Writing a Grant: Beyond the Science - Budget Justification and Letters of Support
We covered a lot of ground in writing your grant application thus far, from Significance and Innovation to the actual experimental designs for your Research Plan. However, a fair bit of work remains in finalizing and completing your NIH grant application. While some is scientific, other parts are strictly financial- or business-related and just as important as the impactful science you are proposing.
Creating and Justifying Your Grant Budget: Keep in mind that most NIH institutes have a dollar figure for each grant instrument that cannot be exceeded without prior approval from the Program Officers and other officials at the Institute/Center. It is important not to wait until just before the submission deadline to discuss any increased budget needs with your Program Officer. Salary and fringe benefit costs can be some of the largest fractions of grants. The key personnel salaries must be justified - be realistic when it comes to determining percent effort. The same is true about the cost of animal experiments as well.
For academic investigators, the research administration at your institution can help you extensively when it comes to writing the Budget and Justification sections of your grant.
For small businesses, fringe and indirect rates can be far less than those of academic institutions (for example, 8% and 5-40%, respectively). Be sure to include the ‘fee’ allowed by NIH for an SBIR – not to exceed 7% of total costs (direct and indirect) – which may be used by the small business for any purpose!
Good Letters of Support Take Time: A substantial packet of support letters can be extremely advantageous to your application. Your collaborators should certainly supply letters of support for your application, and you want them to stand out against the crowd. Give your colleagues ample time to do so. Support letters should state why the writer believes in the proposal and how their expertise supports the completion of the overall goals contained in your grant. A vague or poorly crafted letter is of little benefit to your application. Fill your application with supportive, effective letters that showcase their enthusiasm for your application. In addition to direct collaborators, consider including letters from:
KOLs or other specialized consultants
Interested partners that would utilize your technology based on the successful outcomes of the project
CROs that demonstrate the expertise to perform parts of the experiments
Venture capital/investors that have a stake in the company
Explaining Variances with a Cover Letter: It seems like such a small thing after all the effort you have put in on the entirety of your application. The cover letter is only seen by the scientific review officer, and not the peer reviewers. This is where you can explain a late submission, making a change or correction to an already submitted application or budget asking for more than the typical grant allowance. You can describe any discussions you had with institute staff alluding to the approval documentation. If generating large-scale genomic data sets, this is where you would discuss your plans, and if you intend to access any NIH genome data repositories.[JN1] The cover letter is also where you would discuss if you have a continuous submission and are qualified to submit outside of the normal grant deadlines. Be sure to include the title of your application and the Funding Announcement to which it is being submitted.
The seemingly lesser components of your grant application can have a big impact on the review process. Don’t shortchange the efforts you put into effectively writing your research plan, and its potential impact, by a haphazard approach to these essential elements.