectations of Participant: Individuals selected to participate in this program are expected be actively engaged in the process – including specific writing and reading assignments.

Application Process: Eligible faculty members are asked to submit a 5-page mini-proposal as a PDF file to grant.mentorship@oregonstate.edu (1 inch margins, font size 12 in Times New Roman or larger, line spacing of 14 pt or larger). The title of the email should be “COS/COP Untenured Faculty Grant Mentoring Program.” The first page of the proposal is intended to be a one page summary of the specific aims / project goals for the proposal. Pages 2-5 should include an introduction, scientific approach, significance, innovation, deliverables and broader impacts (science-based and/or NSF-specific types). A timeline for
accomplishing the work would be advisable. The audience for the pre-proposal should be technical in nature for the specialized area; however, it should provide sufficient descriptive text in the introduction and specific aims sections to be accessible by a PhD level scientist in a related area.

Application Deadline for Program: March 24, 2014 at 9 am (PST)

Program Format:

The mentorship program will be structured in four phases.

Phase 1. Funding 101 (Thursdays from noon-1 pm, lunch provided)
• Roundtable Discussion (April 3). Participants share what they would like to get out of the program. Be prepared to share your own stories about grant writing and fund raising.
• The Mechanics of Writing (April 10). Sara Jameson will provide an overview of the mechanics of writing.
• Panel Discussion for Federal Agencies (April 17). Highly successful faculty at OSU will answer questions about their strategies for targeting NSF, NIH etc. Current panel members include: Sastry Pantula (NSF),
Joe Beckman (NIH), Staci Simonich (NIH / Superfund), May Nyman (DOE), Andy Karplus (NIH) Colleges of Science & Pharmacy Oregon State University
• How to Talk to a Program Officer (NOTE Special Date: Tuesday, April 22). Rick Spinrad will provide guidance on how to maximize your interactions with program officers.
• Mini-proposal.v2. (Due April 21, 2014 at 9 am PST) Based on what you have learned from Phase 1, a revised version of your proposal must be submitted to grant.mentorship@oregonstate.edu. Completion of the revised pre-proposal is a requirement to proceed to Phase 2.

Phase 2. Structuring a Proposal with Donn Forbes (May 5-9)
• The Mechanics to Structuring a Winning Proposal. Donn will go over key traits to how to write and structure a proposal.
• Real Time Rewriting of Proposal. Donn will select a subset of the proposals to go over with the group and show how he would recommend modifying.
• Small Group Discussions on Proposal Writing. Small groups will get together to peer review each other’s proposals.
• Mini-proposal.v3. (Due May 26, 2014 at 9 am PST) Based on what you have learned from Phases 1 and 2, a revised version of your proposal must be submitted to grant.mentorship@oregonstate.edu. Completion of
the revised pre-proposal is a requirement to proceed to Phase 3.

Phase 3. Red Team Peer Review by Senior Faculty (June 2014)
• Peer review of Mini-Proposal. Each proposal will receive peer review from two to three senior faculty with written feedback. The reviewers will be expected to provide “real world” (not-sugar coated) feedback to help
the participants hone the scientific aspects and grantsmanship of the proposal.
• Personal Consultation with Reviewer(s). At least one of the reviewers will personally meet with the  participant to answer questions and go over how to interpret the feedback.
• Roundtable Discussion (Late June). Participants will get together to discuss what they have learned from this process and provide feedback on additional aspects to further improve future Grant Mentoring Programs. An anonymous survey will be conducted to gather additional feedback.

Phase 4. Participant Follow-up.
• The participant is asked to provided a one page summary by December 31, 2014 and June 30, 2015 to grant.mentorship@oregonstate.edu on grant writing efforts, successes and learning experiences.