Writing for Funding

Writing for FundingRWJF | GRC | CAPS

What are you writing for?

Funding for yourself

Funding for a project

Funding for both

Different funding sources have different aspirations for how their money will be spent.

Regardless...

Your first stop should be your department. They will have a built in institutional knowledge that can help you.

Project Funding

Individual research grants

Dissertation improvement grants

Research fellowships

Travel grants for research

@ UNM

Research, Project, and Travel (RPT)

Graduate Research Supplement

Future Faculty Grant

Student Research Allocations Committee (SRAC)

Specialized Travel (ST)

Graduate Research & Development (GRD)

Standard Grants

Title Page

Abstract

Introduction

Literature Review

Project Narrative

Personnel

Budget and Budget Justificiation

Abstract

...we’ve given a presentation on this before in the RWJF/GRC/CAPS partnership

To sum it up: what is your elevator pitch?

Introduction

Set the context for how you will be judged.

What is the problem?

What is the purpose of the research?

What are your goals?

What is the significance of those goals?

Literature Review

This is your chance to show your mastery of the field.

What are key papers of your discipline?

What is the current state of theory?

Literature Review

There will be a future workshop on this by the GRC/CAPS

Basic tip:

Find 10 - 20 top papers in your field (by # of citations)

Find 10-20 recent papers in your field (by date of publication)

Project Narrative

Fancy way to describe the substance of your project

What methods will you be using?

What data will you be collecting?

How will you analyze that data?

Project Narrative

Details, details, details

Give as many specifics as is reasonably possible. Never settle for a general term when a specific example can be used.

Personnel

Who will be working on this?

It’s a given that you will be, but will there be a team? Are there undergraduates helping? Are their community members helping?

Budget

How will you spend their money?

Give itemized budgets

...and justify those budgets. Why do you need $3,000 for a box of iPhones?

Format

The more organization, the better.

Consistent headings

Page numbers

A clear table of contents

Writing

Funding agencies offer funding for specific reasons

How do you tailor your writing to meet their expectations?

Does the organization have a guiding principle?

Do they have a specific focus or history?

What programs have they funded in the past?

Follow The Guidelines

...not just to the letter, but to the font.

Things that can be specific to grants:

Letters of intent

Concept letter

Cover letter

Query letter

Seriously, Follow the Guidelines

Don’t be a word over the limit

Don’t provide additional sections if the grant doesn’t allow it

Seriously, Follow the Guidelines

If you go over the word limit, you are in effect taking extra space that other applicants do not have.

In other words, you will look like you are taking advantage of the process and start with a strike against you in the eyes of the reviewer.

“Why should I fund your proposal?”

Answering this question should be as natural as a practiced elevator pitch.

Phrase it not just in academicese, but with a focus on real-world significance.

3 Basic Questions*

“What are we going to learn as a result of the proposed project that we do not know now?”

“Why is it worth knowing?”

“How will we know that the conclusions are valid?”

*from Prezorski and Salmon (1995)

3 Basic Questions

“What are we going to learn as a result of the proposed project that we do not know now?”

PROBLEM

“Why is it worth knowing?”

SIGNIFICANCE

“How will we know that the conclusions are valid?”

METHOD

Focus on Methods and Objectives

People put money behind specifics, not vague descriptions.

Can you itemize what you are doing? Can you clearly express what you will do in a way that will make sense on a spreadsheet?

Specifics

Don’t say you will do statistical analysis

Say you will use linear modeling and significance tests to assess how the data matches the theory

Don’t say that there is a broad debate in the literature

Identify specific authors and debates that are relevant to your work

Who is your audience?

No one really knows.

But there are some general ideas:

Who is your audience?

Volunteers

Many grant readers are volunteers donating their time.

They also have lots of grants to read.

Who is your audience?

Make sure that you are CLEAR about what you want to do.

Make the reader’s job easy. They will like it and you better.

“So, say what you have to say immediately, crisply, and forcefully.”*

*from Prezorski and Salmon (1995)

Like a Newspaper Article

Think of the first page of a grant proposal as a newspaper.

Who, what, where, when, and why

Other important facts

Background, for interested

readers

Inverted Pyramid

Something to Remember

Think of it as marketing, how do you brand yourself as a researcher?

“She’s the person looking at effective and ineffective HIV prevention strategies.”

“He’s the one who argues that the only feasible long-term US diplomatic strategy in the Middle East involves an embrace of democracy.”

Spell out the end

How will you disseminate results? Published papers? A book?

Share

Work with your peers to strengthen each other’s proposals.

Let it gather dust

Sometimes, the best way to revise a proposal is to step away from it for a few weeks, maybe even a month.

Early Birds

Getting your proposal done early gives you a lot of time to revise it.

Authoritative Voice

If you are asking for money to develop a project, demonstrate that you are a professional

Your mastery of the subject must come before your attempts to add to it.

The cycle of (grant) life

Things that are (almost) Always True

Reviewers are lazy

So if your grant proposal is confusing, circular, and poorly written, things will not go well.

Reviewers are unlikely to spend the time to find the diamonds in the coal mine.

Things that are (almost) Always True

Your research may not start out as a perfect fit for the grant

Can you focus on different elements that make a fit more obvious?

How can you reframe your questions? Are there additional levels of significance that you have not considered?

Things that are (almost) Always True

Your grant, that you have spent months writing, will be assessed in minutes.

How do you stand out?

To make months of work stand out after minutes of attention, you need marketing.

How to Market yourself

What is the most compelling aspect of your research?

What parts of your research are familiar to the general public?

Marketing

If you are looking at the nuances of local government’s response to changing frequencies of natural disasters, tie it into climate change.

If you are looking at how patient-provider outcomes show differential success rates for different ethnicities, tie it to healthcare.

Marketing

At the end of the day, you must meet your grant reviewers on their terms. Since you don’t know who they are, one of the best things you can do is tie your work to a broader concern that they are familiar with.

This is where the significance of your work really starts to come in.

First Page

The first page needs to be your strongest, because the average volunteer will spend the most time on it.

After it’s finished...

Three more basic questions:

Is it compelling?

Is it clear?

Is it feasible?

After it’s finished...

If the answer to those three questions is yes, then you have just made a strong effort to secure the funds needed to move your project forward.

Words to Live By

“It’s not what you say, it’s what they hear.”

- Frank Luntz