CHAPEL HILL -- Until just a few years ago, the fine-tuning of a research grant proposal at UNC-Chapel Hill was a laborious, low-tech operation involving reams of documents and plenty of cheap labor.
"We'd hire student workers to do nothing but march paper across campus for signatures," recalled Andy Johns, UNC-CH's associate vice chancellor for research. "If you can order a book from Amazon in three clicks, you should be able to do this online."
Subsequently, the university's research arm developed software that dramatically reduces the time spent shuffling these requests for federal money to all the folks whose reviews are required before applications go to federal agencies.
That's the sort of edge most research universities are trying to employ these days, as scientists at UNC-CH, Duke and N.C. State prepare hundreds of requests they hope will snare some of the coming federal stimulus money aimed at kick-starting academic research.
The National Institutes of Health, which UNC-CH and Duke rely on for funding, will dole out $7.8 billion in research grants through the stimulus plan. In recent years, UNC-CH has used its software to help put together about 4,200 grant proposals annually. But the prospect of stimulus funding raises the stakes: The university expects to submit about 4,700 by the end of this fiscal year.
NCSU doesn't compete for much NIH money because it doesn't have a medical school, but the university competes vigorously for funding from other federal agencies, primarily the National Science Foundation and the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Still, the university submitted 60 proposals last month hoping for a piece of a $200 million pot of stimulus money to fund NIH "challenge" grants. That is the first wave of stimulus funding for research, and it caught the attention of American academe.
NCSU's rapid response
"It's a little bit of a mad scramble," said Matt Ronning, NCSU's associate vice chancellor for research administration. "Every time there's a [grant proposal request], we go after it with full force. It's an opportunity. We think we'll get a good chunk of change out of it."
To that end, NCSU created a "Stimulus Rapid Response Team," a collection of faculty and other research experts who meet each week to discuss funding opportunities and determine where to focus their energy.
The stimulus legislation came down quickly, and universities have thrown grant requests together while trying to understand the new federal guidelines.
"We're treating it as a short-term opportunity," Ronning said. "You have to move quickly."
Data-streaming at Duke
At Duke, researchers now use a data-streaming system that sends properly-formatted proposals directly to federal agencies. The Duke system essentially speaks the same language as the NIH grants system, which means Duke researchers can submit information directly, as complete proposals or in pieces as they go. The better the proposal, the less likely it is to be kicked back for revisions or clarifications.
Judith Dillon, who heads Duke's research support office, has a three-person staff that reviews grant proposals. Because scientists can submit much of the information themselves, Dillon's staff is freed to review the financial details of each without having to wade through the science.
Generally, her office deals with 60 to 70 proposals attempting to meet an NIH deadline. By the late-April deadline for the first round of NIH stimulus challenge grants, Duke had submitted more than 300.
"Missed deadlines is just something we can't allow," Dillon said. "And this [data streaming system] is good insurance that it doesn't happen."
Universities have not yet heard whether their requests for the NIH challenge grants were accepted. But the odds aren't good.
The $200 million or so designated for those grants that sent scientists into such a frenzy is just a tiny piece of the $7.8 billion that will be doled out through the stimulus package. Just by the numbers, Triangle researchers shouldn't hold their breath.
Long odds for hard cash
Nationwide, universities submitted 20,000 requests for about 250 available grants. UNC-CH alone submitted 200 proposals, said Johns, the UNC-CH research official.
"If you look at the amount of time put into submitting and reviewing challenge grant proposals for the amount of money made available, the odds are pretty rough," he said.
