Research Funding—Why, When, and How?

Abstract

Research funding is defined as a grant obtained for conducting scientific research generally through a competitive process. To apply for grants and securing research funding is an essential part of conducting research. In this article, we will discuss why should one apply for research grants, what are the avenues for getting research grants, and how to go about it in a step-wise manner. We will also discuss how to write research grants and what to be done after funding is received.

Introduction

The two most important components of any research project is idea and execution. The successful execution of the research project depends not only on the effort of the researcher but also on available infrastructure to conduct the research. The conduct of a research project entails expenses on man and material and funding is essential to meet these requirements. It is possible to conduct many research projects without any external funding if the infrastructure to conduct the research is available with the researcher or institution. It is also unethical to order tests for research purpose when it does not benefit patient directly or is not part of the standard of care. Research funding is required to meet these expenses and smooth execution of research projects. Securing funding for the research project is a topic that is not discussed during postgraduation and afterwards during academic career especially in medical science. Many good ideas do not materialize into a good research project because of lack of funding.[1] This is an art which can be learnt only by practising and we intend to throw light on major hurdles faced to secure research funding.

Why Do We Need the Funds for Research?

It is possible to publish papers without any external funding; observational research and experimental research with small sample size can be conducted without external funding and can result in meaningful papers like case reports, case series, observational study, or small experimental study. However, when studies like multi-centric studies, randomized controlled trial, experimental study or observational study with large sample size are envisaged, it may not be possible to conduct the study within the resources of department or institution and a source of external funding is required.

Basic Requirements for Research Funding

The most important requirement is having an interest in the particular subject, thorough knowledge of the subject, and finding out the gap in the knowledge. The second requirement is to know whether your research can be completed with internal resources or requires external funding. The next step is finding out the funding agencies which provide funds for your subject, preparing research grant and submitting the research grant on time.

What Are the Sources of Research Funding? – Details of Funding Agencies

Many local, national, and international funding bodies can provide grants necessary for research. However, the priorities for different funding agencies on type of research may vary and this needs to be kept in mind while planning a grant proposal. Apart from this, different funding agencies have different timelines for proposal submission and limitation on funds. Details about funding bodies have been tabulated in Table 1. These details are only indicative and not comprehensive.

Table 1.

Details of funding agencies

Funding agency	Timeline	Key thrust areas
Local
Institute	Variable, depends on institute	Not defined, mostly student research
University grants commission (UGC)[2]	Any time of year	Retired or working teachers in college and university under section 2(f) and 12 (b) of the UGC act 1956. The list is available on UGC website.
	Evaluation in January and July
		Major research project - up to 12 lacs
		Minor research project - 1 lac
National
Indian association of Dermatologist, Venereologist and Leprologist (IADVL)[3]	March - April	Basic sciences, clinical, laboratory based, epidemiological or quality of life studies. Up to Rs. 500,000 per project per
		Life Member of IADVL and one of the few grants in which private practitioners can also apply. Other grants available from IADVL are Post Graduate thesis grant and L’Oreal research grant.
Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR)[4]	Oct - Nov	Basic science, communicable and non-communicable disease, nutrition
Short term studentship		To facilitate undergraduate research. Funding is 25,000 per student
Ad-hoc extramural research		Limit is up to 30 lacs per project
Task force research project		Multicentric projects
Financial support for thesis	Within 12 months of registration of MD	Anti-microbial resistance, tuberculosis, HIV/AIDS, malaria, diabetes, maternal and child health
		A total assistance of Rs 50,000/- will be given
Department of science and technology[5]
Core research grant (extramural research grant)	Apr - May	Lifesciences
	Notification on serbonline.in
Early career research award	Notification on serbonline. in	Lifesciences. Maximum funding is 50 lacs per proposal
		Upper age limit is 37 years
Department of biotechnology[6]	Notification on dbtindia. gov. in	Vaccine research, nutrition and public health, stem cells and regenerative medicine, infectious and chronic disease biology
Council of scientific and industrial research (CSIR)[7]	Anytime of the year	Project in collaboration with CSIR institutes are given priority
	Evaluation twice a year
Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) (Life sciences research board)[8]	Any time of year	Project of national/defence interest
		Call for proposal specify the key thrust areas
Department of Health Research (DHR) _ Grant aid scheme[9]	Any time of the year	Public health
		Translational research project
		Cost- effectiveness analysis of health technologies
International
National psoriasis foundation (NPF)[10]	Call for proposal available on website	Various research grants are available for psoriasis and includes: Psoriasis prevention initiative, milestone to a cure, Discovery, Translational, Early career research grant and Bridge grants
National Institute of Health (NIH)[11]	Call for proposal available online	Limited research grants applicable to researcher outside USA
NGO
Leo foundation[12]	Call for proposal available on website	Improve the understanding of the underlying medicinal, biological, chemical, or pharmacological mechanisms of dermatological diseases and their symptoms

Application for the Research Grant

Applying for a research grant is a time-consuming but rewarding task. It not only provides an opportunity for designing a good study but also allows one to understand the administrative aspect of conducting research. In a publication, the peer review is done after the paper is submitted but in a research grant, peer review is done at the time of proposal, which helps the researcher to improve his study design even if the grant proposal is not successful. Funds which are available for research is generally limited; resulting in reviewing of a research grant on its merit by peer group before the proposal is approved. It is important to be on the lookout for call for proposal and deadlines for various grants. Ideally, the draft research proposal should be ready much before the call for proposal and every step should be meticulously planned to avoid rush just before the deadline. The steps of applying for a research grant are mentioned below and every step is essential but may not be conducted in a particular order.

