Project 6 Grant Writing Tips ISI Engl317

grant writing

©Karen L. Thompson● Department of English● University of Idaho

1. What funding agencies want your proposal to answer.

2. Preliminary work: why you need to do it before writing.

3. IRB Warning

4. Typical Pages and Sections of a Grant Proposal.

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Funding Agencieswill need your grant proposal to answer these questions.

How much money do you want?

Why should we give it to you?

What will you do with it?

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Grant WritingTIPS

The first and most important

thing to do is to read the

advice and instructions in the

Request for Proposals offered

by the funding agency.

The second most important

thing is to construct an

argument by making a case

for why you should receive

funding to do your research

or implement your project.

Next, do the preliminary work

necessary to show you do, in

fact, have good idea.

Your preliminary work will be part of the case you make. It is the evidence your idea is worth funding.

You won’t get funding unless you can make this case.

It is no good saying "give me the money and I will start thinking about how to test this hypothesis, answer this question, solve this problem, or meet this need.“

You need an idea.

It needs to be an idea that worth funding.

It needs to be an idea that you can do.

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Preliminary Research is Necessary.

Conduct Preliminary Research

The most common reason

students earn low grades on

this project is not conducting

preliminary research or not

doing enough of it.

Use the preliminary research

handout to identify what

type of preliminary research

you need to conduct based

on your grant idea.

Getting a grant idea is just a start.

Conducting preliminary research

will help you determine how

feasible it is for you to propose

and will help you refine and focus

your idea.

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Types of Preliminary Work

Not all of this work will be needed.

It depends on the focus of your research or project.

If your idea changes as you do the preliminary work, that’s fine.

• situate your idea.

If you are proposing to

conduct research to

advance your own

knowledge and abilities, you

won’t be situating your idea

within the context of others.

But, you will need to explain

why funding your research

project will be of benefit to

you. And the benefit must

be in terms of how the work

will prepare you for future

work in your field of study.

If you are proposing to

conduct field, bench, or

investigative research, you

need to situate your work

within the context of others.

Be realistic. You can situate

your work within the context

of other undergraduate

work.

If you are proposing a

creative or other hands-on

project, identify similar

projects. Finding a similar

model will help you address

any questions about

feasibility the funding

agency might have.

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• identify subject matter experts

and/or stakeholders.

Take notes to help you

synthesize responses in

ways that will help you

situate your proposed work.

This work involves critically

thinking about those who

have an economic, political,

social, cultural, or other

interest in the research or

project focus of your

proposal.

Set up one or more

interviews and prepare for

these by writing down the

questions you want to ask.

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• Find a framework.

What principles or theories

can you apply as a

framework to support

qualitative and/or

quantitative methods you

intend to propose such as

tests, experiences, field

studies, surveys etc.?

• Identify facilities.

Will you need access to a

lab and equipment to

conduct a test or

experiment? Find out who

has the authority to grant

permission for use of these

facilities.

Determine any costs you

will need to budget for in

order to use the facilities.

If you will be granted free

access, it still is necessary

to identify who is

contributing this access to

your project.

• Determine costs of

materials.

What materials will you need

to do the research or project?

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• Identify a partnership

need and determine

feasibility of the

partnership..

What principles or theories

can you apply as a

framework to support

qualitative and/or

quantitative methods you

intend to propose such as

tests, experiences, field

studies, surveys etc.?

• Identify facilities.

Will you need access to a

lab and equipment to

conduct a test or

experiment? Find out who

has the authority to grant

permission for use of these

facilities.

Determine any costs you

will need to budget for in

order to use the facilities.

If you will be granted free

access, it still is necessary

to identify who is

contributing this access to

your project.

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If you are proposing to use humans or animals in your research:

WARNING

By law, you must obtain

approval from an

Institutional Review Board.

The IRB is responsible to formulate

and implement procedures to assure

compliance with federal, state and

institutional regulations for the

safeguarding of the welfare and well-

being (physical, mental, social, legal,

etc.) of human and animal subjects

involved in research projects.

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For this project, you will not need approval from an IRB.

Warning continued

Most of the time, this is

just plain common sense.

You will, however, need to

demonstrate you that your proposal

would be in compliance with the

ethical guidelines for working with

humans and animal subjects in

research.

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Example: Blind Taste Test

Warning continued

If you have concerns about

the ethics of your proposal,

just ask me for help.

