ASA Committee Develops Funding Proposal Guidance Document
Statistics may be the foundation of scientific inquiry, but in today’s highly competitive research sector, funding is a critical pillar to advance the scientific process. Recognizing that this challenge is being faced by researchers and scientists
across all disciplines, the ASA Committee on Funded Research developed “Statistical Issues Seen in Non-Statistics Proposals,” a guidance
document to help grant applicants strengthen their proposals and lead to better science.
The document begins with primary statistical issues in nonstatistics proposals, organizing tips, and questions in the following categories:
- Framing the Problem
- Designing the Study/Experiment
- Specifying the Data Analysis Plan
A string of recommendations follows, including distinct suggestions for not only principal investigators, but also funding agencies, biostatisticians, and statistics-related academic departments.
Ming-Wen An, committee chair, and William Christiansen, vice-chair, along with committee members Debashis Ghosh, Sujit Ghosh, Scott Holan, Leslie McClure, Karen Messer, and Cynthia Rudin, collaborated as authors on this piece that began last August
when the committee sought input from the ASA membership.