Chapter 131: Chapter 128: Dean Liu’s Friendly Overture
"Thank you for coming to guide me despite your busy schedule, Dean Liu."
Wu Ting offered a polite, formal thanks—neither too familiar nor too distant.
An old fox like Dean Liu didn’t mind Wu Ting’s perfunctory response at all. He had come this time precisely to express his stance: to show Wu Ting his goodwill and support.
"Come now, Wu Ting, have a seat. I’ll explain everything in detail and offer some guidance and suggestions."
Dean Liu called Wu Ting over to sit beside him and even personally poured him a cup of tea.
"According to our country’s National Natural Science Foundation guidelines, there are three main types of grants: the General Program, the Young Scientists Fund, and the Regional Science Fund."
"The General Program, also known as a standard project, is distinct from the Foundation’s Key or Major Research Projects. It’s open to all researchers, but they must independently choose a topic that falls within the National Natural Science Foundation’s funding scope."
"The requirements for the General Program are quite high. They require at least three to five published papers, so I don’t recommend you apply for it."
"As for the Regional Science Fund, the research can’t involve more than two institutions, and our research center clearly doesn’t meet that criterion."
"Therefore, I suggest you apply for the Young Scientists Fund."
"For the Young Scientists Fund, male applicants must be under the age of 35 as of January 1st of the application year. Furthermore, you only need two to five relevant publications."
"As the principal investigator, with recommendations from Professor Ma Mengchao, Professor Shen Guofeng, and Professor Jin Yu, you completely meet all the qualifications."
"Based on the project budget, you can expect to receive about 240,000 yuan in funding. As for matching funds, our hospital will support you with a 1:1 match."
...
Dean Liu explained everything without holding back; he was truly an expert in this area.
Wu Ting found it immensely helpful.
"Given your current progress, you can start preparing. For the Young Scientists Fund, the most important part is, of course, writing the proposal."
"The Foundation’s selection process is divided into an online peer review and a final panel review."
"The General, Youth, and Regional programs share an expert panel, while the Excellent Young Scientists Fund has its own separate panel. With your current qualifications, you’re not yet eligible for the ’Excellent Youth’ grant, and the ’Distinguished Youth’ grant is even further off... We can talk about that after you’ve obtained a senior professional title or a doctorate..."
Dean Liu mentioned the Excellent and Distinguished Youth grants to give Wu Ting continued motivation. With his talent, it was only a matter of time.
However, given Wu Ting’s current experience and age, securing the Young Scientists Fund would already be a remarkable achievement! He couldn’t afford to get ahead of himself.
"Each expert panel consists of 16 specialists who are responsible for about a dozen different fields."
"The Foundation’s online review is conducted by field. Proposals within the same field are divided into several groups, and each group is sent to the same batch of experts for review."
"So, choosing the right field is crucial. During the final panel review stage, the competition is also within the same field. There’s basically no competition between different fields."
"I’ve also looked at your project’s content and researched the funding situation for the Young Scientists Fund in our Medical Science Department for the past two years. I suggest you choose the field of National Medicine, Integrated National and Modern Medicine, or Traditional Chinese Pharmacology."
"This field has relatively less competition but is highly valued. Your Daytime Laparoscopic Cholecystectomy, which innovatively combines National and modern medicine and incorporates indocyanine green fluorescence laparoscopy, fits this field perfectly."
Dean Liu had really put in the hard work for Wu Ting’s sake.
Wu Ting was deeply grateful for his efforts.
"All proposals will be automatically graded based on the online review feedback. Each review’s recommendation—like ’Fund’ or ’Do Not Fund’—is assigned a point value. For example, ’Priority Funding’ gets 4 points, ’Fund’ gets a score, and ’Do Not Fund’ gets -3 points. Finally, a formula automatically calculates the total score for each proposal..."
"Proposals ranked in the top 12% are Class A, from 12% to 35% are Class B, and the rest are Class C. According to the rules from previous years, you need to be at least in the upper tier of Class B to have a chance. Class A projects are guaranteed funding. So, your proposal is absolutely critical!"
"Once you’re selected for the panel review, your chances actually increase significantly. In the panel review, the lead reviewer has a lot of power, and Professor Ma is a leader in the Foundation...."
"So, Wu Ting, my advice is to form a small team specifically responsible for writing the proposal. I’ll personally serve as your advisor. Once you have a draft, send it to Professor Ma for his review, and you should be golden."
Dean Liu gave a few more instructions and offered some words of encouragement before leaving.
After watching Dean Liu leave, Huo Yun quickly closed the door and said to Wu Ting:
"Well, I’ll be. The sun must’ve risen in the west. Dean Liu has never gotten along with Dean Tang. Normally, if Dean Tang supports something, we’re lucky if Dean Liu doesn’t try to shut it down. But here he is, coming to our department, helping you analyze the grant application, and even offering to be your team’s expert advisor."
"Tsk tsk tsk."
Huo Yun stared at Wu Ting and teased him deliberately:
"It seems our department’s Dr. Wu has some extraordinary charm. Even Dean Liu was willing to swallow his pride and take the initiative to show you favor!"
"It seems your performance over this period has completely won Dean Liu over. From now on at City First Hospital, with both Dean Liu and Dean Tang looking out for you, your career path is going to be smooth sailing."
Huo Yun was naturally happy for Wu Ting.
Huo Yun then shared some gossip with Wu Ting about Dean Liu and Dean Tang’s past.
Back in the day, Dean Tang and Dean Liu were brilliant rivals. Dean Liu worked his way up step-by-step within City First Hospital, while Dean Tang was brought in as recruited talent.
At the time, they were both the youngest associate chief physicians in their respective departments, just like Jiang Ming is now.
They both pursued the old dean’s daughter at the same time, but in the end, it was Dean Tang who won the lady’s heart.
And after that, they started competing again, this time for the deanship. They’ve always been neck and neck, but this time, it seems Dean Tang has a slight edge once again.
Huo Yun looked at Wu Ting with a playful glint in his eye:
"Wu Ting, just take those old stories with a grain of salt. But Dean Liu’s suggestion to form a team just for writing the proposal is definitely necessary."
"The final proposal will be different from our earlier draft. You need to pay attention to every single detail."
"Besides ensuring the innovative aspects don’t overlap with other literature, the journal where the project’s papers are published also matters a lot. Then there’s the completeness of the content, like the technical roadmap, feasibility analysis, and so on..."
"Many grant applicants have a strong foundation and a popular research topic, but their proposals aren’t written rigorously enough. They lose points for missing necessary components, especially a non-detailed technical roadmap or an unsubstantiated feasibility analysis. Those are fatal flaws."
"So, you have to be thorough with these sections. Include more actual case materials, collect more data..."
After his analysis, Huo Yun patted Wu Ting’s shoulder.
"From now on, your most important tasks are, one, getting the related research papers for the project published, and two, writing the proposal. Didn’t our research center just get two PhD students? You should talk with them. PhDs from Jiuhua Hospital and Jinggang University Affiliated First Hospital are top-tier in this country when it comes to this stuff!"
"If you have the two of them helping you write it, plus Dean Liu and Professor Ma checking it over for you afterward, it’ll be a sure thing!"
Wu Ting’s eyes lit up. ’Swapping Cheng Feng for Ling Ling and Yan Xi... that really is like trading a bicycle for a motorcycle!’
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