Defining the Need

Generally, as you are developing your grants, you may be focusing on the difference your research will make or the impact your project will have. This makes good sense, but it is important that you do not neglect to discuss the need you are addressing in your haste to describe the solution.

Oftentimes, PI's assume that reviewers will understand the need for their research and therefore intuit the significance of their work. However, even if your reviewers do understand the problem you are addressing, they likely do not understand how big or complicated the problem you are addressing is.

Thus, before you jump to your solution, give the problem some attention. The Center for Nonprofit Excellence suggests in their CNPE Toolkit - The Needs Statement that to define the need for your project, you should address the following:

• What is the problem?
• Why is it a problem? Who does it affect?
• What is the cost of not addressing the problem? (financial, human, social, quality of life, etc.)
• Why is it difficult to address the problem? (what are the anticipated barriers?)
• Why does it need to be addressed now?
• How would your project address the problem? And, how will the sponsor's funding really make a difference?
• How does it affect real people? Is there a human interest story to make the problem and solution more compelling?

Again, don't assume that your reviewers know all or any of these things. Dr. Amy Brooks-Kayal, Chief and Ponzio Chair Chair in Pediatric Neurology, shared in an ORDE seminar last year that she begins her grant by sharing the national statistics in Epilepsy, including how many people are affected and how they are affected (it's not just seizures). Then later on in her grant, she'll describe global statistics to emphasize the largess of the problem without repeating the information she shared earlier on.

Now, this might go without saying, but to write a compelling description of needs in your research, you have to really understand the needs yourself. In their new book, Developing a Winning Grant Proposal, Donald Orlich and Nancy Shrope suggest that PI's use any of the following methods to assess needs before designing a project:

• Use testimonials from relevant stakeholders
• Committee reports
• Planning documents
• Literature reviews
• Statements from professional/scientific societies

Although their suggestions are focused on education research projects, their suggestions still make sense for many disciplines. Remember, that when it comes to conducting a literature review, there are librarians available to help you form and execute a comprehensive literature review at the Auraria Library and the Health Sciences Library

In addition to using these or other methods, it is also a good idea to look at relevant project descriptions from grants that have been funded to make sure you are not proposing to duplicate the same work, especially with the same sponsor.

Remember that without adequately describing the problem or need that your research addresses, you cannot clearly show the impact and significance of your solution!