• Do you have a clear, concise and testable hypothesis?
• Are your objectives and aims coming into focus?
• What questions are to be addressed?
• Can you define and design specific experiments that will test directly your hypothesis?
Start the process early (see timetable suggested by Tutis Vilis (section 3.2), which I have
modified slightly).
Put together and write up your recent work and submit it to appropriate peer-reviewed
journal(s). Do this well in advance so that the work can appear in your application as
"published", "in press" or "a submitted manuscript". Most granting agencies will not accept a
manuscript "in preparation". Your track record, as judged by publications, is an important
criterion in the assessment.
Carry out appropriate preliminary (pilot) studies, so that their results can be included in the
application. This is especially important for new applications. It will also establish for you, and
for the reviewers, whether the experimental approaches are feasible and where the pitfalls may
be.
Find and study previous grant proposals of colleagues that have been successful. Consider
these as models.
Find out, if you can, who are the members of the review committee and focus accordingly.
Identify essential and appropriate investigators who wish to collaborate with you.
Discuss ideas with colleagues in the same and relevant fields. Just going through the process of
explanation and discussion will help to clarify and focus your ideas, and to identify possible gaps
Begin to formulate / clarify your ideas.
• Do you have a clear, concise and testable hypothesis?
• ...