By Anoop Shah, GPRD Division, MHRA, UK, University College London, London, UK

This year's ICPE included two educational sessions specifically for students: 'Writing grant proposals that get funded' by Brian Strom, FISPE, and 'How NOT to give a scientific presentation' by Thomas MacDonald, FISPE.

Writing grant proposals that get funded

Student Skills Workshop Faculty

Proposals are scored based on the importance of the research question, the quality and innovation of the method, whether the investigator is sufficiently trained and supervised, and whether the institution is capable of carrying out the proposed type of study. The aims should be specific and answerable by the proposed methodology. The method should include the calculation of sample size (with the results of a pilot study where necessary), detailed logistics and costing, potential limitations and solutions to those limitations. Many proposals receive a critical report and are not accepted the first time around, but applicants can re-submit to a maximum of three times. Proposals are never rejected solely on grounds of excessive cost; instead it may be accepted but the allocation of resources may be reduced if the estimate is thought to be too generous.

How NOT to give a scientific presentation

Thomas MacDonald started off the session on presentation technique with an amusing demonstration of a poor presentation, during which he tripped up on the way to stage, could not get the projector to work, read from complicated slides and drowned us in unintelligible science. He pointed out the deliberate faults in his presentation and then gave us a set of guidelines to help us present our message effectively and maintain the interest of our audience.

He showed us how a series of simple diagrams may be used to illustrate a difficult concept, and how images can be very powerful in conveying certain ideas. He advised us to look at the audience and aim our speech towards specific people in the audience, but not to maintain eye contact with any particular person for too long. Text slides should have a small amount of large, clear text with good contrast against the background. Graphs should be clear and simple, and attention should be given to details such as the legend and titles for the axes.

Finally, he talked a little about the use of humor. There is usually not enough time to use humor effectively in a short scientific presentation, but it is very useful for keeping the audience awake during long lectures! His advice was that a set of three humorous slides on a similar theme, spread through the presentation, often works very well, but an excessive number of funny slides can bore the audience.

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