We have assisted countless research faculty whose past applications kept getting rejected by federal agencies. In all cases, our careful, client-focused attention helped to identify potential “weaknesses” (in the eyes of reviewers), so we could then work with the PI to become an overall stronger applicant. In some cases, it was realigning or refocusing the institutes and programs to which they were applying. In other cases, it was improving some aspect of the project or its specific aims. In yet other cases, it was guiding the PI to build a stronger team, generate stronger preliminary data, or increase their publication rate. Over 85% of our clients in these situations subsequently earned NIH funding within a reasonable timeframe, and remain as long-term clients to this day.

A clinical research team at a smaller research institute contacted us to help improve the number of academic research grants they were able to submit in a given time period. We quickly helped the team to prepare and submit two NIH R34’s (pilot clinical trial grants), one of which was subsequently funded, and a Challenge Initiative Grant to the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI), which was highly competitive and funded on resubmission.

A for-profit business entity came to us after having a series of previously unscored NIH SBIR Phase I applications. We quickly helped them to refocus their research objectives, transformed the narratives so that they were clear and engaging, and corrected errors in the ancillary pages of their applications, resulting in strong resubmission applications that were subsequently funded and led to a follow-on, $1.4M Phase II project, which we also helped to get funded.

A large university client hired Tn Consulting to provide writing assistance and professional feedback for their substantial Clinical and Translational Science Award (CTSA) application to the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (NCATS) to innovate rural healthcare delivery methods and training. These large applications are in excess of 200 pages and often include teams of 30+ PI’s. The CTSA was subsequently funded and Tn has already been re-enlisted to help with the future renewal application.

We provided a last-minute review on a FastTrack SBIR (which contains aspects of both a Phase I and Phase II application in one, large application) for a client. Our feedback gave them an enhanced perspective on how integral components of their Phase I strategy improperly segued into their Phase II approach. We worked with the client’s team to devise a more streamlined proposal with well defined endpoints. We also provided valuable feedback on their commercialization strategy and wrote an improved commercialization plan that was subsequently well received by NIH reviewers and funded for the full budget request.

For over 6 years now, we have been brought in annually by three large state research universities to help train and coach cohorts of their early-stage faculty who are writing to the NSF’s Early CAREER award program. The ROI on our services was apparent even after the first year, with a 3+-fold uptick in funded proposals over prior years. We continue to work hand-in-hand with each university’s Office of Sponsored Projects to provide appropriate levels of education and grant proposal development support for each year’s cohorts of resubmission and first-time applicants.