Hanover Research

Office of the Vice Provost for Research

Collaboration with Hanover Research

East Tennessee State University is partnering with Hanover Research to offer grant support services to our faculty members. Hanover offers assistance in reviewing and revising research proposals, focusing on aligning them with funders' requirements, ensuring responsiveness to the solicitation, enhancing competitiveness, and refining general grantsmanship skills.

Our partnership includes three primary services: 1) access to Hanover Research resources (see below); 2) grant-related live trainings; and 3) proposal reviews.

Resources

Grants Learning Center:   (email OVPR for referral code) Hanover’s Grants Learning Center offers on-demand grantsmanship training designed specifically for higher education professionals. Online training, resources, and tools can be accessed at any time from anywhere.

Grants Alerts and Funding Calendars:   Sign up for weekly grant alerts, monthly webinars, and monthly funding calendars that will be delivered directly to your inbox.

The Grant Rant Podcast:   If you prefer to get your grants news by podcast, you can download episodes of Hanover's Grant Rant podcast. Recent episodes include how to write good aims and objectives, a series on navigating the NIH, and the importance of preliminary data in grantseeking.

In addition to the resources described above, ETSU has limited access to HR Digital, Hanover’s online collection of webinars, grants calendars, toolkits, trainings, and funding data.  If you would like to have access to HR Digital, please contact Nick Hagemeier (hagemeier@etsu.edu) and your Associate Dean for Research.

Hanover Research Training Series

The 2025 training events will take place in Culp 219 on February 7th, March 7th, and April 11th from 12:00-1:00pm. More information to come. 

Please use the following links to view the video recordings and slides from the fall series.These links are for members of the ETSU community. 

Trailblazer Series: Academic Writing versus Grant Writing Webinar

Trailblazer Series: Life After the R15

Trailblazer Series: Grantseeking in the Social and Behavioral Sciences

Proposal Review Services

The OVPR has contracted with Hanover Research to provide a limited number of proposal reviews over the next 12 months. Proposal review services include a teleconference to discuss the draft prior to Hanover review, review of the proposal for narrative alignment with the funding opportunity announcement, specific recommendations using margin comments, a memo outlining high-level recommendations, and a teleconference debrief. To be considered for this program, please submit a request at this link.  To maximize the benefits of the review services, requests should be submitted at least four weeks before the proposal submission deadline.

Frequently Asked Questions

  • Who is eligible?
    To be eligible for Hanover's services, the PI must be a faculty member at East Tennessee State University. The program also accepts requests to support grant proposals that are being developed by postdoctoral scholars who are actively mentored by an ETSU faculty member. In these circumstances, the faculty mentor must submit the Hanover Request Form on behalf of the postdoctoral scholar. The faculty mentor will be included in Hanover's communications with the mentee and will be encourages to participate in scheduled discussions with Hanover's assigned grants consultant.
  • What types of funding sources are considered?
    All funding sources will be considered.
  • What type of proposals are appropriate for Hanover to critique?
    Hanover Research has the expertise to review a wide range of proposals from individual grants (e.g. K, R01, R21, R03) to program project, center, and institutional training grants. Hanover Research will work with new submissions, resubmission proposals, and competing renewal applications. For resubmissions of unfunded proposals and competing renewal applications, PIs will be asked to provide a copy of the original submission along with reviewers' comments (e.g., summary statement). 
  • Is there a fee associated with using Hanover's grant consultation services?
    No, Hanover's service are supported by the Office of the Vice Provost for Research. 
  • Do I need to have the full grant completed for the internal review?
    Investigators must submit the grant's specific aims, research strategy and budget. For resubmissions of unfunded proposals and competing renewal applications, investigators will also be asked to provide a copy of the original submission along with reviewers' comments (e.g., summary statement). 
  • How are the projects selected for the Hanover queue?
    OVPR manages the pipeline of applications submitted for Hanover Research reviews. Several factors are taken into consideration when evaluating projects for Hanover Research, including but not limited to the faculty member's willingness to share proposal materials and honor agreed-upon deadlines, the completeness of proposal documents, sponsor deadlines, and current pipeline capacity. Every effort is made to accommodate all grant requests for Hanover services, but there is an overall limitation on the number of projects they can review. Some projects may be referred to other internal grant writing support offerings due to this limitation as well as finding the right mechanism of support to give investigators the best chance for submitting a grant that is funded.
  • How does Hanover work with each PI?
    After a PI project is accepted in Hanover Research's pipeline, Hanover Research emails the PI to introduce the assigned grants consultant. Consultation sessions are generally one hour in length and take place via conference call. For proposal review and revision services, Hanover Research first schedules a project initiation conference call prior to the start of work. Project initiation calls give the PI an opportunity to discuss specific areas of concern with the assigned grants consultant and to share reviewer feedback (if available). After Hanover releases its deliverables, the PI is afforded the opportunity for a debrief conference call to discuss Hanover's critique and to address any outstanding questions or concern.
  • How does Hanover protect the confidentiality of investigator materials?
    Any proposal materials that an investigator shares with Hanover remain confidential. Materials will only be shared with the Hanover content director and the single consultant working on their proposal. 
  • What parts of a research proposal will Hanover critique?
    Hanover's proposal critiques focus on the narrative components of research proposals - namely the specific aims page, research strategy, and (for resubmissions) the introduction. For resubmission proposals, the PI should be prepared to provide a copy of the unfunded proposal along with reviewer feedback. 
  • Will Hanover be reviewing the underlying science/scientific merit of my proposal?

    Hanover makes no claim that its grants consultants are subject matter experts who can evaluate the specific science underpinning a research proposal. Rather, Hanover's value lies in its understanding of proposal and agency nuances that can help investigators competitively reframe cohesion in the grant narrative and to align the proposal with funding requirements. A Hanover grant consultant may address general specific elements of a proposal, such as:

    • Construct or structure of the hypothesis and methodolgy: While Hanover does not purport to provide "scientific reviews" that evaluate the specific science underpinning proposals, its grants consultants will flag where they think research questions, aims, and hypotheses could be strengthened and better aligned. 
    • Literature review: Hanover grants consultants will note places where a citation is needed and has not been included. 
    • Clarity and focus: When Hanover suspects that narrative content lacks sufficient clarity, consistency, or rigor, Hanover grants consultants will pose questions to encourage the investigator to verify the science, and/or suggest a review by a senior colleague or program officer. 
  • Does Hanover have experience with a wide range of funders?

    Yes, Hanover has experience with many federal, private, and nonprofit funders. Representative funders include the NIH, NSF, DOD, PCORI, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

  • Who do I contact if I have additional questions?

    Further questions may be directed to hagemeier@etsu.edu.