I think that people are scared to call, or they don't know that they can call. They think maybe there's a conflict of interest, or something like that. I think that people just don't know. When I applied for my first grant, I didn't have a clue. I filled out the form, I sent it in. I didn't know what happened to it. I got it back. I still, even during the course of having that grant, only contacted someone at the NIH twice.

And that's not the way to do things. The right way to do things is to call early, and call often. The program officer or the program official at the institute, is the person who really can help you with the grant along the way.

Persistence is very important. We are scientists and administrators, and that also means that we have not only to field calls from prospective grantees, but also we have a portfolio of current grantees. And the number of current grantees that each PO actually has can vary from, you know, a few to over a hundred. So, in addition to the meetings that we have, and everything else, sometimes it's hard to get to every phone call, or get to every e-mail, every day.

But, generally, I'd say most POs are very good about responding. If you haven't heard from us, be sure to e-mail again. We also have fairly tight security on our e-mail at NIH, so sometimes it may get filtered if it looks like spam. So, persistence is key.