Insights from the inside of federal funding agencies

Workshop aims to help Brown researchers gain competitive edge.

by Marty Downs

More than 100 Brown researchers attended a recent campus workshop to help them get inside the heads of program officers from the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

The half-day session, offered by the Office of Community and Government Relations and the Office of the Vice President for Research, aimed to give Brown researchers an added edge when preparing and targeting proposals for the government's leading funder of bio-medical research. It featured two NIH program officers who described their responsibilities and the agency's funding priorities. They spent almost two hours answering questions about how grant-seekers can work most effectively with their program officers.

"This event is just one example of the kind of things we can do to promote research at Brown," said Clyde Briant, the University's vice president for research. "We wanted to help researchers build relationships with NIH program officers and get familiar with the agency's research priorities so they can prepare the most competitive proposals."

To help frame the kinds of issues that concern Brown grant seekers, Briant kicked off the morning with a quick review of the University's research strengths. Professor of Neuroscience Diane Lipscombe spoke from dual perspectives: She has successfully competed for NIH grants, and has served regularly on NIH study groups – the peer reviewers that score the value of each proposal.

Dr. Jeff Schloss, a program officer in the National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI), reviewed the NIH road map and how NHGRI sets funding priorities, while Dr. Bill Riley, a program officer at the National Institute for Mental Health, covered the roles and expectations of program officers and the process for proposal evaluation.

Riley emphasized the value of engaging the program officer throughout the proposal process. "This is our job," said Riley. "It's what we do for a living, so you don't need to apologize about asking for advice." Program officers can offer guidance on which study group is most appropriate or how to best align a proposal with agency priorities. They might suggest secondary institutes where a researcher could direct proposals or inform them of potential collaborators.

The program officer can also be a great help in revising proposals, the speakers said. If a program officer attended the review panel, the officer can help a researcher interpret the proposal review and suggest changes that will improve the proposals chances in the next revision.

Tim Leshan, Brown's director of government relations and community affairs, and Regina White, associate vice president for research administration, each drew upon their backgrounds to pull the workshop together: Leshan is former chief of the Policy and Program Analysis Branch at NHGRI/NIH; White previously served as director of the Office of Policy for Extramural Research Administration at NIH. "I thought it would be most important for Brown faculty and postdoctoral researchers to realize they can and they should interact with NIH program staff who administer grants," said Leshan. "We're also talking with other funding agencies, such as NSF, DOE and possibly CDC, about organizing similar events for researchers in other specialties."

The audience was a mix of faculty investigators, postdoctoral researchers, and graduate students, all hoping to glean information that would give them an edge in compiling fundable proposals. "The hope is that you will get clues, hints, find out how to worm your way in," said Kimberly Harms, a postdoctoral research fellow in neuroscience. "The science isn't where most scientists stumble. We know how to design good experiments, but sometimes we don't express it as well as we could."

For investigators who have been funded but want more information about how the process works, Schloss suggested that serving on a review panel is a great educational experience that returns dividends on a researcher's investment of time and effort. For new investigators who are navigating NIH for the first time, the Office of the Vice President for Research can be a useful resource and guide for this activity, he said.