The College of Communication and Information Sciences (C&IS) Grant Writing Institute is back, and this year, participants have set their sights high, hoping to secure large grants to make their submissions a reality. Additionally, all three participants are focusing their research on areas that impact public health.
While grant details are still being finalized, at least two of the three participants this year are considering submissions for the NIH Research Project Grant Program (R01). The Research Project Grant is the oldest grant mechanism used by NIH and provides support for health-related research and development based on its mission.
“An R01 grant is the biggest funding mechanism that NIH has,” said Dr. Kim Bissell, Associate Dean for Research at C&IS. “R01 is the big one. These are full research proposals typically in excess of $1 million and can be up to $5 million at times.”
Grant Writing Institute participants are partnering with additional project investigators to build interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary teams for their grant submissions. As these grants are very expensive, the review process is very selective, and the more experience their team has among its collaborative members, the more likely they are to be approved.
“Ultimately, the goal is to secure funding but especially when you are applying for substantial amounts of money, you rarely get awarded on your first try,” said Bissell. “What you hope is that you get well reviewed so that you can use the comments you receive to tweak your submission and reapply.”
Now in its third year, the C&IS Grant Writing Institute provides faculty participants with the tools necessary to complete a submission for research funding and apply to a federal or state agency or a foundation within 12 months of the start of the program. Led by Dr. Kim Bissell and Dr. Anneliese Bolland, the program works through a partnership between the Institute for Communication Research (ICIR) and the departments within C&IS to provide each of the participants a semester-long course release to complete their grant submission.
The 2021 C&IS Grant Writing Institute participants are:
UA’s College of Communication and Information Sciences faculty and students conduct cutting-edge research that creates knowledge and provides solutions to global issues across the full communication and information spectrum. To learn more about the College’s research initiatives, visit cis.ua.edu/research.
