How to be # 1
Charles van der Horst, MD
Professor of Medicine
University of North Carolina
Visiting Professor
Wits University
Johannesburg
A journey of a thousand miles
begins with the first step
Chinese Proverb
Early
1982-1985
1985-1986
1986-1988
1988-2001
2001-2012
2012-2022
ID Fellowship Virology Lab
Faculty app’t Duke Lab
NIAID Contract ACTUs
PI UNC ACTU
Malawi, South Africa
????
10 Ways to be # 1
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Articulate a vision
6. Tear down the barriers
Preach from the top 7. Prime the pump
Brag
8. Teach them to write
Get rid of deadwood 9. Be a team player
Find the best, the
10.Listen, learn, don’t give up
brightest, the hungriest
# 1 Articulate a vision
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•
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What are your goals?
What areas do you want to focus on?
What is your 1 year, 5 year, 10 year plans?
Where does research fit into your other
priorities (clinical, civic)?
• What is local? What international?
• How can you get there?
# 2 Preach from the top
• Your President, Chancellor, Provost, Hospital
CEO and CFO, and Deans have to be on
message!
• They have to buy in to your vision statement
• They have to provide access to donors
• They have to provide access to indirect costs
and clinical income
# 3 Brag
• Create a brand and write a story
• Advisory Boards
– Legislators
– Donors
– Advocacy groups
• Facebook, web
• Learn what the faculty in your university
are doing and brag about it
– Research days for trainees and students
– Prizes for junior faculty and students
# 4 Get rid of the deadwood
• Are they writing peer reviewed papers?
• Are they obtaining grants?
• Are they using the bench space allotted to
them?
No
Fire them
# 5 Hire the Best and the Brightest
• Hire young hungry faculty who can write and
work in your focus areas
– Abstracts without papers is a bad sign
– Gaps without writing papers is a bad sign
– No grants in years is a bad sign
– Ask for a full CV and an NIH Biosketch
• Hire mid-level faculty with track record of
grants to create new areas for focus
– Don’t forget the spouses!
#6 Tear Down the Barriers
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•
•
•
Clinical duties
Teaching duties
Space
Create listserv and send out all Funding
Opportunity Announcements
• Mentoring groups (Thesis committees)
• Have grant writing support people
– Budgets, biosketches, other support pages
– Outlines for grants and budget justification
– Health sciences librarian
Grant Opportunities
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NIH www.nih.gov
CDC www.cdc.gov
Wellcome Trust www.wellcome.ac.uk
USAID www.usaid.gov
Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation
www.pedaids.org
– Doris Duke Charitable Foundation www.ddcf.org
– European and Developing Countries Clinical Trials
Partnership www.edctp.org
– Pharmaceutical companies (Pfizer, Tibotec)
# 7 Prime the Pump
• Small grants $10,000-$20,000 for 1 year
• Biostatistics and epidemiology consultations
# 8 Learn to write
• K30 year long grant writing seminar
• How to write a manuscript workshop
– Start with an outline
– Read out loud
• How to write a grant workshop
– Read the FOA (include review criteria)
– Make an outline
– Start with specific aims
References on Writing
1. The Craft of Scientific Writing” by Michael Alley, 3rd Edition,
Springer Verlag 1996
2. Reese and Woods “The Craft of Scientific Writing” Michigan
State University 2002
3. Matthews, Bowen & Matthews. Successful Scientific
Writing. A step-by-step guide for the biological and medical
sciences. Cambridge University Press, 1996
4. Gopen & Swan. The science of scientific writing. American
Scientist. 1990; 78:550-8.
# 9 Be a team player
• Create working groups in your focus areas
– Epidemiologist, clinicians, laboratory scientists,
social scientists
– Include trainees, young faculty and senior faculty
• Create spaces for networking-coffee shop,
atriums
• Don’t promote mean people
• Make friends at meetings
# 10 Listen, Learn; But Be
Brave and Don’t Take No for an
Answer
• Don’t be arrogant
• Respond to reviewers and reviews
• Ask for advice
– CDC and NIH project officers
– Colleagues
– Outside experts
• Send papers (outlines) and grants
(specific aims) for review by friends
Funding Provided by
• National Institutes of Health
– ACTG, CFAR, ICORTA-TB/AIDS, Fogarty Global
Health Fellows, NIDA
• Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
(The BAN Study)
• USAID (Safeguard the Family)