Recommendations for Writing Successful Grant Proposals: An Information Synthesis

To provide a detailed account of the nature and scope of recommendations for promoting faculty grant proposal success in academic medical settings.

The authors searched relevant scientific databases for articles related to techniques that promote faculty research proposal success, published from 2000 through June 1, 2012. They applied standard information synthesis procedures for sifting abstracts, scrutinizing full texts, and abstracting data.

The search identified 1,130 abstracts, which the authors narrowed to 83 for in-depth review. Of these, 53 unique articles fit the inclusion criteria. From these articles, the authors extracted 10 recommendations for writing successful grant proposals: (1) research and identify appropriate funding opportunities; (2) use key proposal components to persuade reviewers of project significance and feasibility; (3) describe proposed activities and their significance persuasively, clearly, and concisely; (4) seek review and feedback from colleagues; (5) establish a study design that is simple, logical, feasible, and appropriate for the research questions; (6) develop a timeline for the proposal process; (7) select a novel, high-impact project; (8) conduct an exhaustive literature review; (9) ensure that budgets are reasonable; and (10) consider interdisciplinary collaborations.

These findings highlight that further institution-level development and interventions to support faculty grant writing success are warranted. Future research should employ more rigorous evaluation methods to move the field toward a stronger evidence base for determining which specific faculty development activities help increase funding.