Spring 2007 - Purdue College of Pharmacy - Purdue University

Teaching Students
About the NIH Grant Process
Professor Don Bergstrom participates in an extremely popular
course that teaches graduate students about grant writing. “The
goal of the course is to teach students how to write an NIH style
grant proposal,” he says. “During the course, we talk about the
mechanics of a grant proposal, and we have various professors
talk about their own experiences and give different perspectives
to the process.” Students must then write a proposal and serve
on a mock study section.
Pharmacy faculty who have participated in the course include
Drs. Bob Geahlen, Marc Loudon, Dave Nichols, and Carol Post.
Since each of them has served on NIH study sections, they are
able to speak first-hand about how grants are reviewed.
“There is also a session on ethics where we discuss that there
are many ways that people can be dishonest in science, be it
plagiarism or fake results. We talk about these pitfalls and how
to avoid them during the course,” comments Bergstrom.
The students are graded on three assignments during the
course. First, students are divided into several teams of three
and have 10 days to write a three-page proposal which combines
all of their own research, thus teaching the students how
to work together and forcing them to combine ideas. Next,
students write a 15-page NIH style grant proposal. They are
provided with all of the necessary background information on
how to construct a grant and have the opportunity to review
examples. Two weeks prior to the end of the semester, they turn
in their proposals. The final assignment begins with Dr. Bergstrom
assigning each student to a study section with specific
roles (as primary and secondary reviewer, and as reader), and
the students then have ten days to review their three proposals.
It is, however, strongly advised that the students read all of the
proposals in their study section (8-12 proposals total). Since
only primary and secondary reviewers are required to provide
written critiques, each student thus is responsible for two written
critiques and must be prepared to discuss a third (as the reader)
during the study section. The process mimics the NIH process
exactly. There are four sessions which consist of these themes:
Medicinal Chemistry and Chemical Biology, Biochemistry and
Structural Biology, Cell Signaling, and Molecular Pharmacology.
The last Saturday of the semester, the course holds a study
section which lasts the entire day with two sections meeting
simultaneously in the morning and afternoon with lunch
provided. The reviewers present their critiques and the group
discusses each proposal, spending roughly 3-4 hours for each
section. “By listening and participating, the students learn
a great deal about what they should and shouldn’t include
in a proposal,” says Bergstrom.
This course, now titled MCMP 625, began well before 1989
when Dr. Bergstrom arrived at Purdue. The content of the course
has changed since then and now involves more structure and
more involvement by the faculty. Once a temporary course, the
University has approved it as a formal course now offered in
both the fall and spring semesters. It is capped at 40 students,
and typically there are 35-40 students enrolled each semester,
including students outside of pharmacy.
Dr. Bergstrom comments that he once had a former student
return from a job interview explaining how she was offered the
position because she already had the most experience in writing
grant proposals. That student clearly benefited from having
participated in this grant writing course.
the PURDUE pharmacist n SPRING 2007
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