These projects approach grant writing [a grant is funding awarded for researchor scholarly projects/endeavors] as an area of inquiry. Students in this class have researched a large grant-giving organization, such as the Ford Foundation or National Institutes of Health, and have created arguments about this grant organization:
Panel 1: 4/19/11, 11:40-12:55: “Mo Money, Mo’ Problems: Grant Funding”: Chartash, Claudio, Myer, Prabhu, and Raman
Panel 2: 4/21/11, 11:40-12:55: “The Support of Science and Technology,” Arnold, Deng, and Sherman
Panel 3: 4/21/11, 11:40-12:55: “The Thoughts and Struggles in Asking for Money,” Cummings, Deane, Kellish, and Zhou
something i liked about your paper: i really liked it. very good.
Carmichael, You make a strong argument for the ACS being in need of stronger focus. You have good evidence for the overhead and the advertising. I was wondering if there are other cancer-related foundations or advocacy groups that you think are run better or would be more receommended foundations for volunteer work and/or donations?
Zack, You make a strong case for the necessity of rethinking some aspects of the NIH’s broader impact criterion. You did quite well in explicating clearly the Peter Principle and advocating for boundary organizations. I’m wondering, though, how the Peter Principle accounts for on-the-job growth and professional development? Does it allow for the possibility that people can get promoted or have more responsibilities within an organization because their skill set grows or outgrows their current position?
Sanket, You created a really strong set of slides for this presentation, that helped convey your argument about DARPA being an important innovator, despite, or perhaps because of, their opacity. I was curious about the self-propelled car: what applications do they imagine for this?
Anish, You did a great job showing how the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation is a pioneer in health care research. I especially like that you started off the talk with your driving question: How does an organization become a leader in its field? You mentioned that one of the reasons for this leadership is that this foundation uses experts to review grant proposals. How, by contrast, do other similar foundations select grant proposals?
Evan, You created a strong set of slides for this presentation that helped convey your argument that AFIRM is an organization that helps both civilian and military people. You also do well in showcasing some of the cutting-edge ways in which they have improved health care. I was wondering how you first heard about this organization and what made you interested in researching it?
Beryl, you established a great point about how AIDS/HIV should receive the money for your grant. You had a very clear and detailed plan that convinced me you should get the grant. You included every single thing in your budget plan and even though you went over your budget I thought it was bold you planed it all out. I liked how you focused on one place but how that one place could be relevant to other places as well. It was interesting how you also explained to us how you could potentially fail. You’re giving both sides of the story which I think is very useful. Great job!
Flannery, it was interesting to hear your grant proposal because I feel as though you brought up a good point that not everyone has truly thought about. Everyone knows China has a huge economy but I feel like no one has ever though to compare it to South Africa’s economy. You did a great job explaining all of the components of your grant plan. Nice job!
Beryl, first off, fascinating topic! This is an extremely relevant issue that touches many people. I appreciate your honesty in the “Other Things…” slide; however, beginning the slide with “I might fail” shows a lack of confidence in your own project that would discourage funding. Great project overall, I really like your comprehensive and clear explanation of why there is a reason for your grant to be funded.
Flannery, great choice of topic, the current economic downturn makes emerging economies a crucial issue of global macro-economic importance going forward. In light of the new Goldman-Sachs term BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India, China) how do you reconcile your use of the term CIBS, since it has been all but abandoned? You make the claim that small businesses are the engine of economic growth, that is a believable claim but statistics would be more persuasive.
Max, good job! I like that you picked a foundation related to all students. This grant could help a lot of students, not just a few. You presented some great points. Good job!
Max, this is always a perennial issue that is debated in congress, extremely appropriate considering our status as college students. Great information about the astronomers only being able to use facilities on college campuses! I don’t understand the jump from national health and economic wellbeing surveys to a direct comparison of test scores. Don’t the numerous, well-documented criticisms of test scores as a reliable measure of knowledge and skills make your use of them frivolous? Plus, I don’t believe that measuring test scores does the same thing as the national health and economic wellbeing surveys you cited.
Tony, you had a lot of support to help prove your point. The video was a great addition! You were very clear and straight to the point which helped me understand what you were proposing. Your presentation was very interesting! Nice work!
Tony, I had no idea how generous Intel Corp. was regarding international natural disaster relief. It seems that a large portion of your presentation is simply outlining the types of grants that Intel provides. I really liked the part of the presentation dealing with the students that were able to travel to the White House to meet president Obama, however I don’t know that it was necessary considering the scope of your topic.
Paige, I really loved the historical overview of the creation of the OSRD and Vannevar Bush’s involvement in it. It would be interesting to know Bush’s positions on some of the more controversial technologies that emerged from the World War II era. How would you respond to critics of basic science research that claim science without application is wasted money?
Paige, I’ve never learned so much about the NSF in one day. You offered a lot of background knowledge before going into your argument. All that information really helped add to the point you are trying to prove. You had a lot of great details!
Beryl, I really liked the scientific basis on which the grant was built around. Genomic analysis has been incredibly useful in identifying the immunological pathways that combat HIV. My question for you is how well will the next step work, gene therapy. Gene therapy has proven to be useful in a limited number of circumstances due to the nature of how hard it is to change a human’s DNA. How will you be able to prove that this genetic analysis that you are doing will provide a solution/cure to the HIV epidemic? Overall great job.
Beryl, I appreciate the fact that you are interested in how small businesses function in the context of the Chinese economy. Clearly, understanding how such a vastly growing economy is able to be so successful is key to improving our own in light of the recession. My two questions for you are, what impact do small businesses actually have on the economy, and how will the sample questions that you would ask in your interviews (off the slide you talked about) help you to really understand how small businesses function?
Sorry that was directed at Flannery, my bad
Max, I really appreciate your focus on science since I am an engineer myself (and you are probably too). I think that the focus on astronomy was nice, but it would probably help your cause a little bit more if you picked more crucial and pressing issues in science. A good portion of what makes people invested in science research depends on the time frame we are talking about (astronomy was incredibly valuable around the time of the Apollo mission for example). What sort of issues and goals could be funded right now that are pressing issues today? (I can think of things like alternative energy research, healthcare tech, etc.)
Tony, I learned a lot about what Intel is able to provide through their grants and how important they are in disaster relief and offering a science scholarship competition, etc. I was a bit unclear about what grant you were actually interested in specifically; my question to you is what Intel grant are you most interested in?
Paige, I really liked how you gave an extensive background of how NSF was created and its function in today’s government. However, I think that your distinction between basic and applied science is somewhat arbitrary, all things considered. All of science is used at some point for some application (i.e. the example you gave of understanding how a particular gene works could be used to understand mutations in that gene etc.) How would you defend that distinction?
Since our topic is completely different in our writing 20 course, I’m going to say that I learned a lot that I didn’t know before about grant writing!Beryl’s presentation was very impressive and the plan seemed like it took a lot of effort. Gene therapy is definitely something I haven’t looked into yet, and I would be very interested in reading the research paper.