Sign Up to receive free weekly articles like these

Can you have too many funded proposals?

Reader question: If a PI already has a substantial number of funded projects and any new application must list them, will reviewers consider this solid evidence of the PI's ability to perform? Or will they view it as a drawback because the PI will not have the time, energy and resources to conduct the proposed research?

Expert comments:

When a PI lists a substantial number of funded projects — as long as they are from well-respected funding sources — reviewers would consider this evidence of her ability to perform and support a track record that warrants such funding. The issue of being overstretched or without resources tends to be corrected when the investigator lists the percent of effort and salary that he expends on each current and future project.

When you submit a grant application, you’re required to put the percent work and salary, which have to correlate if the grant covers salary. If you’re indicating a small percentage and the work is much larger than that, you have note the effort that you and those working with you will put into this project.

There’s a minimum work effort that’s required. The PI can’t say, for instance, “I’m putting in 1 percent, and this is all going to be done by my Fellow.” Then the NIH will ask, “Why isn’t your Fellow the PI then?” So there is a minimum effort that funding agencies require.

The percent of effort will depend on the work being done. When a single investigator does most of the work, the minimum is usually 5 percent. But then the funder will expect you to take no more than 5 percent of your salary from the grant.

On program project grants, where there may be 10 or 20 investigators doing the work, the minimum effort can go down to 3 percent. But again, the PI has to justify how the work will be done, either with 3 percent effort or list the investigators who will work under the PI with their time and effort.

The number of projects will also depend on the type of work. Generally, PIs don’t have more than four at a time. And even then, the percent effort doesn’t equal 100 percent because of other duties such as teaching or seeing patients.

On the other hand, there are investigators who may be part of two dozen grants. For example, a PI develops a technique of genome-typing. A lot of people may want to get involved and have the PI examine some aspect of their data. Someone like that could be a part of 20 grants, either as a PI or a sub-investigator. The PI has little work percentage because all she does is use her technique and run samples through it. The PI is getting his or her token amount, to cover the cost of the testing.

Expert comments by Robert Sandhaus, PhD, director of the Alpha-1 Program at National Jewish Health in Denver which specialized in treating and researching lung, heart and immune diseases (www.nationaljewishhealth.org). The Alpha-1 Program is dedicated to researching, detecting, and curing Alpha-1 Antitrypsin Deficiency (www.alpha-1foundation.org).