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Grants Tips and Links | |||||||||||||||||
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| 1. | Know your fund! | ||||||||||||||||||
Before you start writing,
spend some time researching the grant making body and its mission. Make
sure your application addresses the objectives of the agency or foundation
and explain how funding your project will contribute towards them. |
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| 2. | Know your reviewers | ||||||||||||||||||
| Many agencies publish details
of the review groups for their grants – try to identify the relevant
team for your application and research the background of the reviewers.
If they are experts in your field, make sure you reference their work
– hell hath no fury like a reviewer snubbed! |
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| 3. | Research the review process | ||||||||||||||||||
| Most funds publish their
review criteria and other instructions to the reviewers. Make their job
easier by providing direct answers to the questions they must ask. For
instance one NIH grant criteria is Significance and the reviewers’
instructions ask: Does this study address an important problem? Ensure
your application states “this study addresses the important problem
of…..” Naturally you must justify why it is important. |
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| 4. | Contact the grant agency staff before you start | ||||||||||||||||||
| Most agencies publish point
of contact information and welcome early communication. These people can
provide highly valuable information and suggestions, such as interest
levels in your type of proposal and modifications you might consider that
make it more relevant and attractive to their aims. |
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| 5. | Planning – an underestimated tool! | ||||||||||||||||||
| Good planning is essential
for a top quality application. The more time you invest in planning and
thinking through your project plan, the better you can present it. Consider
all the risks and pitfalls involved in advance and state how you will
address them. Identify where partnerships may be helpful and negotiate
with potential collaborators now so you can include them in the grant
application. Good planning requires you to start preparation early –
this allows more time for review and feedback on your plan and then your
draft application. Planning is also crucial to your writing – first
identify your desired conclusions and plan a logical “story”
that arrives at them. Writing the text is really the final step. |
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| 6. | Don’t write in isolation! | ||||||||||||||||||
| Find others in your field
willing to review your drafts and give you feedback. Ideally seek out
successful grantees and ex-reviewers who know what is required in a successful
proposal. Grantee and reviewer information is often available from the
agency/fund. |
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| 7. | Read the application form instructions at least twice! | ||||||||||||||||||
| The instructions have been
carefully prepared so reviewers can easily find the information they need
in the format they want. Follow these instructions carefully or risk rejection
for annoying them. |
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| 8. | Prioritize presentation over word volume | ||||||||||||||||||
| Where page limits apply
it is often tempting to cram in all the data you can to make your case
– resist this temptation! A wall of text is not just ugly; it buries
your important points and diminishes the impact. It also makes it near
impossible to locate information when looking back later. Instead use
frequent paragraph breaks and bold subtitles to present the salient points
clearly and obviously. Careful use of diagrams and images also aids understanding
and breaks textual monotony. |
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| 9. | Wise up to page limits | ||||||||||||||||||
| Identify sections of the grant application that can be moved into non-page-limited sections (e.g. Lengthy details of key person’s experience can often be related in the budget justification for their salary). | |||||||||||||||||||
| 10. | Use plain English! | ||||||||||||||||||
Avoid using technical jargon as much as possible as it limits comprehension of your proposal to a select group – you could be excluding the key decision maker. Abbreviations are acceptable if given in full when they first occur (if you use a lot of them, provide an index). Most importantly, don’t use unnecessarily complicated language and long, poorly punctuated sentences. Make your points clearly and concisely and they will be recalled with ease.
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| Grant funds: | For
advice and assistance in applying
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| There are many useful grant writing resources available on the internet. Below is a selection to get started: American/European Israeli/bi-national
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| Grant writing | |||||||||||||||||||
| 10
common elements of winning proposals |
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