Research Proposals

[brose2014]

Hi Everyone--

I'm starting to write more and more proposals for research funding. Although similar to the thesis proposals we write for our departments-- funding proposals are a very different animal... Currently I am in the process of writing one for a critical languages grant and starting wondering "how does everyone else do this?" My university is offering a short course on proposal writing in May but that obviously is not helping me now... This is my second Masters-- and the other students in my program (of which I am in the first cohort) are either not interested or don't seem to have a clue about the process of funding for internships, research or fieldwork.

So here's my question... if you have experienced this "joyous" process of selling yourself and research interests on paper to convince a funding committee to sponsor your work with their finances... what has been the challenges, how have your approached this type of writing, and can you recommend any resources?Also- how successful were your applications and what items (besides the similar research interests between your work and the funding sponsor) do you think advanced your application?

Thanks and looking forward to your insights!

[purpledinosaur]

This: http://www.phdcomics.com/comics/archive.php?comicid=1431

The toughest part about writing grant proposals, in my extremely limited experience, is that basically most of the research has to be done already in order to effectively write the grant.

[msafiri]

There is a great "Art of Proposal Writing" document available from the SSRC that may help you. Basically, you want to make sure that you convey your project clearly to your audience (which means knowing whether you're writing for specialists or generalists in your area, or even if you're writing for people with very different academic backgrounds), that your language is intelligible even to a non-specialist, and that you follow their guidelines. Lots of applications get thrown out for being too long, using the wrong font, not including something that's required, etc. Make sure you tell them why you/your project are a good fit for their program.

As for success rates, that varies. I've gotten almost every grant I've applied for as a graduate student, with the exception of three (two of which are rejections from the same program twice), which is pretty good since I've applied for at least 10 things.

[dapper]

Im starting my MSc work this week coming and the first thing my supervisor is starting me working on is an application/proposal for an internship. I really have no idea where to start...kind of worried really....eek

[Elimba]

This: ------

The toughest part about writing grant proposals, in my extremely limited experience, is that basically most of the research has to be done already in order to effectively write the grant.

Sorry, but I strongly disagree with this statement. In fact, it is exactly the opposite.

You are asking for a grant to conduct future research with the plan described in your proposal.

Of course, the applicant needs to give the assurance in his proposal that he/she is in the capacity

to do so. This is where the background comes into play.

By the way, you do not "write a grant" but you "write a proposal" to "receive a grant"

There are a number of excellent articles about writing a winning proposal here:

(bottom of right column, blue text): http://bit.ly/IH9Wmn

Good luck !

Edited May 1, 2012 by Elimba