Copyright © 2020 pubrica. All rights reserved 1

Challenges for Research Scholars in Writing Pharmaceutical Research Grant

Dr. Nancy Agens, Head,

Technical Operations, Pubrica

sales@pubrica.com

In Brief

Research proposal grant writing is targeted

primarily to graduate students and faculties

and for research scholars who seek funding

for research. Research grant writing varies

widely across the disciplines from philosophy

or the arts to medicine or policy research.

Writing a successful grant application is a long

and challenging process and requires expert’s

guidance to secure prestigious funding as they

help you develop a quality grant proposal.

I. INTRODUCTION

Critical thinking, creativity and

innovation are the essential factors in carrying

out scientific research. Hence, the primary

objective of any research is to produce new

knowledge and relevant findings leading to

sustainable improvement to the needs of society.

Research is empirical because of the

involvement of serious of observations,

measurements and analysis of data based on the

well-driven experimental design.

Pharmaceutical research is defined as the

development of drugs which emphasize the

discovery and treatment of diseases.

Pharmaceutical scientists discover, develop,

test, and manufacture new medications. A

significant and innovative research question is

the first and primary ingredient in a successful

proposal. The research proposal or academic

writing is to assist in developing a strong

fundamental understanding of developing

pharmaceutical study design/protocol and

communicate the finding for future

development. Research grant writing helps in

getting funds quickly from the funding agency,

and it is highly competitive in securing a

prestigious grant for doing pharmaceutical

research.

II. CHALLENGES DURING THE PHASE OF

WRITING A RESEARCH GRANT

PROPOSAL

1. Identifying your needs and brainstorm

idea: First, the identifying question that needs to be

focused and developing ideas should be clearly

explained, along with alternative methods and

plans. Ideas should satisfy the need of the hour.

Concepts should not be too ambitious, and

technology driven. Lack of proof and low

impact is a big deal.

2. Innovation:

Innovations are critical and must be without

controversy, which is questionable. It should

contain novel concepts, approaches and methods

3. Time:

It takes time to write everything together, which

convinces the reader. The proposal must be

uncompetitive and non-compliant. Outline the

whole proposal clearly before you start writing

and explain science clearly. Use concise and

clear language.

4. Hypotheses:

Hypotheses should give insight into a research

question. Be testable and measurable by the

proposed research methodology. Consistency

while describing the predictions must be

maintained.

5. Research design:

This section should provide details of planned

methods to carry out experiments, and the

supporting explanation should need to justify

Copyright © 2020 pubrica. All rights reserved 2

the selected method is appropriated along with

references.

Fig 1. Research Grant Writing Ptocess

6. Presentation:

Unclear format and incorrect citing lead to

denial. The proposal should clearly state the

problem or hypothesis by avoiding language

errors and clarity problems.

7. Preliminary studies: Challenging to incorporate the results of

preliminary studies need to be focused like not

providing enough data that is mandatory and

providing data which is not stable. Poorly

presented data are difficult to follow and

conclude results by providing too many details

of auxiliary methods.

8. Budget:

Remember the budget limitations and

understand the budget size, which will influence

the score. Include all other sources of funding

for the proposed study and justify all categories

of funds requested. Researchers that do not have

a sound working knowledge of statistics need to

have a consultation with a biostatistician to

ensure the procedures which required sampling,

data collection and data analysis are

scientifically valid. Reviewers can recommend

budget cuts when they think that expenses are

overly high or unwarranted. The budget must

accurately reflect the plan for data collection,

data analysis, and data write up.

III. REVISING THE GRANT PROPOSAL

Developing a grant proposal is a time taking

process and challenging for early researchers as

it requires quality experience in pharmaceutical

research for providing accurate details. Every

proposal must pass through several readers to

get feedback from both pharmaceutical and non-

pharmaceutical specialists to know the

drawbacks and area of improvement. Since it

takes a lot of time, Pubrica offers grant proposal

reviewing and has expertise to complete a

quality and high standard research grant

proposal in no time.

In summary, connecting goals, objectives, and

hypothesis is a big task to the research scholars

as it can be solved by framing the research

problems and developing the hypotheses

properly. The author should know the nature of

the funding agencies and must follow their

instructions and proposal guidelines properly.

Besides, they must know their audience, readers

mission and accomplishment and most

importantly, the author must analyze the

assessment criteria for funding by using the

appropriate disciplinary concepts and methods.

Describing the purpose of the proposal is to

discuss all relevant aspects of the research

process, and it can provide new opportunities

which can serve as your steppingstones. In

addition, the research proposal writing should

have concern over the proper page limit, word

limit and budget limit. The proposed research

grant should have appropriate abstract and

reference format and need to make sure that the

abstract clearly explains the proposed project

and emphasizes why it is essential.

Copyright © 2020 pubrica. All rights reserved 2

To overcome all the challenges and complete

writing a standard and quality research grant

proposal, our experts are available to support

and assist our client in pharmaceutical research

as well as in all therapeutic areas and

engineering fields. We have experience in

writing research proposal for National Institutes

of Health, Human Frontier Science Program,

European Research Council (ERC),

Congressionally Directed Medical Research

Program (CDMRP), National Science

Foundation (NSF), Natural Sciences and

Engineering Research Council (NSERC),

Wellcome Trust, and National Institute for

Health Research (NIHR). Besides, we have a

strong team to support our client with any

customized service like budget planning,

reviewing research grant and suggestions from

our top experts.

REFERENCE

1. Gerard H.Koppelman, John W.Holloway, Successful grant

writing, Paediatric Respiratory Reviews Volume 13, Issue

1, March 2012, Pages 63-66.

2. Otto O Yang, Guide to Effective Grant Writing: How to

Write a Successful NIH Grant application, Springer New

York Heidelberg Dordrecht London.

3. Porter, Robert, Why Academics Have a Hard Time Writing

Good Grant Proposals, Journal of Research Administration,

v38 n2 p37-43.

4. Georges Bordage Beth Dawson, Experimental study

design and grant writing in eight steps and 28 questions,

Medical Education/Volume 37, Issue 4.

5. Jamie Dow Chevis Shannon, Grants and Funding Sources,

A Guide to the Scientific Career: Virtues, Communication,

Research and Academic Writing.