Grants Program Analysis Working Group [Call, January 21, 2020]
The Grants Program Analysis Working Group recently held its bimonthly call to discuss the status of current projects and upcoming goals. We had a very productive call, and wanted to take a moment to share with you a brief recap, for your interest (and to encourage you to get involved, if you like any of the topics noted below!)
Here are few highlights from the call:
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- Tools Subgroup Update: The Tools Subgroup co-chairs, Heather Calderone and Hongxia Hu, are working to create a toolkit for the membership that will detail available tools and how they can best be implemented to conduct an effective program analysis. To create the toolkit, they will be seeking input from the membership to learn more about the tools that we are all using. The results of this survey will inform the creation of the toolkit, so we encourage everyone to respond!
- CALL TO ACTION: Please respond to the upcoming survey distributed by the Tools subgroup. If you have any other feedback, recommendations, or suggestions, please contact Heather (hcalderone [at] abta [dot] org) and Hongxia (Hongxia.hu[at]aacr[dot]org).
- Platform Analysis Infographic: As mentioned on the previous call, Jackie Hausman and the Platform-based Analysis subgroup, with the help of HRA Intern Colbie Chinowsky, have created a very informative comparison graph to show the available features, cost, and benefits of various Platforms for program analysis. The infographic is available in the GPA WG folder on Google Drive. We encourage everyone to share their feedback on this infographic so we can finalize the content and post to the HRA Website.
- CALL TO ACTION: Please take a look at the graph and share any thoughts/edits with Jackie Hausman (jackie.hausman[at]krfoundation[dot]org).
- Survey-based Evaluation: Jenna Koschnitsky needs your feedback! She is continuing to compile survey templates used by HRA Members to evaluate the impact of their programs. She has obtained several so far, but she is looking to amass roughly 30 surveys to obtain a more comprehensive look at what types of information can be garnered from these surveys. In the interim, this subgroup will plan to review progress report templates available on the HRA website (on the Members’ Only page) as well as survey examples from the NIH to gain a better understanding of the types of questions that are most commonly asked. To that end, Maryrose suggested that perhaps an intern could assist with this project; we will review the progress made by the group again in a few months and determine whether an intern is needed.
- CALL TO ACTION: Please submit your surveys, if you haven’t already done so, to Jenna (research[at]hydroassoc[dot]org). Likewise, if you have an interest in helping to pull this information together, please join this subgroup!
- GPA Working Group Breakout Session – Spring Members’ Meeting: The GPA Working Group will host a breakout session at the upcoming Members’ Meeting in Irvine, CA (March 30-31, 2020, hosted by the Arnold and Mabel Beckman Foundation). This breakout, scheduled to follow a main session focused on Program Evaluation, will feature a hands-on demonstration of how HRA Analyzer can be used to evaluate the impact of your specific program. Attendees will be encouraged to come to the breakout with specific questions they would like to see answered from their dataset (which should be in HRA Analyzer, if we’ve all entered our data 😉). Then we will have a few group leaders to guide the group through use of the platform to answer these specific questions. The ultimate goal of this breakout is for the attendees to work together to learn how to use Analyzer to evaluate a real-world dataset.
- CALL TO ACTION: We are seeking volunteers to help out with the breakout session! If you have experience using HRA Analyzer, and would be willing to help lead the session, please contact Shannon (shannon.gallagher[at]aacr[dot]org) and Maneesh (mkumar[at]bcrf[dot]org). PSA On Volunteering – Please don’t be shy! No one is expected to be an expert, quite the opposite. We’re all going to learn how to use this platform together, so seeing stumbling blocks will be just as important as seeing the fancy analysis tools and tricks!
- Tools Subgroup Update: The Tools Subgroup co-chairs, Heather Calderone and Hongxia Hu, are working to create a toolkit for the membership that will detail available tools and how they can best be implemented to conduct an effective program analysis. To create the toolkit, they will be seeking input from the membership to learn more about the tools that we are all using. The results of this survey will inform the creation of the toolkit, so we encourage everyone to respond!
Thanks again to everyone who was able to join last week’s call. We encourage the subgroups to continue to connect outside of the main group calls, as needed. In addition, we encourage everyone to focus on the calls to action above, and let us know of any thoughts/feedback you may have. We look forward to our continued progress together!
Best regards,
Shannon and Maneesh