What Should You Know About Research Grant

What this handout is most

This handout volition help you write and revise grant proposals for enquiry funding in all bookish disciplines (sciences, social sciences, humanities, and the arts). It'southward targeted primarily to graduate students and kinesthesia, although it will too be helpful to undergraduate students who are seeking funding for research (eastward.one thousand. for a senior thesis).

The grant writing process

A grant proposal or application is a certificate or prepare of documents that is submitted to an organization with the explicit intent of securing funding for a research projection. Grant writing varies widely across the disciplines, and inquiry intended for epistemological purposes (philosophy or the arts) rests on very different assumptions than research intended for applied applications (medicine or social policy research). Nonetheless, this handout attempts to provide a general introduction to grant writing across the disciplines.

Before you brainstorm writing your proposal, you need to know what kind of inquiry y'all volition be doing and why. You may have a topic or experiment in heed, but taking the time to define what your ultimate purpose is tin be essential to disarming others to fund that projection. Although some scholars in the humanities and arts may not have thought about their projects in terms of research design, hypotheses, research questions, or results, reviewers and funding agencies expect yous to frame your project in these terms. Yous may also notice that thinking near your projection in these terms reveals new aspects of it to you.

Writing successful grant applications is a long process that begins with an idea. Although many people recall of grant writing as a linear procedure (from idea to proposal to award), it is a circular procedure. Many people offset by defining their research question or questions. What knowledge or information volition be gained as a direct consequence of your project? Why is undertaking your research important in a broader sense? You will need to explicitly communicate this purpose to the committee reviewing your application. This is easier when you know what you lot plan to achieve before you begin the writing process.

Diagram one below provides an overview of the grant writing procedure and may help you plan your proposal evolution.

Applicants must write grant proposals, submit them, receive observe of acceptance or rejection, and then revise their proposals. Unsuccessful grant applicants must revise and resubmit their proposals during the next funding cycle. Successful grant applications and the resulting research lead to ideas for further research and new grant proposals.

Cultivating an ongoing, positive relationship with funding agencies may lead to additional grants downwardly the road. Thus, make sure you file progress reports and concluding reports in a timely and professional person way. Although some successful grant applicants may fear that funding agencies will reject time to come proposals because they've already received "enough" funding, the truth is that money follows money. Individuals or projects awarded grants in the past are more competitive and thus more likely to receive funding in the time to come.

Some general tips

1. Brainstorm early.
2. Employ early and often.
3. Don't forget to include a cover letter with your application.
4. Answer all questions. (Pre-empt all unstated questions.)
5. If rejected, revise your proposal and apply again.
6. Give them what they want. Follow the application guidelines exactly.
7. Be explicit and specific.
8. Exist realistic in designing the project.
9. Make explicit the connections betwixt your research questions and objectives, your objectives and methods, your methods and results, and your results and dissemination programme.
10. Follow the awarding guidelines exactly. (We take repeated this tip because information technology is very, very important.)

Before you first writing

Identify your needs and focus

Commencement, place your needs. Answering the post-obit questions may help you:

• Are you undertaking preliminary or airplane pilot research in order to develop a full-blown inquiry calendar?
• Are you seeking funding for dissertation research? Pre-dissertation research? Postdoctoral research? Archival research? Experimental research? Fieldwork?
• Are y'all seeking a stipend and then that you can write a dissertation or volume? Smooth a manuscript?
• Do you lot desire a fellowship in residence at an establishment that will offering some programmatic back up or other resources to raise your project?
• Do you lot want funding for a large research project that volition last for several years and involve multiple staff members?

Next, think nigh the focus of your inquiry/project. Answering the following questions may assist you narrow information technology down:

• What is the topic? Why is this topic of import?
• What are the inquiry questions that you're trying to answer? What relevance do your research questions have?
• What are your hypotheses?
• What are your research methods?
• Why is your inquiry/project of import? What is its significance?
• Practice yous program on using quantitative methods? Qualitative methods? Both?
• Will you exist undertaking experimental research? Clinical enquiry?

