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My top 5 tips before start writing your next research grant proposal
– Start early and don’t just start writing
You have a great idea and a grant funding round is coming up again. You feel like just opening up a word document, copy paste the application template and start writing. I don’t think this is a good approach. I’ve done it this way several times myself, but i always regretted it. A few days before the deadline I was trying hastily to tidy up what seemed to be an intangible mess of great ideas, outputs, outcomes, impact, benefits. Nagging comments from internal reviewers, who told me the whole thing is non-sense anyway, whispered in the back of my head. I learned… Now before grant writing comes around, I do a few things, which helps me to start writing from a clear mindset and very strategic place.
I tried to condense them into 5 tips:
1. Start with the problem and define the narrative – 4-5 whys or what will do
What do I mean by that? Pretty much always the obvious problem has several layers below and above. It is just part of an overall larger narrative. Let me illustrate this with an example. A company manufacturing equipment for the electricity sector is approaching you. They want to develop a new sensor solution for their product. Your partners tells you, that the problem is that current system is not selling. Customers tell them it is just too expensive because of this and this …. My first instinct was just to dive in, dissect the sensor and propose a better solution. This is pretty much the last thing, you want to do…. Firstly you need to get right, “Why do they want this?” Client: “Oh, our customers tell us that they need a solution which is cheaper. They monitor just a few of our products at the moment but need to know more….”
2. Throw your ideas around – they will get better
Often grant writing starts out with a basic idea how to solve a problem. After definition, I usually write the narrative and a few sentences down to have a starting point. Next question I am asking myself is if there is a simpler solution. If yes, I explore that route or find reasons why it won’t work. Then I do some research how novel the idea is and write my findings down.
3. Read all documents relevant to the grant – meticulously
If you don’t understand, what they want and why, you can’t address why your research should be funded. A research grant is a sales pitch. You sell a promise and a vehicle how to get your “customer” from the current to the desired state. Therefore, you need to listen.
Government organisation put a lot of effort into designing a system, which helps choosing the right research. They try to support major overarching goals of the current government. A good request for proposal (RfP) tells you which documents you need to read. They don’t want to waste your time by listing all these documents. What they want is the right understanding and right mindset to align your research with these major goals.
4. Plan–use basic project management skills
Now you have your narrative, a great idea and know what the grant structure looks like. Rest is easy, isn’t it? In principle yes. But one thing I saw too often done wrong is this next step, simple planning. The great thing about grants is that they have a very clear structure and often a timeline. They tell you deadlines, sections you have write, who to involve and even how many words you can use. What I don’t get is, why most people don’t plan and execute this like any other project.
5. Think about what they need not what you want – who and what
So now everything is clear, and you can go ahead, pull out that template and write; not quite yet. You need to be clear what the purpose of writing is in the first place, and what it means for you. The purpose of writing is persuading the reader to do or feel something. To share knowledge, immerse in other worlds, transport information, express your opinion etc. is all part of that. But in the end there is always something you want your reader to do.