Written by: Jessica Bloomer

This year’s workshop was on March 18^th-19^th during UC’s spring break. The workshop is an important piece of the Pilot Research Project Program because it helps prepare individuals to write a research proposal by presenting information on sources of funding, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) processes, preparing the application including the budget, and aligning research priorities with federal grant administrators.

There were eighteen attendees consisting of PhD students and junior faculty from the Air Force Institute of Technology, Bowling Green State University, Central State University, Murray State University, Ohio University, Purdue University, University of Cincinnati, University of Kentucky, and Western Kentucky University. Some of the participants’ fields of study included industrial systems engineering, occupational and environmental health, preventative medicine, and social work.

On day one, Dr. Burr Zimmerman a principal consultant from the Urban Venture Group, led six sessions on grant overview, different funding agencies, SBIR/STTR, finding grant opportunities, and how to prepare to write a proposal. The day concluded with a panel discussion on proposal writing with panelists Dr. Burr Zimmerman and faculty from the University of Cincinnati, Drs. Amit Bhattacharya, Henry Spitz, and Tiina Reponen.

Day two consisted of a group exercise in the morning, led by Dr. Jen Veevers a scientific writer in the UC College of Medicine. Dr. Veevers led sessions on how to write a research proposal and the grant reviewing/scoring process. The participants were grouped together and worked to prepare a practice proposal with a hypothesis, specific aims, approach, and to incorporate all group members’ research backgrounds. This activity was meant to demonstrate how interdisciplinary research teams are developed as well as to practice writing questions and aims. The proposal topics developed by the groups were;

• Occupational Exposure to Coal-Polluted Environment
• Evaluation of Effectiveness of Green Supply Chain at Amazon Distribution Centers
• Impact of Bioaerosol Exposure on Inflammatory Response in Horse Farm Workers

The groups then presented their proposals and then scored each other’s presentations based on the NIH criteria Dr. Veevers taught. The winner of the most outstanding group proposal was group 3; Impact of Bioaerosol Exposure on Inflammatory Response in Horse Farm Workers.

Thank you to the presenters and panelists for making this a valuable workshop for our attendees!