The objective of this article was to summarize selected successful grant writing strategies from the perspective of an American public university faculty member. Early sections focused on describing the American public university system aspects that are the background to incentivizing and rewarding successful grant writing. The latter sections focused on examples of resources from the personal to the national level for grant wring. The article concluded with tips for successful grant-writing for junior scientists that are known to work regardless of a particular academic system. The author is a faculty member of one of the first public universities in U.S. and a member of #1 ranked department in U.S. in the area of agricultural and biological engineering. The author had a great opportunity to mentor junior scientists in Poland as a U.S. Fulbright Scholar. This article is a timely contribution to ongoing efforts to reform the Polish university system. Specific solutions dealing with promoting and incentivizing excellence discussed in this article can be a useful input for consideration.