41st Annual Meeting of the Society for Invertebrate Pathology
and 9th International Conference on Bacillus thuringiensis

Unless you are independently wealthy or have a patron sponsor one of the most demanding and frustrating, though essential challenges of all scientific careers, is financing your science. This entails writing convincing grant applications to a variety of funding sources. While there are many common factors to writing successful grant applications, there are some specific to only certain funding agencies and sometimes strategies have to change as the funding climate changes. Of these there are many “common sense” strategies, though few of us follow them. This seminar is from the perspective of someone who has been successful with grant applications, and not, and who served on the “dark side” evaluating the grant applications of others. It is a competition. There never is enough money to go around and so your application has to be better than the rest. But there are ways for you to submit the best application you can. Some simple tips, which too few people follow: Be aware of the variety of funding sources and choose ones that best reflect what you want to do research on. Start way ahead, preferably a year or at least six months to start the writing. Follow the instructions. Ask a colleague to review your grant for the science and another for content, flow, clarity, grammar and style. Do not assume that a good CV will substitute for a poorly written grant proposal. These and other “tips” will hopefully give you a head start as you begin your own scientific careers.