Re: Dedicated Grants Development Efforts -Reply Sally Eckert-Tilotta (Sally Eckert-Tilotta) 23 Apr 1998 08:52 EST
I agree with Bill. And, to a certain extent, I agree with Betty. In the area of technical proposals, if you can't do the work, you can't write the proposal. However, a grants development office doesn't have to write the proposal to be very useful. Reading many of the position announcements on this listserv and crossing my desk, there seems to be a lot of call for accounting people in research administration. As if research proposals are entirely made up of budgets. I don't know who else is in those offices, but it would be unfortunate if there isn't anyone in development. As a former faculty, PI, and technical editor, I have found that I have used my experience in all these areas to assist faculty in locating funding sources and designing, organizing, and writing proposals. I have written institutional proposals. I have assisted in bringing our faculty together with investigators from other institutions. While I only have a general knowledge of cost accounting standards, I know enough to understand when a PI is about to propose something messy enough to call in the budget people. I, too, think about this subject a lot. *************************************************** Sally Eckert-Tilotta, PhD, Assistant to the Director Office of Research and Program Development University of North Dakota Grand Forks, ND 58202 email: xxxxxx@mail.und.nodak.edu tel: 701-777-2049 fax: 701-777-2504 >>> William Campbell <xxxxxx@UWRF.EDU> 04/23 7:25 AM >>> Betty wrote: ...Overall, I believe in the "if you can't write it, you can't do it" philosophy. While a grants person (writer or facilitator, whatever you call it) can pull together pieces, do boilerplate on institutional resources, or do editing, a PI or PD should be the one doing the writing. S/he will have to run the program if it's funded. ... I disagree. When I became the grants director here (University of Wisconsin-River Falls), my charge was to increase the amount of external funding. This institution had not been very active in the grants business--only part time attention from an administrator, campus culture mitigated against proposal-writing in many departments, not very many folks had proposal-writing skills or experience or nerve. I found that one of the best ways to stimulate more production was to write and co-write proposals myself. Bill Campbell Director, Grants & Research University of Wisconsin-River Falls Telephone: 715/425-3195 FAX: 715/425-3185 email: xxxxxx@uwrf.edu