Examining the effect of a non-attendance fee on writing workshop attendance, grant submission, and success rates among K award applicants

TL;DR

A non-attendance fee increased workshop attendance and may have improved grant success rates for K award applicants.

Contribution

The study introduces a non-attendance fee to improve K award applicants' workshop participation and grant outcomes.

Findings

More participants attended all three workshop sessions after the non-attendance fee was implemented.

There was a statistical trend suggesting improved grant success rates.

Submission rates remained unchanged despite the fee.

Abstract

In 2009, the University of Michigan’s Michigan Institute for Clinical and Health Research developed a three-session K Writing workshop. Beginning in 2016, we implemented a non-attendance fee to encourage attendance across the three sessions. We examined whether this fee improved attendance, increased submission of an NIH K or R grant proposal, and improved success rates. Between 2012 and 2021, 373 participants attended the workshop. After the non-attendance fee was implemented, significantly more participants attended all three sessions of the workshop, and there was a statistical trend suggesting an increase in the success rate, while submission rates remained constant.

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