The CSDE Development Core offers options to review drafts of your grant proposals. This can take multiple forms, depending on your needs and timeline, and our availability.
Grant reviews: Want a fresh pair of eyes on your proposal? Just have a couple of specific questions about how best to frame your work? We are happy to facilitate either type of request. Often we will do this in-house (with one of the members of our leadership team or pool of research scientists), but sometimes we will reach out to an affiliate with more specific expertise for their help. The ideal request for a full draft would come with two weeks’ notice, and then expect a 1-week turnaround after that; if you have less time you can still reach out, and we will do our best to accommodate you. Note that we do not have the capacity to review all supporting documents (budgets, etc.) – those are handled by our grant management staff (although we can answer occasional questions).
Mock panels: For a more in-depth review, we organize mock panels—a full team of (usually) three reviewers who read the proposal, complete review forms, and then all meet to discuss the proposal’s strengths and limitations with you in the room! This is most common for NIH proposals, but can extend to other funders as well. CSDE is happy to support honoraria for the reviewers given the workload. Previous applicants have found this to be extremely helpful in making their proposal as competitive as possible. Note that mock panels require a much longer lead time – ideally two months’ notice before your internal deadline – in order to provide us time to line up reviewers. It also means that you will need to have a reasonably complete draft for review weeks earlier than your deadline; we ideally provide the reviewers two weeks to review, followed by whatever time you wish to allot yourself to incorporate feedback.
Ready to begin the conversation for either service? Email Development Core Director Anjum Hajat.