You cannot just propose to conduct a

blind taste test to compare how

participants respond to the taste of

cheese made from raw milk vs.

cheese made from pasteurized milk.

First, raw milk is illegal in some states.

Second, it is subject to licensing and

regulation, so your proposed research

would need to not only inform

participants about what they are

tasting but also demonstrate that you

are using a licensed product.

writing your

grant proposal

©Karen L. Thompson● Department of English● University of Idaho

The following slides cover typical pages and sections of Grant Proposals.

Use the advice, but you may need to adapt it given the RFP you choose.

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Title or Cover Page

Proposal Title

Write a title that conveys

what the proposal is

about.

Be specific.

Example:

Overwintering of Blue

Spruce, a Proposal to

Improve Survival Rates

Using a New Type of

Container.

Other Elements of a Title or Cover Page

Name of proposer and date of submission.

If the funding agency provides a cover page form, it

may contain many other items such as a checklist

about the proposal’s compliance in any number of

areas, and signatures etc.

Typical Pages and Sections of Grant Proposals

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You may envision your proposal as

being completed by you alone or with

team members. If the latter, fill out the

team member section.

Fill out the section about your

Academic Advisor. You may use me for

the Project Advisor or another faculty

member.

You will not need to sign the form. You

will not need signatures from an

academic advisor or a project advisor.

Example of a Cover Sheet

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Active or Passive Voice?

Writing a Grant Proposal

Active Voice: often reviewers prefer

active voice to see what you will be taking

responsibility for, and what you will be

doing with the assistance of others, so

using active voice helps you do that.

Example:

• I will gather and analyze data using a

statistical model devised by a graduate

student in our research group.

Active voice shows reviewers the balance

between what you are doing

independently and what you are doing

that relies on the work of others.

Passive voice: often preferred when

the emphasis should be on what will be

done and not who will do it.

Example:

• DNA will be collected and subjected

to both STR and AMpFLP analysis.

• A pre-survey will be conducted to

measure participants understanding

of the role wildfire plays in the

ecosystem.

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Abstract

Abstracts are:

Short summaries that

condense the proposal

into it’s most significant

elements.

Length or Word Count.

The RFP will usually specify the length. Most are

between 150 and 250 words.

How you write the abstract for this project is governed

by the level of research you are proposing.


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Abstract for a mid to high-level research proposal.

What to include:

Context of your work,

specific problem,

hypothesis, central

research question, or

need that your work

addresses, the objectives

of this work, and a brief

overview of how you will

do it (i.e. methods).

Situate Your Work in the Context of Others

Your abstract needs to situate your work within the

context of current research being done by others in

order to show how you plan to advance, challenge, or

fill an existing gap in this research.

If you do not provide this context, reviewers will reject

your proposal because it will look like you have no idea

what you are doing.


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Abstract to advance your knowledge.

What to include:

Specific central research

question your work

addresses, the objectives

of this work, and a brief

overview of how you will

do it (i.e. methods).

Make this purpose clear.

Be specific and direct. Not making the purpose clear

may put you in the position of being viewed as

proposing a mid to high-level research project.

Reviewers will then expect you to situate your work

within the context of others. But, if you are proposing

to do work to advance your own knowledge, you do not

need to situate your work in that way.


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Executive Summary

Not always requested.

Most common to

engineering RFPs issued

by federal, state, or city

agencies.

Written to Decision-Makers.

Summarizes the proposal’s content. Generally, no

more than 10% of the proposal’s length.

The decision-makers will likely NOT read the entire

proposal.

They may not be subject-matter experts, or if they are,

their knowledge is not at the level required to fully

understand the methodology sections (typically those

sections would be handed-off to subject-matter

experts who would report back to the decision-maker).


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Executive Summary

Example

This example is from the

guidelines for writing

Executive Summaries for

proposals (and reports) to

the Idaho Department of

Transportation.

From IDT Guidelines.

An Executive Summary should be written as a

standalone document and be understandable to a

general audience.

An Executive Summary should provide a brief

overview of the study purpose and objectives of the

project and the proposed implementation

activities.

Keep this in mind and make sure that it is written

in a manner that is easy for a busy person to skim

and absorb. The Executive Summary should be no

longer than five pages. Use appropriate headings

to clearly indicate how the material is organized.


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Introduction

Get to the point. Some grant writers suggest opening your

proposal with a clear one or two sentence

statement of your objective. If more than one

objective, consider a bulleted list.

A clearly written statement of objectives help

reviewers orient themselves, and prepares them

to read the rest of your proposal more

effectively.

