For those kicking off the year with working on grant applications, the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease has posted examples of "exceptional R01 applications in the shorter format," as the institute's blog points out here. The four examples are annotated to point out their "excellent grantsmanship attributes." For example, in the application from the Broad Institute's Carolina Wahlby, the NIAID staff indicates the parts of the significance portion of her research strategy section that gives background information about the project, shows how it relates to her recent work, identifies a gap in the field, and describes how the project is related to human health.
In a comment on the NIAID blog and on his own blog, DrugMonkey says he'd also like to see examples of good applications that were not funded. "My bet is that they could have easily put up a few selected near-miss applications and similarly noted ... the excellent grantsmithing," DrugMonkey writes at his blog. "Similarly, you can go through these awEsomeZ! applications and find sections that violate fairly basic grantwriting advice."