Excellence Everywhere - National University of Ireland, Galway

chapter 7getting funded“ Diviser chacune des difficultés que j’examinerai en autant de parcellesqu’il sepourrait et qu’il serait requis pour les mieux les résoudre.”René DescartesOnce you have started your career as an independentscientist, have put your laboratory in order,and perhaps have hired some people, an importantnext step if you would like to have an internationalcareer is to find international funding for your work.It is beyond the scope of this book to addressfunding in all of the countries of the South, sincethe funding situation is different everywhere andin some places can change quite quickly. Instead,this chapter will concentrate on international fundingsources and how best to present your work sothat you may tap into these sources. This chapteralso uses the U.S. NIH funding process as anexample of a two-level peer review system. Notall international funders use the same system—infact, each major funding body has a system that isdistinctly its own. But the example used here willgive you a good idea of the how’s and why’s of peerreview, which we hope will give you insight into howto prepare the strongest grant application you can,no matter what funding body you are approaching.This chapter includes advice on how to turn yourconcept into a solid research plan, and discusseswhat to do if your application is not funded.UNDERSTANDINGTHE REVIEW PROCESSexample of peer review: funding aU.S. NIH R01 Research Project GrantThough the U.S. NIH is sometimes an internationalfunder, it is (as are your own country’s governmentagencies focused on health) an organization whosemission primarily focuses on the health of itscountry’s citizens. For this reason, its spending onmany problems of interest in other parts of theworld is relatively small.There is no grantsmanship that will turn a badidea into a good one, but there are many waysto disguise a good one.”William Raub, former deputy director, U.S. NIHThe quote above: Descartes, in the second rule of his Method, says to break each difficulty down into smaller resolvable component parts.getting funded97