Successful Grant Proposals in Science, Technology, and Medicine
A Guide to Writing the Narrative

There are many resources on grant writing in science, technology and medicine, but most do not provide the practical advice needed to write the narratives of grant proposals. Designed to help novice and experienced investigators write compelling narratives and acquire research funding, this is a detailed guide to the content, organisation, layout, phrasing, and scientific argumentation of narratives. The authors draw on more than twenty years of research and analysis of grant proposals, having worked extensively with investigators at different levels, from pre-doctoral students to senior scientists. They have used this experience to design a framework for scientific writing that you can apply directly to narratives. The guidelines and advice offered are applicable across many funding agencies, including the NIH and NSF. Featuring many real-life examples, the book covers a range of topics, from organisational alternatives to best practices in grammar and editing, overview visuals, and working with contributors.

Preface; Acknowledgements; 1. The scientific grant proposal and its narrative; 2. The aims section; 3. The background section; 4. The preliminary studies/progress report section; 5. The methods section, part 1; 6. The methods section, part 2; 7. Other prose considerations; 8. Technical features of sentences; Glossary; Index.

Sandra Oster is a discourse linguist and a freelance scientific writer and editor through Oster-Edits, specializing in grant proposals and research papers. She has worked for over thirty years in grant writing, eleven years of which were at Oregon Health and Science University. She continues to give seminars on grant writing, research paper writing, and scientific English within and outside the USA.
Paul Cordo is a Professor of Biomedical Engineering at Oregon Health and Science University and Chief Technology Officer for AMES Technology, Inc., a medical device start-up company that he founded. He has been funded by NIH grants for over thirty years as a basic and clinical neuroscientist, and brings practical expertise – as a writer, reviewer, and manager of grants – to this book.