Part of the publish or perish circle of life in academia is getting money for our research, without which we can’t do the work, and thus can’t publish, and hence risk perishing … which we all will do anyway. Here are some helpful tips to keep in mind, as we try to cram as much as possible into a few paragraphs in our grant applications.
Abstracts, which are now called project summaries, are critical to your grant. Sometimes, that is all that someone who gets to score you will ever read (ie the other people on study section who are not your reviewers). Writing the abstract after the rest is done allows you to take the best sentences from elsewhere in your grant combine them, smooth them, adjust them. This should not be too hard to write, after you have written your kick ass grant proposal. That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t take the time to make sure its good.
As an aside – if you get funded, the abstract is what is publicly available to anyone with a computer and an internet connection. If you are applying for jobs, ten to one someone on the search committee will check you out in RePORTER. If you are doing anything within the academic community, someone will…
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