Tenure-track research faculty often feel the specter of the tenure clock looming over their shoulders. One of the most significant milestones in academia, tenure offers the promise of job security, academic freedom, and professional recognition. Yet, the path to tenure is often fraught with questions, pressures, and the feeling that there’s never enough time to accomplish it all. If you’re … Read More
Building Specific Aims for Your Grant Proposal: Starting with the End in Mind
Once investigators achieve their first major grant(s), they naturally tend to scale their programs (more resources, more personnel, more projects). With this shift, they typically have a lot more data and new questions/directions than in those early years of independence when they may have felt that they didn’t have enough (data, papers) or weren’t sure they were proposing enough (aims/sub-aims). … Read More
Gain Efficiency, Get Back Your Time: Leveraging Processes & SOPs to Streamline the “Knowledge Work” of Research
Got an analysis or experiment to run? I bet you follow a protocol for that. Protocols represent a key part of processes or step-by-step plans of action. Standard operating procedures, protocols, and other forms of process provide critical infrastructure for research to ensure reproducibility, fidelity, consistency, and efficiency, with respect to experimental or analytic endpoints. These are tangible products of … Read More
Navigating the Administrative Burden of Academia: Tactics for PIs Who Are Drowning in Admin Tasks
One of the surprising realities for PIs is the sheer amount of administrative work involved in the role. Many stay in academia for the potential to pursue their research interests, yet end up finding their days filled with emails, meetings, paperwork, and countless other administrative tasks. One of my clients recently referred to the job as “47 rats in a … Read More
“So What?”: The Simple Question That Instantly Elevates Your Grant Proposals (and More)
Imagine this: You spent months meticulously crafting your grant application. The research problem is well-defined and the methodology is solid. However, when the reviewers sit down to assess your proposal, they find themselves asking, “So what?” Oof. Over my last 15 years consulting on grant applications, I can tell you that “so what?” is the most common comment I leave … Read More
Getting into a Flow for the New Academic Year: Tips and Strategies for Research Faculty
The summer break is a valuable time for research faculty to pursue scholarly interests, collaborate with peers, and engage in professional development. And the contrast with the start of the fall semester can feel like getting pushed straight into the deep end. You may face a pile of administrative tasks, teaching responsibilities, and service commitments. We know some even feel … Read More
Shifting from “Either/Or” to “Both/And” Thinking: A Powerful Approach for Research Career (and Life) Success
Scientific and health research lends itself to viewing the world in either/or perspectives: data either refute or support a particular hypothesis, sometimes based on statistical tests that indicate “different or not different”. However, it can be distressing when data don’t fit into tidy boxes, and might even create uncertainty in how to move forward. Like with research outcomes, many situations … Read More
Diversifying Your Research Funding Portfolio: A Strategy to Increase Resilience
If you are performing grant-funded research within the US, you’ve likely experienced a number of highs and lows related to federal research funding trends. Many federal grant programs fall under Congressional budget appropriations and thus are subject to delays, uncertainty, and yes, even cuts depending on when a new budget law is passed and what funds are set aside for … Read More
Averting an Energy Crisis
The laws of thermodynamics describe the behaviors of energy in systems. Famously, the 1st law states that energy cannot be created or destroyed; energy can only change forms. This change in form is more specifically captured in the 2nd law of thermodynamics, which in part indicates that every energy transfer will result in some amount of energy becoming less useful … Read More
Preparing a Compelling Scientific Grant Application
Grants, especially from federal funders, provide an important source of support for advancing scientific and public health research. For example, within the US, federal grants are the second-largest source of research and development dollars, after private businesses (before the 1980s, federal funds were the largest share). Yet, you are probably also intensely aware that there is a lot of competition … Read More
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