PART VII OF THERE IS A SIMPLE TRICK TO GETTING FUNDING
Funding results from a balance of three factors. Maximize these three factors and you will win funding.
(1) Contents of the application.
(2) Writing.
(3) Luck of the draw for the review (you can in fact maximize your good luck and minimize your bad luck).
I can help you maximize all three factors. Today, I will address still another aspect of controlling the Luck of the Draw.
As I mentioned, you can help to maximize your luck by managing to whom your application goes for review and funding: to which Institute, to which study section, and to which specific reviewers.
After making sure that your application is with the best institute(s) for funding, and the best study section (review group), now you must accomplish the most important and difficult part: making sure your application goes to the appropriate reviewers.
If you know there is a likely possible reviewer who is biased against the concepts in your application or you personally, you can make this point in a nice way to the SRO. Call or email the SRO and state your case in a nice way. This will usually work for one and possibly two reviewers. Never ask to eliminate three reviewers, however. That is asking far too much. It is a serious effort to put the review groups together. Do not make it worse for the SRO by asking to eliminate three possible reviewers. Do your best to stick to one and then only if it is really an issue.
The score on your application is a reflection of both the assigned reviewers, the study section as a whole, and your application itself. Even if your application is perfectly written and has high intrinsic merit, the application must be reviewed by the most appropriate reviewers in order to maximize your chances of getting the best score possible.
Personality, diligence, intelligence, circumspection, and wisdom are important traits of a reviewer. You have little control over these aspects, except to eliminate one or two people who do not have all of these important positive qualities.
Another key quality is expertise in the subject areas of your application. These subject areas include the specific market for your product, the main technology that will be used, the ancillary technologies, and the techniques that will be used to carry out the experiments. You want to be sure that all of these areas are covered.
To increase the probability that these areas will be covered, you must write very focused and clear Project Description (Abstract) and Specific Aims sections.
In your cover letter, you can list the specific areas that are most important to be covered by reviewers' areas of expertise. However, keep the list to three areas and maybe four at the most. Choose the three most important areas and list them in that order. Keep these areas as general as possible. It is not possible to have reviewers for every application that are specific to all areas of expertise. That would require too many people and meetings would not be effective. Remember, on average there are about 50 applications reviewed at each meeting.
I can show you how to expertly tailor your application to get the most appropriate reviewers. There are a number of other important steps that you can follow as well. Call me (203-980-3905) and I will help you through these steps at no cost.
I can keep you from ever having your application unscored and help you to manage the application process so that your application always goes to an advantageous study section for review, which means that your application will always be in the running.
For more specific information on these topics, click on this link: High Level SBIR/STTR Grant Writing Techniques.
If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me or go to SBIR-STTRgrantshelp.com.
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