You want a grant, so what?

This week I was reviewing a well-written grant proposal. The PI outlined the project and illustrated what she expected to learn from the project as well as some of the publication products she anticipated. But, as I finished reading it, I had a nagging feeling. I realized that the question I was left with after reading the proposal was "so what?" I wasn't clear on what difference the project was going to make besides just understanding something better.

I realized that building a case for a grant is really about comprehensively answering the question "so what?" To demonstrate the importance of this question, I turn to an expert, George Heilmeier. Heilmeier is the former director of Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) and is known in the grant development world as he who created Heilmeier's Catechism for grant writing. He asserted that all good proposals answer the following questions:

• What are you trying to do? Articulate your objectives using absolutely no jargon.
• How is it done today, and what are the limits of current practice?
• What is new in your approach and why do you think it will be successful?
• Who cares? If you succeed, what difference will it make?
• What are the risks?
• How much will it cost?
• How long will it take?
• What are the mid-term and final “exams” to check for success? 

The fourth question gets to my "so what?" It asks, who will this project make a difference for and why is that difference important? The National Science Foundation (NSF) core criteria parallel the "so what?" as well. For most proposals to the NSF, PIs must describe their project's intellectual merit or the "so what?" for their field and the broader impacts or the "so what?" for the larger society, nation, and/or world?

So, given how grant funding agencies, such as DARPA and the NSF really stress the importance of the "so what?" I wanted to offer you a simple exercise to better hone your answer to this question.

Step 1: Describe why your research project is important and to whom
Step 2: Based on your response, ask yourself, "so what?"
Step 3: Repeat step 2 until you can't come up with anything else
Step 4: Integrate the key stakeholders and important contributions your research will make into your proposal

You can do this exercise in your head, or have a colleague ask you the questions and they can vary the "so what?" type questions based on your answers. But, make sure to capture your responses so that you can use them when you're writing up your case in your proposal.

Resources:
The Heilmeier Catechism
How not to kill a grant application: The facts of the case thus far - Science