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 ID Fellowship Virology Lab

1985-1986 Faculty app’t Duke Lab

1986-1988 NIAID Contract ACTUs

1988-2001 PI UNC ACTU

2001-2012 Malawi, South Africa

2012-2022 ????

10 Ways to be # 1

1. Articulate a vision

2. Preach from the top

3. Brag

4. Get rid of deadwood

5. Find the best, the brightest, the hungriest

6. Tear down the barriers

7. Prime the pump

8. Teach them to write

9. Be a team player

10.Listen, learn, don’t give up

# 1 Articulate a vision

• 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 • 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

– 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

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.

References on Writing

# 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)