You can also start with the problem, identified

need, hypothesis, or central research question.

Sometimes reviewers will need a brief

background first.


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Writing Objectives

Understand the difference

between a long-term goal and

a specific objective.

Long-term goal: Ending reliance on fossil fuel.

Specific objective: Proposal to develop a new wind-

turbine prototype.


Often RFPs will use the word “goal(s)” interchangeably with the word

“objective(s).”

If the RFP does not explicitly request both, you may assume that the

word “goal(s)” means specific objective(s).

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Methodology, Technical Approach, or Plan of Work

HOW will you DO what you are proposing?

• For research projects:

• How will data be collected?

• How the data will be analyzed?

• What is the expected outcome?

• For other types of projects:

• How will the project be done? Phases? Steps?

• How will these result in an outcome that meets the

objectives?


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Line Item-Budget

What is it

going to cost?

Student grants are intended to provide support for

research or other projects with financial resources

that would otherwise be unavailable.

An integral part of your grant application is a line-item

budget, indicating how much money your project

needs and how the money will be spent.

The following slides provide guidelines to create a line-

item budget:


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Line Item-Budget

Capitol OutlayAny item which will retain its usefulness beyond the

grant period is considered capital equipment and will

be retained by the university once the project is

completed.

For equipment expenses, indicate who will assume

responsibility for the equipment once the project has

been completed.


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Line-Item Budget

Expendable

Supplies and

Materials

Be specific in itemizing the supply money

for all activities in the project.

Include both expendable laboratory

supplies and expendable large-quantity

office supplies (e.g. stationery, duplicating

supplies, typing/computing supplies, and

software).


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Line-Item Budget

Personnel

Services

• Identify any undergraduate assistants,

digital services, clerical help, etc. who will

receive salaries. Salary amounts must be

justified to reflect standard market value

for similar personnel/services.


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Line-Item Budget

Personnel

Services

continued

• Requests for funds to pay the individual student

applying for a grant are often not allowed unless

the student is proposing a fulltime-summer

research project.

• In that case, the student may use any grant

amount not dedicated to other research expenses

to compensate for the inability to work over the

summer in question. Salary amounts for grant

applicants always must be justified based on salary

that would be earned in a summer job.


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Line-Item Budget

Travel Costs

Be specific.

• Refer to the university travel guidelines to

understand appropriate expenditures for travel.

• NOTE: you probably won’t be able to fund that trip

to Paris you’ve always wanted to take using your

grant money ), but you will likely be able to travel

within the state --- if travel is warranted.


https://www.uidaho.edu/finance/controller/accounts-payable/travel-services/travel-forms-and-policies/reimbursement-policy

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Line-Item Budget

Human

Subject

Payments or

Gifts

• List monies intended to compensate human

subjects for participation in a research project.

• These gifts must be justified to reflect standard

market value for payments of this type for other

similar projects.


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Line-Item Budget

Indirect Costs • The university will take a cut of your grant to pay for

takes indirect costs of research, such as office and

laboratory space, heat and lights, library services,

administrative assistance/staff, and other costs.

• For the UI: calculate the amount needed by totaling

your budgetary line items and multiplying by 8%.

That number must then be added to the total

budgetary line items for the total amount

requested from the SGP.

• NOTE: the calculation for indirect costs may change

from year to year, so you will always need to check

what percentage the university will take from your

grant if you plan to actually submit one.


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Schedule or Timeline

Connect tasks to

dates of completion.

• This section must connect the tasks to dates

predicting completion and the tasks must follow

logically from the to the technical approach,

methodology, or plan of work section.

• If there is a task listed in the timeline or schedule

that is not discussed in the technical approach,

methodology, or plan of work section, reviewers will

be confused as to what exactly you are doing.


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Faculty Support

Not necessary for

this project, but you

do need if submitting

a real proposal.

• Provides an account of the interaction between you

and your faculty mentor to date, and your plan for

continued interaction.

• Describe how your mentor’s area of expertise will

support your work. Your proposal and the mentor’s

letter of recommendation should make clear the

balance between independence and assistance

you can expect from your mentor.

• NOTE: you do not need to find a faculty member to

support your proposal if only submitting a proposal

for the purposes of the 317 assignment only.


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Read and Follow the RFP Closely

Don’t let your good idea end up here!

Where grants wind up when writers fail to follow RFP:

Education

Project 6 Grant Writing Tips ISI Engl317