The One Thing Your Reviewers Want To See In Your NIH R01 That Isn’t So Obvious To Researchers
A lot of the clients who we work with have already submitted their R01s and, for various reasons, didn’t get funded the first time around.
Some are scored, and some are not.
Some are discussed but didn’t quite make that fundable range.
For whatever reason your R01 wasn’t funded this time around, there’s a solution to get you across the pay line.
Some may seem obvious, especially after looking over the critiques in your summary statement from reviewers. Other solutions—like what we are going to discuss here—may seem strange, but they are just as valuable in helping you get your resubmission funded.
The key missing ingredient in a lot of grants I review is emotion.
Emotion Matters In Your R01
When I talk about emotion in your grant application, I’m referring to conveying emotion in your application so you can elicit strong positive emotions from your reviewers.
Here’s a simple example. Think back or grab one of your summary statements and look at the summary of the discussion. It’s likely you will typically have one of two overarching statements.
Enthusiasm was dampened by X, Y, and Z, or enthusiasm was high for this application.
So when you think about emotion in your R01, you want to think about increasing reviewer enthusiasm for your grant.
Yes, you can and must generate enthusiasm with a strong research idea, but that alone isn’t going to cut it because your R01 is more than the sum of its parts. If you disagree with that, take a look at the NIH scoring guidance.
Here’s what it says, “No formula is used to derive the overall impact score from the individual criterion scores, and reviewers are instructed to weigh the different criteria as they see fit in deriving their overall scores. Note that an application does not need to be strong in all categories to be judged likely to have major scientific impact and thus, deserve a high impact score.”
I’m not suggesting that the entire merit review process is a free-for-all, but I do want you to use this as a reminder that the review process involves humans. Because this process isn’t as objective as you might think, the way you communicate your research really matters.
Help Your Reviewers Get Excited
Reviewers are busy, stressed, and tired (human!) volunteers, so they need an extra push and incentive to read your grant and make sense of an idea that they’re reading for the very first time.
You might think that you can let the science speak for itself since other scientists will be reviewing your grant, but that’s a complete fantasy in the world of grant writing. It’s not something you’ll be able to do if you’re serious about getting funded, and it’s not something you should want to do either.
Your R01 is the perfect opportunity to generate enthusiasm for your research by communicating your idea clearly, simply, and persuasively. But here’s the other side of that coin.
To generate reviewer enthusiasm, it has to begin with you.
Your most important job in your grant application is to get your reviewers as excited as you are about your research.
Because that extra emotion means an extra effort when you’re already busy, tired, stressed, and can barely find the time to get words on the page, many early career researchers find this part of the process tricky.
It’s hard, but it’s necessary. Because trust me when I say that after reviewing dozens and dozens of R01s, your enthusiasm, passion, and curiosity are your real competitive advantage.
Start with Emotion
Before you start writing your grant, take a few minutes to write down and reconnect with why you love your research. Remind yourself why it’s so meaningful to you, why you’re great at it, and what kind of impact you want to make with your research.
You’ll be amazed at how making that connection right before you start working on your R01 is going to help you write a better grant—even just in the way you show up to write it.
Level Up Your Resubmission
My team and I can help you convey that enthusiasm more clearly in your resubmission using specific rhetorical frameworks that we apply in our strategic grant reviews. If you’re interested in learning how to do this on your own, we’ll teach you how inside our self-paced online course, The Grant Funding Formula.