A colleague passed me the link to this short but sweet reminder of why we need to avoid jargon in our writing.

“Why every editorial team needs Winnie the Pooh”

I love this:

All organisations need wise Owls who understand the customary procedures, protocols and practice of their business. But they also need tenacious little bears who are not afraid to ask searching questions.

I’ll have to remember that.

When preparing or updating your Form 100 (NSERC’s CV module) be sure to follow the instructions! There are many different aspects to the form portion of the document, however, most of the errors and issues seem to occur in the free form attachment portion of the module also called “Contributions”.

NSERC is pretty particular about requiring that you follow their heading format, which is listed in the instructions. There is even a specific order for segregating the research contributions and practical applications section (read = publications, etc.).

General comments:

• proof your forms!! I cannot stress this enough!
• make sure that you aren’t committing to too many hours per month in research activity (for example, it is pretty hard to commit to 160 hours of research per month if you also have a teaching load)
• start your page numbering for the free form section with page number 5 (to follow the forms page numbering convention)
• be sure to follow formatting guidelines
• the research support portion of the forms is for the past four (4) years
• the research contributions for the attachment are for the past six (6) years. Now, technically this would be November 1, 2003 to November 1, 2009, HOWEVER, in practice NSERC allows contributions from January 1, 2003 to November 1, 2009.
• you only have five (5) pages for the free form section, so be selective about how you present information
• be sure to preview your forms to proof them as it is quite easy to insert/miss errors during data entry

Tips for each specific section in the ‘Contributions’ portion of the CV:

1. Most Significant Contributions to Research and/or Practical Applications

• focus on the top five clusters of contributions that have occurred in the past 6 years. If there are contributions that were made earlier, but they have become significant in the past 6 years, speak to them too.
• don’t list the citations, describe the research and the impact of the research in point or narrative form (you will list the citations in the following section

2. Research Contributions and Practical Applications

• This is where the detailed list order comes into play from the instructions
• use a consistent bibliographic method
• ensure that student’s names are bolded within the author lists (i.e. use a reference style that includes the names of all authors)
• list the sources of funding for each contribution with parenthetical emphasis on the primary source
• clarify your role in multi-authored papers
• the research contributions in the attachment are for the past six (6) years. Now, technically this would be November, 1 2003 to November, 1 2009, HOWEVER, in practice NSERC allows contributions from January 1, 2003 to November 1, 2009.
• it is useful if you use a numerical format for your references to demonstrate your total publication record (i.e. start your numbering with 30, if you already have 30 publications under your belt that fall outside of the contributions reporting period)

3. Other Evidence of Impact and Contributions

• list any other activities as indicated in NSERC’s instructions (awards, editorships, consulting, public service, etc.)

4. Delays in Research Activity

• Describe any delays in research activity including dates (“parental leave, bereavement, single parent situations, illness, extraordinary administrative duties or other circumstances”); include a statement even if it is “No delays in research activity.”
• It is not necessary to go into significant detail, unless the circumstances require exceptional explanation

5. Contributions to the Training of Highly Qualified Personnel (HQP)

• Include any aggregate data on HQP including “discussion of training in particularly important or challenging areas of research, specialized methodologies and techniques, interdisciplinary or industrial collaborations, as well as your role in co-supervision of some of your HQP, the lack of recent contribution to training, etc.”
• This is the area where you describe PAST training! Use your research proposal to describe FUTURE training
• Be sure to also list any past/current/future participation in outreach activities to engage students in natural sciences and engineering, especially PromoScience, CRYSTAL and CWSE

A few last words . . .

• Be sure that you obtain and MAINTAIN completed consent forms relevant to your HQP data forms. It is also ideal if you can update your student’s present position.
• It is somewhat more favorable if you can obtain consent from your students as it can be perceived that you maintain a positive relationship with former trainees once they leave the lab, thus nurturing a strong network of students, but don’t get too hung up about it. Sometimes it is just not possible to track down your former students (or maintain a good relationship with them).

Happy CV updating!

The following is a non-exhaustive list of rules of thumb for budgets (hopefully I don’t get skewered for putting this in print):

Equipment

• a computer purchase can be estimated at ~$2.5k

• Don’t forget to include the cost of federal and provincial taxes in your purchase – don’t let yourself be blindsided by these – they are real and justifiable parts of your cost (most academic institutions only pay a proportion of the GST, therefore use the unrebated portion of the tax in your calculations)
• If you have a large piece of equipment in your lab, you can ask for peripherals to expand/extend use (i.e. lenses for a microscope, etc.)

Materials & Supplies

• Life science disciplines, multiply the number of people supported by the grant by $10k (i.e. 2 grad students and a half time technician = $25k request) adjust downward if you don’t have enzyme or animal costs

• For grants involving cellular, molecular, developmental, biomedical, etc. research, assume an average real cost of ~ $1.5k per month ($18k per year) in supplies
• If you plan to hire undergraduate researchers (summer or otherwise) plan for additional materials and supplies expenses (for wastage)

Travel

• $4-5k for the PI, $1-2k per each supervised student/post-doc

• Aim for about 5% of total budget request

Dissemination

• Estimate ~$1k per paper, unless you use open source publications, then estimate ~$2.5k per paper

Other

• $200-1k for the cost of miscellaneous items such as photocopying, faxing, printing, toner cartridges, etc.

Do you have other rules of thumb to share? Please feel free to add by commenting on this post or sending me an email. I’ll post a more comprehensive list as material becomes available.

(Note: This post was originally posted in October 2008, but I’m not above recycling good information when I’m short on time. It is slightly updated. Hope you find it useful!)

Last year, Izabella Laba described how an average Discovery grant in mathematics is spent in her blog. This discussion is very interesting as it gives some perspective on how challenging it can be to fund research in mathematics.

I posted this last year, but I still think that it provides some relevant insight into some of the challenges that math and stats researchers face. If you have the time, Dr. Laba also discusses other aspects of her experience securing enough funding to run a research program – it’s worth a read.

Last week I was at a training session at NSERC and I learned something that I didn’t know before.

A few years ago, the online system would keep forms available for 7 years. That timeframe has now been compressed to 18 months!

This is great if you have many different test applications cluttering your eConsole as they will be removed in a much shorter timeframe. It is also a more effective use of NSERC’s resources – as the amount of net data storage is reduced.

Of course this does not apply to the Form 100 (the CV module or “personal data form”).

The take home message: Save a copy of your application (a pdf version) as soon as you click submit, because you never know when an archival copy of your grant applications will come in handy.