Page 7 - Dare to Make an Impact

If you aren’t interested in the project, it is likely to show in your proposal, and it will be difficult to get funding. You may also be one
of those people who are multipassionate or intrigued by multiple topics. Perhaps you don’t want to choose just one area of research.
While that’s fine, you still need to find the common thread that cohesively unites your fields of inquiry. For example, many bioengineers seek to improve multiple health conditions by developing expertise in
a core methodology. A scientist may advance knowledge on epilepsy, stroke and traumatic brain injury, but do so through his signature research in bioinformatics. This maximizes the scientist’s impact in multiple areas of interest through a unique niche or expertise.
Determine if your idea is original
No matter how novel your research idea may sound to you, other groups may already have been working on the same topic for some time – or surprisingly, some important answers to your research question may have already been published. Be “lovingly ruthless” as you assess the novelty of your own idea. Make sure it is truly unique. The goal
is to make sure you have the best proposal possible to compete in a pool of other, equally fabulous ideas. This works the other way, too. Do not assume that your question has already been investigated. Do your research before you settle on a niche.
Here’s how:
Investigate
Look at who and what got funded in the past. Ask mentors, colleagues or the Office of Research Development to point you in the direction
of FAU funded researchers and their topics. This gives you a sense
of how wide or narrow your field is. It also gives you a list of possible collaborators or colleagues who may be willing to share their successful applications with you, giving you appropriate scope and depth of a successful research plan.
Review
Review grant agency websites. These can give you a critical sense
of what has been successful. Agencies typically list previous award recipients and sometimes abstracts online. This list is critical as it shows the agency’s interest (or lack thereof) in supporting your area of research. For National Institutes of Health (NIH) grants, the most comprehensive and centralized resources are NIH RePORTER and Matchmaker. The National Science Foundation’s (NSF) website is also a great resource. It lists previously funded projects and interactive maps.
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