The hardest thing about grant writing

Yesterday, I spoke with a person who is working to design a course for doc students at his university on good grant writing. I talked him through some of the approaches we use in ORDE and some of the exercises he might want to use in his class. He had a list of questions for me, but the one that jumped out was when he asked "What is the hardest thing about grant writing?" Now, I'm a literal person, so I had to think about it a minute to make sure my reply was indeed what I saw as the most difficult part of grant writing. Finally, I said, "The hardest part about writing a grant is learning how to describe your research and its importance to a non-expert or layperson."

Now, you may be thinking that writing for a non-expert or layperson is not really a necessary part of the grant writing process. To that I say... Yuh-huh it is! But, don't take my word for it. Check out this excerpt from the American Heart Association, stressing the importance:

AHA Summary for Non-scientists Updated for 2020

Effectively communicating one’s research to the public is taking on increasing importance. The AHA Lay Summary/Summary for Non-scientists was recently updated to stress the importance of this element, along with the inclusion of lay peer reviewers on many study sections. Applications for research funding will now be assessed for their potential impact on the AHA Mission, and on the applicant’s ability to effectively describe the proposal and its potential outcomes to non-scientists. This potential impact assessment will be based primarily on the Summary for Non-scientists and will account for 5-10% of the overall priority score.

I could go on and point to other funding agencies that are explicitly or implicitly looking for PIs to convey their work and its importance to the general public, but suffice it to say, they are and it's important.

But, why is it so hard? You would think that explaining something in which you are an expert would be a breeze. But, it's difficult because you are an expert. You've spent years learning about and developing your research. How can you possibly explain all the intricacies of your work to a novice? And therein lies the rub!

So, briefly, here's are some tactics to help you meet this, the most difficult of grant challenges:

Try explaining/discussing your research with a non-expert: Step outside your lab or office and you'll find non-experts all around. Try out your explanations on students - you can call it teaching :) Aside from this, notice the questions you're asked when presenting your research to non-experts; this may give you a hint as to how to explain it.

Follow the 'why?' and 'So what?' trail: I have two small kids, so I'm used to explaining and then explaining my explanation and so on ad nauseam, but if you start forcing yourself to explain your work and its importance, you'll get better at it. So, even if you don't have kids to test you in this capacity, you can still task yourself with these additional explanations, and it may be slightly less annoying too!

Change formats: Sometimes if you map something out in a conceptual diagram or even a mind map, you begin to see new ways of describing it to others.

Come up with metaphors: If you can think of something else that works similarly to mechanisms in your research, using those more common metaphors can help you explain it. I've seen folks describe a cell membrane as a plastic bag or proteins regulating cellular development in the ways that traffic lights regulate traffic. What works in similar ways to that in your research? And can you use it as an explicative tool?

Sometimes trying to approach something in a new way gives you a fresh perspective for explaining your complicated work to others. So, give it a try; you may just be able to conquer the hardest part of grant writing!

Resources:
Grant Writing vs. Academic Writing - ORDE
Writing for the Layperson - ORDE