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GRANTS IN THE SOCIAL SCIENCES
Paul SpicerCenter for Applied Social Research
Department of Anthropology
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The Social Sciences
There are broad similarities across most social science disciplines
There is a continuum of approaches ranging from the more humanistic and
interpretive to the experimental There is also a sizable body of
observational research
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Social Sciences Matter
There is growing recognition that the human dimensions of most problems are among the most intractable
Indexed in a huge popular social science literature (and TED talks!)
Increasing interest in social science research, even from within science and technology
Longstanding opportunities within medicine
And stand-alone opportunities to advance social science itself (primarily at NSF)
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Why Seek Funding?
Many of you can do your dissertation research with no extra money
In many social science disciplines your research can be embedded in faculty research
The University provides nominal research support through various mechanisms
Experiments can be run with undergraduates fairly easily
Or you can run up some debt
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Funding Matters
But much of the most interesting work will cost money
The ability to secure external resources may help win jobs
Applications of your work engendered in grant writing will open new possibilities
Funding provides some autonomy Grant writing is a useful skill Projects can be a lot of fun
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What Are Your Options?
The NSF provides basic funding in most social science disciplines
Unfortunately it does not generally fund your salary
The NIH funds your salary But it generally assumes you are working on
faculty-funded research Foundations may be more or less relevant
depending on your discipline Faculty can submit proposals (or supplements)
to support your work (if it overlaps with theirs)
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NSF Fellowships
Apply for an NSF fellowship as soon as you get here
These are very competitive, but are designed to support new graduate students
And are available across the broad set of social sciences that NSF funds
They free you up from working for three years!
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Pressures
There are new pressures to get through graduate school
The waiver limits assistantships for those who have them
And a lack of assistantships adds pressure to finish for those who don’t
Please do not extend your education just to keep taking student loans!
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Articulate Your Research Early
Sure there are lots of interesting books to read and ideas to try out
And many of us are drawn to academic work precisely because we like to do this
But we can’t get paid for it until we have done original research
All graduate seminars provide opportunity to refine thesis and dissertation research
Everything you do should be connected to your research It cannot be something you do only under thesis or
dissertation hours You’ve had your liberal education, now’s the time to get
real
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But Your Learning Does Not End Here
The dissertation or thesis is a beginning, not an end The most deadly faculty members are the ones who
stopped learning in graduate school We all should be professional learners A thesis or dissertation provides us with an
opportunity to learn skills that you can apply in multiple new ways once you’re done
The road is littered with ABDs A long-term perspective is crucial to maintaining
your focus now And moving on in a productive way once you’re
done here
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So How Do You Write A Grant?
You need a problem You need to be the one(s) to do this You need an approach You need a budget You need an opportunity
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How I Write Grants
I need an opportunity I need a budget I need an approach I need to be the one(s) to do this I need a problem
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But Let’s Pretend It Works the First Way!
And for students it really should There are few funds for dissertation
research that require a specific problem Most dissertation funding is designed to
support investigator-initiated research
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Why?
In all cases, the most important question is why?
For NIH, the review criteria of significance and innovation speak to this question directly
At NSF, both intellectual merit and broader impact are crucially concerned with this
You have to begin with why your research matters
And it does not matter just because it’s never been done!
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Funders Are Conservative
They emphasize innovation and transformation precisely because they don’t know what it is or how to support it
Successful grant getters recognize the incremental nature of science
Reviewers know BS (they are often experts themselves)
What you propose has to be attainable And the logical next step for you, your
sponsor, and the field But this means your grant could be uninspiring
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Risks and Excitement
Your research should be exciting Not to most of your friends, probably, but certainly to
your “peers” Your grant needs to convey this enthusiasm And show how your approach provides an important
advance If you’re not excited about your grant, nobody is going
to be The trick is to share that enthusiasm in a measured
way Do not promise too much or too little! If you err, err on the side of promising a bit too much Then, when they cut your budget you can get real
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Know Who You Are
People are funding you Grants are never reviewed blindly The investigator is inevitably a focus in any
review Especially for students, your funding is an
investment in you For fellowships, the near exclusive attention is
on you You need to be able to demonstrate why you
can do this research And why it fits the work of your faculty sponsor
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Know Where You Are
You need to know the strengths of your program and University
You need to recognize the opportunities we have
And you need to be cognizant of our limitations
Graduate school is not the time to strike out completely on your own
You need to build on what we have which is presumably why you came here
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Know The Literature
If your research matters at all, it matters in a specific literature
You need to take every opportunity to master this literature
And you need to be able to position your research within that literature
This can be done quickly, however, so don’t use this as an excuse to delay
Broad overviews of most areas exist Big questions tend to emerge early and often as
you read And please don’t strain to rewrite high theory!
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Know What You Can Do
Your approach is the heart of the matter Are there methods available to you that
can answer your question? All social research is multi-method But most is not cognized as such Even the most careful surveys and
experimental designs are grounded in some rather limited inductive work
which is often why they work less well in other people’s lives!
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Truth Matters
Certainly in my own discipline of anthropology truth claims are very suspect
They often are imperialist But people will not fund you to only tell them
what they cannot know You need to have a question that can be
answered with methods you command Even if your methods are primarily
qualitative and certainly if your methods are primarily
quantitative
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Qualitative Approaches
In qualitative research we often seek to improve conceptualizations
We sample purposively We code inductively But this is also science! We just need to be wary of causal language and guard against overgeneralizing Anthropologists can be quite lazy about
sampling
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Quantitative Approaches
These can be experimental or observational
Here the goal is often explicitly to examine cause
And to provide generalizable results But we need to recognize how tricky
determining cause is And how generalizable such tightly
controlled work can ever be
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Some of Your Ideas?
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Budgeting
This is not boring This is where you get real about what you can
actually accomplish Budgeting is an invaluable skill At the heart of strategic planning in any organization For me, beginning with the budget provides me with
an opportunity to see what is possible before I get too far down the road of dreaming stuff up
And in the real world of professional research, these activities consume much of our time
So you should learn to embrace it
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Opportunities
Working with CRPDE and your faculty is key I couldn’t pretend to know all of the
opportunities that are relevant to your work This kind of match making is probably one of
the more enjoyable parts of Alicia, Todd, and Nancy’s jobs
But certainly you should all seek funding from NSF
And you should all explore the possibilities of leveraging your advisor’s research (or other opportunities) to support your work
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Interdisciplinary Work
You are all here to train in a discipline Unless, of course, you are in an interdisciplinary
degree But once you leave graduate school most of the
funding is available to solve complex problems which require respect and tolerance for other
approaches I would encourage all of you to think not only about
how your work advances your field, but also how it may ultimately matter
And how you can take advantage of the opportunity your research presents to learn to play well with others
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Questions?