Applying for my first grant

[catzzz88]

Hi all, I am a current MS1 and I am applying to a very small medical student research grant.

I have a few questions and would welcome any general advice.

1). How am I supposed to write a budget for $3,000? That buys nothing and I don't understand what they want to see in the budget. I will be using all of the lab supplies we already have and $3,000 can buy maybe 2 or 3 vials of the clinical-grade antibody that we use. Should I add in lots of tiny things into the budget to make it seem more useful, or just put the 1-2 items it will actually go to?

2). If the budget timeline is 3 months to a year, should I just say 1 year? It's such a small grant that again, I don't see how it could be spread out over a year.

3). I have 2 AIMS right now, should I try to come up with 3 AIMS, or can I just work with 2? Not sure if there is a convention.


I am working closely with my mentor on this, but he is busy so I want to try and do as much of this on my own as I can.

Does anyone know of a good resource to help guide my thinking on this front?

Thanks!!!

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[gutonc]

For a $3000 grant over 3-12 months, you should have one aim. I wrote a few of these grants ($2-5K) and they were all outlined as pilot projects for something bigger. Make the timeline 6 months, say you're going to spend the money on the Ab and something like lab consumables (that they can never track) or software or hardware (read Adobe CS Whatever or a MacBook Air) that you need to do the data analysis.

They're unlikely to scrutinize your budget too closely at this level, they just want you to put a bit of thought into it.