The technical writer can complete grants, reports and manuscripts, and edit time for the main investigator to do more science.Credit: Chrispecoraaro/Getty
I learned for the first time that I could tell an attractive story when I was ten years old and my teacher gave me positive reactions after hearing my article on a dog interview. I continued to formulate a good novel in my service well during my research career, when I needed to write manuscripts and give proposals and fellowship applications. I realized that, unlike many of my colleagues, I enjoyed these tasks.
But it never happened to me that writing could be my job, even one day I received a call from the Switch Laboratory (part of the VIB-Ku Leuven Center for brain, diseases, and the Catholic University in Leuven (Ku Leuven) in Belgium). I spent three years there as a researcher, and now they were giving me a position as a technical writer. I remained for more than four years.
Why use a grant writer at home?
The main investigators of Switch Lab (PIS) is an excellent book, but they realized that the writing caused the bottleneck in their work: completing grants and reports, and helping novice colleagues in their manuscripts and fellowship applications, ate time to spend the knowledge.
They also realized that after creating basic ideas to submit a grant request, the proposal can be written by another custom person and a stubborn factor who understands the topic and has an eye for details. The same applies to the subordinate parts of the applications (updated CVS, describing the facilities, etc.) and writing the narration of a research union: Once PI agree on the project, others can do a consumer work time to collect inputs from each laboratory and turn it into a coherent document.
A post -doctoral tenant as a grant writer at home can do all these tasks. It can refer to lost and rear details. They can be the “structural engineer” of the project, which makes sure that the edifice is “the architect” (PI), which will not collapse when the auditors try to put holes in it.
Bela Schmidt found his time as an internal writer in the laboratory to be full of movement.Credit: Béla Z. Schmidt
It is true that the grant staff to the institution or grant book can help by providing examples of successful applications, and providing advice on how to amend the project to suit the call or even writing the text to put the institution in the best light. But they may not understand the complications of laboratory research – for them, it is just one of the dozens they work on. In contrast, an internal writer will be invested in taking an additional angle with each application to ensure the financial stability of the laboratory and the future of their professional colleagues.
Moreover, the decision to respond to a call is sometimes made. The new data may raise an idea, new partners may appear for a project or you may learn that the application has failed in one call and want to make a last effort to keep the search line (and the people working on it) standing on its feet. In my experience, grant officers or institutional grants who told us, “We know that there are only three weeks before the deadline, but we want to progress, anyway.” But the researcher who turned into a writer will understand the urgency.
What makes a good writer at home?
Think of the internal grant writer as a speech writer: If PI explains the project’s vision, the writer should be able to create a convincing novel. There is a need for strong skills in dealing with others because the writer needs to pressure numbers and data interpretations, experimental experimental and tools from the busy colleagues without alienating them.
Good organizational skills are very important. It is useful to create good folders and track the development of different parts of the application, because writing is a repetitive process and sometimes returns to previous versions.
The function of changing the path is great when you collect inputs from colleagues, but she feels confused after many repetitions. It helps to save clean versions frequently, with date (and sometimes A, B, C …) in the file name. If the application is presented through the website, copying the web pages to separate text editor files allow access to editing tools and make it easy to collect the input. It is important to save the application submitted separately. If funded, you will refer to it at the time of reports; If not, it may be the basis of another application. Do not waste your work on the grant.