Mike Gallo, Director, Research Development of the University of California, Irvine joins Traci on today’s podcast. Mike’s role at UCI is strategic in nature and he helps principal investigators (PIs) vet proposals that are likely to get funded. Mike discusses how competitive the research field has become now with limited availability of funds combined with the growing number of research institutions and funds have decreased significantly due to lack of increase of funding despite the increase in inflation. Mike explains what it is that PIs need to understand to be successful at winning grant proposals and get funded as well as what research institutes need to understand to bring in more funding.