Grantsmanship for New Investigators

Exploring Funding Options.- Pursuing Federal Support.- Grant Mechanisms.- The Application Process.- Application Content.- Application Review.- Funding Institution Vetting.

Over the span of more than four decades, both Tom Hilton and Carl Leukefeld have worked as bench and field researchers as well as federal grant and contract administrators at various federal agencies including the world's largest grantor, the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Tom's career has focused on applied research and grants administration in mostly nonacademic roles, whereas over half of Carl's career as a public health researcher has been spent in academic settings. Thomas F. Hilton, PhD, is a retired Navy captain and a retired Industrial/Organizational psychologist. While a pre- and postdoctoral fellow at the Institute of Behavioral Research, Tom's work involved drafting applications and conducting both grant and contract research projects for the Departments of Defense, Transportation, and Health and Human Services. Projects also involved county, state, and private sector organizations. In 1979, Tom joined the psychiatry faculty at Southwestern Medical School where he started a small lab evaluating public health services after winning his first grant from a private foundation. In 1982, Tom was recalled to active Navy duty to lead research projects in shipboard and hospital health services delivery systems and later oversaw Navy's applied personnel and training research programs at the Pentagon. Spanning much of his Navy career, Tom served on Office of Naval Research grant and contract review panels. In 1992, Tom became the founding manager of a Federal Aviation Administration laboratory studying employee development, process improvement, and personnel selection. Coincident with that role, he also completed a three-year detail to the White House Office of Reinventing Government until 2000, when he retired from the Navy and joined the National Institute on Drug Abuse at NIH. Tom served on the NIH extramural faculty training new grant administrators, sat on the NIH advisory group for grants administration systems, and was appointed science officer