FreeMind's team of experts has an extensive and successful track record at guiding our clients, academic and industry alike, through every stage of the process, from defining the project, through the writing, timely submission, and review. FreeMind's teams of professional analysts, process managers and grant writing consultants work with the client to define the scope of the project, identify the best available funding opportunities and strategies, and present the research in the most convincing, professional, and thorough manner.
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Strategic Assessment
- Identification of Available and Relevant Funding: FreeMind's team of analysts will conduct an on-going strategic assessment process. By joining efforts with the client's executive and scientific teams we examine all scientific research and development activities and collaborations. As these activities evolve, they will be matched with available funding opportunities from relevant non-dilutive sources.
- Strategic Discussion with Researchers: Over the course of several discussions, FreeMind's Chief Life Science Analyst, and her team of senior scientific analysts, will assist the researchers in focusing the definition of relevant projects and final design of the research project. The end result of this process will be a One Pager for each project, consisting of a summary of the project, its hypothesis, long term objectives, specific aims, and budgetary scope.
- Correspondence with the Agency: The FreeMind professional department is in constant professional and scientific contact with funding agencies' officers and other officials. FreeMind is well educated in the detailed aims and paths of each institute and funding program. We review the suitability of a proposed project, the structure of the project, and any specific concerns regarding the nature of the project (length, scope, budget, feasibility, ambitiousness, relevance of PI, etc.).
Launch of Project: Strategic Focus
- Setting the Project's Strategy: Each project will be assessed to set the best strategy to increase its chances for success. This will be based on the desired funding opportunity, the funding institute's specific interests and various relevant mechanisms, as well as the client's interests, priorities and strategy.
- Design of Research Strategy: We have developed a package of templates to use as an outline for the compilation of a research plan. These templates provide the reviewers with a comprehensive and clear application. Our applications proactively address problematic questions that may arise and clearly highlight the value of the project in advancing healthcare solutions.
- Division of Labor: FreeMind, together with the researchers, develop a timeline and an orderly division of responsibilities. This assures a timely completion of tasks and achieves a final product through efficient integration of efforts of all participating consortium members.
Writing and Submission
- Constant Communication: FreeMind maintains email communication with clients on a nearly daily basis and sets team conference calls as needed with the client and/or any other participants in the writing effort. These communications provide a comprehensive update of status, discussing the next stages in the project and troubleshooting any current issues.
- Complete Management of Writing Process: FreeMind assists the researchers through each step of the grant writing process. FreeMind's Grants Writing Consultants manage the completion of each task and provide comprehensive and professional feedback on the research and presentation through a rigorous, iterative process of writing and revision for clear, concise, and comprehensive presentation.
- Large Scale/Multi-Project Application Process Management: The larger and more complex the project is, the more detailed and complex its application will be. Some of the main challenges of putting together such complex applications include the size and complexity of the budget, and more so, the ability to fully justify such large multi-million budget in light of the specific research plan presented. In addition, the number of projects and perspective presented challenge the scientific presentation and the ability to bring different aspects and perspectives in a single and coherent presentation. FreeMind's team has led the process of writing such complex clinical and non-clinical projects, ranging from $10M to over $200M per project, for the most prominent and leading research organizations in the world.
- Professional Review of the Application: Each application is regularly reviewed for both technical and scientific content by FreeMind experts, a senior in-house Scientific Analyst, and by the client.
- Registration and Compilation of Package: FreeMind's Grants Consultants also compile the application package and collect all required technical components. We assist in the construction and analysis of a budget that meets the requirements of the granting institute. Our Consultants also help the client register for electronic submission, and submit the application on time.
Post Submission Process
- Follow-up Process: Following submission, FreeMind takes care of the follow up, including resolution of any immediate post-submission alerts. We also update the client with respect to the date of review, the members of the panel for elimination of conflict of interest, and assist with submission of supplementary data. After the review, we help the clients provide the agency with additional requirements, if necessary. We also review the results and summary statement with the client to determine the best approach for revision.
- Contract Final Negotiation: In relevant projects (mainly research contracts), once an application is approved scientifically, the process of finalizing and approving the award goes through a rigorous negotiation phase. The research proposed and the budget is also re-written several times. Our team is very experienced in this process and will assist until the final approval of the award is achieved.
