Demonstrating Grant Stewardship

 As we get close to Thanksgiving, I think about stewardship, particularly as it relates to both gratitude and giving. Stewardship plays a significant role in grant development in a couple of ways. It is important to be a good steward of any grants you receive, but it's also important to demonstrate to your reviewers that you will be a good steward, as I discuss below.

Stewarding Your Grant

When you receive a grant, you receive with it a load of responsibility. I've heard some PIs joke that when they receive a grant, they're temporarily elated, but then filled with dread when they realize they now need to do the project. But, it's true, once you get the grant, it's time to do what you said you would do. One of your commitments is to share project reports with your Program Officer (PO), and to stay in communication with them. POs express frustration over needing to track down reports from PIs, and that's understandable. Timely communications and reports for POs are a key responsibility and how PIs show they are good stewards of their grants. But, additionally, POs remember how good of a steward you were with your grant. If you've been lackluster, this may affect your success in attaining future grants from that same agency. 

Demonstrating Stewardship in Your Proposal

Certainly, there's no way of proving that you'll get reports to your PO in on time before you receive your grant, but it is important to show that you will be a good steward of a grant, should you be awarded. There are a couple of ways to do this. One is to include a lean and judicious budget in your proposal. Make sure that the funds you're asking for are truly necessary to execute your project. Also, make sure that you know what things will cost and that you're not padding your budget. Reviewers are researchers themselves, and they know how much things cost. So, if they catch you inflating your budget, it will likely call into question how good a steward you will be. Another place to demonstrate stewardship in your proposal is in your timeline. Show your reviewers when you will do things and how you will benchmark success as you move through the project. Layout your plan clearly so that your reviewers can have confidence that your project will get done well.

In closing, I adapt the old adage to remind you that with grant funding comes great responsibility. Be a good steward with your grants and prove to reviewers that you will continue to be. Have a restful fall break.

Resources:

Stewardship - An Important Grantsmanship Component - Lynn DeLearie
8 Great Ways to Thank a Funder - grants edge

The National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH)

The NEH is a unique grant-making agency that is often overlooked by researchers. In efforts to build awareness and understanding around the NEH, ORDE has created a website dedicated to just this.

Below, we offer some background on the NEH, but we encourage you to check out our site and of course the NEH's site to learn more!

NEH Overview

In 1963, three organizations - the American Council of Learned Societies, the Council of Graduate Schools in America, and the United Chapters of Phi Beta Kappa - established the National Commission on the Humanities. This Commission was charged with conducting "a study of the state of the humanities in America", and it released its final report in 1964 outlining the imbalance of science versus the humanities throughout all levels of the American educational system. Its recommendation was creation of a federal National Humanities Foundation to act as a cultural mediator to the nation's growing dependence on, and investment in, science and technology. The federal government adopted the Commission’s recommendation, creating the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) as an independent federal agency in 1965. (NEH History website). 

Specific Interests 

Promoting excellence in the humanities and making lessons offered through humanities disciplines accessible to the American people are major goals of NEH. To reach these goals, NEH supports research, public programming, access, and educational outreach projects designed to ensure the humanities are relevant to Americans and our dialogue on democracy. 

Agency Organization

NEH is headed by a Chairman who is advised by the 26- member National Council on the Humanities. The Chairman and Council members are appointed by the President of the United States and confirmed by the US Senate. All Council members are humanities experts and most are drawn from academia. NEH has seven program divisions and offices that provide competitive funding through 39 funding programs. Divisions and programs supporting University researchers are the: 

• Division of Research Programs 
• Division of Preservation and Access Programs 
• Division of Education Programs 
• Division of Public Programs Office of Digital Humanities

Each Division sponsors a variety of funding programs to meet their mission.

Resources: 

ORDE NEH Site

NEH Know Your Agency Brief - ORDE

NEH Site

PCORI

This week, we offered a Know Your Agency e-Seminar on the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI) and released a brief on PCORI. Below is more info on PCORI, but if your research is a fit, it's a great time to consider applying to PCORI given that they were recently reauthorized by Congress and will be going strong for the near future!

OVERVIEW

PCORI was created as part of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act and signed into law by President Obama in 2010. The agency was recently reauthorized by Congress for an additional 10 years. PCORI is charged with providing a better understanding of prevention, diagnosis, and treatment options for patients, their caregivers, health care providers, and other stakeholders. This charge is met through 1) research, 2) an emphasis on research methodology and 3) efforts to encourage other funding agencies to incorporate patient-centered research methods. PCORI is supported through the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Trust Fund, combining federal and fee-based revenue for agency operation.

Specific Interests

Patient-centered is not just in this agency’s name, it drives their every action. Patients and caregivers are involved in every step of the research process and PCORI has become an expert on proper engagement tactics, all with the goal of influencing healthcare for the betterment of patients. PCORI’s National Research Priorities are:

1.       Assessment of Prevention, Diagnosis, and Treatment Options

2.       Improving Healthcare Systems

3.       Communication/Dissemination Research

4.       Addressing Disparities

5.       Accelerating Patient-Centered Outcomes Research and Methodological Research

6.       Strategies for Improving Maternal Mortality*

7.       Improving Health for Individuals with Intellectual and/or Developmental Disabilities*

*Note the last two priorities were added in the 2019 Reauthorization legislation (Executive Director’s Blog, 9/8/20).

AGENCY ORGANIZATION

PCORI is a 501(c)(1) corporation, not a federal agency. It is governed by a 21-member Board of Governors, drawn from academia, the health care industry, corporations outside of health care and non-profits, as well as the Directors of the National Institutes of Health and the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. PCORI’s Methodology  Committee’s role is to identify best practice patient-centered research methods and to ensure these methods are employed in all research supported by PCORI. Committee members are experts in science, medicine, epidemiology, health care technology and the health care industry. Both the Board and the Committee are appointed by the US Comptroller General. 

PCORI is unique, particularly in the way that they truly focus on and indeed center patients in the healthcare research they fund. We encourage you to check out the resources below to see if PCORI might be a good funding opportunity for you!

Resources:

PCORI Brief - ORDE

PCORI e-Seminar - ORDE

PCORI Site