YOu stated this so well.  I wish some upper administrators could read
your explanation.

Susan W. Meslang
Director of Grants and Sponsored  Programs
Tidewater Community College
121 College Place
Norfolk, Virginia  23510-1907
Office 757 822-1773
Cell 757 409-2887
Fax 757 822-1007
xxxxxx@tcc.edu

>>> xxxxxx@MMC.EDU 7/22/2004 1:33:17 PM >>>
There seem to be two camps on this matter, each of which regards the
other as naive.  One camp, which usually includes sponsored programs
officers and successful scholars, believes that grants are awarded on
the basis of peer review.  Peer reviewers look at documents--words,
figures, and numbers on paper ot a screen--and so the key to better
applications is to get better at putting words, figures, and numbers on
paper or a screen.  Conferences like the ones you speak of present a
systematic way of doing that by covering, ususally, the tasks that
reviewers are asked to perform--information that PIs can use to present
their arguments in ways that are easier for reviewers to follow and
therefore, often more convincing.  People in this camp (and I am one)
think it's naive to believe you can improve your success rate by
chatting up program officers,  because the peer review process minimizes
their influence over funding decisions; at some level we also think
that's the way things should be.

The other camp thinks it's naive to believe that personal relationships
don't play a role in funding decsisions.  Peer review and the
application document have a role in funding decisions, yes, but it never
hurts to market yourself or your institution to agency officials,
especially in person.  Persons in this camp are often fairly senior
administrators and as it happens they have strong oral persuasive skills
 They need these skills to do their jobs well, properly take pride in
their skill at deal-making, and believe that grant-making can be
influenced by these skills, exercised by themselves or by PIs.

If you have to choose between the two approaches, I would pick the
first one, but it's hard to convince people in the second camp that the
first one is valid.  What is important is to remind faculty members of
the mantra that one member of this listserv puts on each transmission:
When all is said and done, the best way to get a grant is to write an
application.

-----Original Message-----
From: Research Administration List [mailto:xxxxxx@HRINET.ORG]On
Behalf Of Deborah Hofer
Sent: Thursday, July 22, 2004 11:42 AM
To: xxxxxx@HRINET.ORG
Subject: [RESADM-L] NSF Conference or Visit

 Friends,

I ask your perspective on a strategy to encourage proposal writing and
enhance award success rates.

NSF is hosting a regional grants conference at Washington University to
which I would like to send some of our faculty. According to the
announcement:

"Key representatives from the National Science Foundation as well as
your colleagues - faculty, researchers and grant administrators -
representing regional colleges and universities will participate."
http://www.nsf.gov/bfa/dias/policy/outreach.htm
<http://www.nsf.gov/bfa/dias/policy/outreach.htmOur>
Our Dean of Science is advocating instead, sending a team from our
institution directly to NSF to meet one on one with program officers,
contending that it would establish personal relationships and not allow
us to get 'lost in the crowd' of a conference setting.
Which effort would you support?
P.S. I want to go myself but have to decide between this and the NCURA
meeting in DC. Help?
Many thanks.

Deborah

Deborah d'Este Hofer MM
Grants/Human Subjects Administrator
Vice President's Office for Academic Affairs
Southern Oregon University
541.552.8662
xxxxxx@sou.edu

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 Instructions on how to use the RESADM-L Mailing List, including
 subscription information and a web-searchable archive, are available
 via our web site at http://www.hrinet.org (click on "Listserv Lists")
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