1. Idea: The most important aspect of research is the idea. After having the idea in mind, it is important to refine your idea by going through literature and finding out what has already been done in the subject and what are the gaps in the research. FINER framework should be used while framing research questions. FINER stands for feasibility, interesting, novel, ethical, and relevant

2. Designing the study: Well-designed study is the first step of a well-executed research project. It is difficult to correct flawed study design when the project is advanced, hence it should be planned well and discussed with co-workers. The help of an expert epidemiologist can be sought while designing the study

3. Collaboration: The facility to conduct the study within the department is often limited. Inter-departmental and inter-institutional collaboration is the key to perform good research. The quality of project improves by having a subject expert onboard and it also makes acceptance of grant easier. The availability of the facility for conduct of research in department and institution should be ascertained before planning the project

4. Scientific and ethical committee approval: Most of the research grants require the project to be approved by the institutional ethical committee (IEC) before the project is submitted. IEC meeting usually happens once in a quarter; hence pre-planning the project is essential. Some institutes also conduct scientific committee meeting before the proposal can be submitted for funding. A project/study which is unscientific is not ethical, therefore it is a must that a research proposal should pass both the committees’ scrutiny

5. Writing research grant: Writing a good research grant decides whether research funding can be secured or not. So, we will discuss this part in detail.

How to write a research grant proposal[13,14,15] The steps in writing a research grant are as follows

1. Identifying the idea and designing the study. Study design should include details about type of study, methodology, sampling, blinding, inclusion and exclusion criteria, outcome measurements, and statistical analysis

2. Identifying the prospective grants—the timing of application, specific requirements of grant and budget available in the grant

3. Discussing with collaborators (co-investigators) about the requirement of consumables and equipment

4. Preparing a budget proposal—the two most important part of any research proposal is methodology and budget proposal. It will be discussed separately

5. Preparing a specific proposal as outlined in the grant document. This should contain details about the study including brief review of literature, why do you want to conduct this study, and what are the implications of the study, budget requirement, and timeline of the study

6. A timeline or Gantt chart should always accompany any research proposal. This gives an idea about the major milestones of the project and how the project will be executed

7. The researcher should also be ready for revising the grant proposal. After going through the initial proposal, committee members may suggest some changes in methodology and budgetary outlay

8. The committee which scrutinizes grant proposal may be composed of varied specialities. Hence, proposal should be written in a language which even layman can understand. It is also a good idea to get the proposal peer reviewed before submission.

Budgeting for the Research Grant

Budgeting is as important as the methodology for grant proposal. The first step is to find out what is the monetary limit for grant proposal and what are the fund requirements for your project. If these do not match, even a good project may be rejected based on budgetary limitations. The budgetary layout should be prepared with prudence and only the amount necessary for the conduct of research should be asked. Administrative cost to conduct the research project should also be included in the proposal. The administrative cost varies depending on the type of research project.

Research fund can generally be used for the following requirement but not limited to these; it is helpful to know the subheads under which budgetary planning is done. The funds are generally allotted in a graded manner as per projected requirement and to the institution, not to the researcher.

1. Purchase of equipment which is not available in an institution (some funding bodies do not allow equipment to be procured out of research funds). The equipment once procured out of any research fund is owned by the institute/department

2. Consumables required for the conduct of research (consumables like medicines for the conduct of the investigator-initiated trials and laboratory consumables)

3. The hiring of trained personnel—research assistant, data entry operator for smooth conduct of research. The remuneration details of trained personnel can be obtained from the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) website and the same can be used while planning the budget

4. Stationary—for the printing of forms and similar expense

5. Travel expense—If the researcher has to travel to present his finding or for some other reason necessary for the conduct of research, travel grant can be part of the research grant

6. Publication expense: Some research bodies provide publication expense which can help the author make his findings open access which allows wider visibility to research

7. Contingency: Miscellaneous expenditure during the conduct of research can be included in this head

8. Miscellaneous expenses may include expense toward auditing the fund account, and other essential expenses which may be included in this head.

Once the research funding is granted. The fund allotted has to be expended as planned under budgetary planning. Transparency, integrity, fairness, and competition are the cornerstones of public procurement and should be remembered while spending grant money. The hiring of trained staff on contract is also based on similar principles and details of procurement and hiring can be read at the ICMR website.[4] During the conduct of the study, many of grant guidelines mandate quarterly or half-yearly progress report of the project. This includes expense on budgetary layout and scientific progress of the project. These reports should be prepared and sent on time.

Completion of a Research Project

Once the research project is completed, the completion report has to be sent to the funding agency. Most funding agencies also require period progress report and project should ideally progress as per Gantt chart. The completion report has two parts. The first part includes a scientific report which is like writing a research paper and should include all subheads (Review of literature, material and methods, results, conclusion including implications of research). The second part is an expense report including how money was spent, was it according to budgetary layout or there was any deviation, and reasons for the deviation. Any unutilized fund has to be returned to the funding agency. Ideally, the allotted fund should be post audited by a professional (chartered accountant) and an audit report along with original bills of expenditure should be preserved for future use in case of any discrepancy. This is an essential part of any funded project that prevents the researcher from getting embroiled in any accusations of impropriety.

Sharing of scientific findings and thus help in scientific advancement is the ultimate goal of any research project. Publication of findings is the part of any research grant and many funding agencies have certain restrictions on publications and presentation of the project completed out of research funds. For example, Indian Association of Dermatologists, Venereologists and Leprologists (IADVL) research projects on completion have to be presented in a national conference and the same is true for most funding agencies. It is imperative that during presentation and publication, researcher mentions the source of funding.

Conclusion

Research funding is an essential part of conducting research. To be able to secure a research grant is a matter of prestige for a researcher and it also helps in the advancement of career.

Financial support and sponsorship

Nil.

Conflicts of interest

There are no conflicts of interest.