Using the Funded Grants Library

When writing a grant proposal, do you ever wish to see what has worked in the past to use as a template? Well, we have a curated database of successful grant proposals available only to the Vanderbilt and Meharry community. You can see what worked in others’ funded grants and use those strategies to fuel your future attempts.

The Adrienne Babcock Funded Grants Library is a unique tool available only to the Vanderbilt and Meharry community. It contains approximately 500 successful funded grant proposals from Vanderbilt faculty, students, and postdocs over two decades.

Successful Vanderbilt scholars throughout the years have graciously shared their proposals here with the agreement of confidentiality and the avoidance of plagiarism. They want to give back to the community that nurtured their success. If you want to do the same after your grant gets funded, please reach out to rebecca.helton@vumc.org to add your grant documents to the Library.

To access the Library, visit edgeforscholars.vumc.org, and click through to the Funded Grants Library under Writing Resources. Or just visit redcap.link/abfgl in your web browser. You will be prompted to sign into REDCap. You will have to agree to a statement promising to maintain confidentiality and avoid plagiarism. If this is your first time using the Library, you must request access via an email at the bottom of the page. If you are at the Assistant Professor rank or below, carbon-copy your primary mentor. Access is usually granted to Vanderbilt and Meharry users with no hassle.

After you agree to the conditions, you will be taken to the main table of grants. On the left is the name of the grant, and various columns display information about the grant, including NIH mechanism or whether it’s from a foundation or other federal agency. On the far right, a link to view the submission documents is available. The documents will be available in PDF format. All include at least the aims and research strategy, but many also include ancillary documents like budget, facilities and resources, or human subjects.

There are several ways to tailor your search for relevant examples. First, you can search for text in any grant title and in any grant abstract. Doing so will winnow your table down to the appropriate grants with the word or phrase represented. Also helpful is filtering the grant table by the grant mechanism, such as K08 or R61. Finally, you can filter by broader grant type, like all R, F, or K grants. These options can guide you to specific submissions the most like your proposal.

If you find one grant particularly helpful, please click the conversation-bubble icon on the grant table next to that grant and leave a comment highlighting what you liked so that others can benefit from your experience. Your real name will be publicly associated with the comment. All comments will be moderated by the Edge for Scholars team before public display.

Only the last 10 years of grant documents are displayed by default, since requirements change frequently. If you want to view older grants, please check the checkbox to view all grants in the Library. Older grants may have limited applicability to your application, however.

The Adrienne Babcock Funded Grants Library is built to fuel your imagination, ambition, and success. This unique resource can give you a competitive edge when forming your proposal to transform the world for the better. You are encouraged to make use of it liberally, and when you succeed, to give back so that others can learn from your successes down the road.