Customer Reviews

Writing the NIH Grant Proposal: A Step-by-Step Guide

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This is a pretty nuts and bolts approach to preparing an NIH grant and reads much like the pages on the NIH websites. It has nicely brought together a lot of the detailed information (different types of grants, different application deadlines, etc) that is on the NIH websites and into a somewhat more user friendly format. But do not think about buying this book to help you actually WRITE a grant. This is for novices who don't know a K01 from a P01. If looking for help in preparing the best possible grant, I suggest the books by Ogden or Yang.

This book is a great overview of NIH grant writing, which programs you should submit your grant to and so forth.

However, the grant writing strategies are heavily focused on clinical studies an not basic science, so the last third of the book is only of modest use to those writing basic bench science grants.

The first half of the book is great for navigating all of the different NIH programs and deciding which program is best for you depending on which stage you are at in you career. This part of the book is very valuable since the NIH can be a bit of a maze.

I gave this a 3-star because the book claims to be much more than it really is. If you are submitting a clinical research grant, then this is the book for you. However, if you are a basic biomedical bench scientist, I would consider other of the books out there. Also there is almost no discussion of what to do after you submit, how to respond to criticism and improve your chances of being funded. This is almost half of the battle of getting a grant.

I am surprised by the low rating. I completely disagaree. I highly recommend this book, escpically for beginners like me. If you are just starting or already in the world of grant writing, this book is a MUST. It takes the unceratinty and stress out of writing and the daunting task ahead. If you don't know where to start and need guidenace along the way without hiring a grant writer or delegating the responsibility to someone else in your organization, then get this book. I've scanned other books in this area, and they do not come close to what this book offers.

While we have long recommended this book to our classes, it has NOT been updated to reflect the radical changes NIH has made to its reviewing criteria, acceptable proposal length, and even the section names and purposes. (This is true for most books on grant writing you'll find here; anything with a copyright date before 2009 is guaranteed to be useless, and 2009 books are very iffy.)

The seller was very respectful to let me know that my order would be a day late due to inclemant weather...and there was!