In one case you have identified your needs and focus, yous can brainstorm looking for prospective grants and funding agencies.

Finding prospective grants and funding agencies

Whether your proposal receives funding will rely in big office on whether your purpose and goals closely match the priorities of granting agencies. Locating possible grantors is a time consuming task, but in the long run it will yield the greatest benefits. Fifty-fifty if you have the most appealing research proposal in the globe, if you don't ship it to the correct institutions, then you're unlikely to receive funding.

In that location are many sources of information about granting agencies and grant programs. Most universities and many schools within universities take Offices of Research, whose primary purpose is to support kinesthesia and students in grant-seeking endeavors. These offices usually have libraries or resource centers to assistance people find prospective grants.

At UNC, the Research at Carolina part coordinates research support.

The GrantSource Library, located in Bynum Hall, provides grant-seeking assistance to UNC students and faculty. The GrantSource Library maintains a broad variety of resources (books, journals, and online databases) and offers workshops to assistance students and kinesthesia find funding.

The UNC Medical School and Schoolhouse of Public Health each accept their own Office of Research.

Writing your proposal

Audience

The bulk of grant programs recruit academic reviewers with cognition of the disciplines and/or program areas of the grant. Thus, when writing your grant proposals, assume that you lot are addressing a colleague who is knowledgeable in the general area, but who does non necessarily know the details near your research questions.

Remember that most readers are lazy and will not answer well to a poorly organized, poorly written, or confusing proposal. Be sure to requite readers what they want. Follow all the guidelines for the particular grant you are applying for. This may require you lot to reframe your project in a different light or linguistic communication. Reframing your projection to fit a specific grant's requirements is a legitimate and necessary part of the process unless it will fundamentally modify your project'due south goals or outcomes.

Final decisions about which proposals are funded often come up down to whether the proposal convinces the reviewer that the enquiry project is well planned and feasible and whether the investigators are well qualified to execute it. Throughout the proposal, be as explicit equally possible. Predict the questions that the reviewer may have and answer them. Przeworski and Salomon (1995) note that reviewers read with three questions in listen:

• What are we going to learn as a result of the proposed project that we do non know now? (goals, aims, and outcomes)
• Why is it worth knowing? (significance)
• How will we know that the conclusions are valid? (criteria for success) (2)

Be sure to answer these questions in your proposal. Go along in mind that reviewers may non read every word of your proposal. Your reviewer may only read the abstract, the sections on research blueprint and methodology, the vitae, and the upkeep. Make these sections equally articulate and straightforward equally possible.

Style

The way you write your grant volition tell the reviewers a lot well-nigh you (Reif-Lehrer 82). From reading your proposal, the reviewers will form an idea of who you are as a scholar, a researcher, and a person. They will decide whether you are artistic, logical, analytical, up-to-date in the relevant literature of the field, and, well-nigh importantly, capable of executing the proposed project. Allow your discipline and its conventions to determine the full general way of your writing, only allow your own voice and personality to come through. Be sure to clarify your project'southward theoretical orientation.

Develop a general proposal and budget

Because virtually proposal writers seek funding from several different agencies or granting programs, information technology is a skillful thought to begin by developing a full general grant proposal and upkeep. This general proposal is sometimes chosen a "white paper." Your general proposal should explain your project to a general academic audience. Before you submit proposals to unlike grant programs, yous will tailor a specific proposal to their guidelines and priorities.

Organizing your proposal

Although each funding bureau will have its own (unremarkably very specific) requirements, there are several elements of a proposal that are fairly standard, and they often come in the following order:

• Championship page
• Abstruse
• Introduction (argument of the problem, purpose of research or goals, and significance of research)
• Literature review
• Project narrative (methods, procedures, objectives, outcomes or deliverables, evaluation, and broadcasting)
• Personnel
• Budget and budget justification

Format the proposal so that it is easy to read. Use headings to pause the proposal up into sections. If information technology is long, include a table of contents with folio numbers.

Title page

The title page unremarkably includes a brief even so explicit title for the research project, the names of the principal investigator(southward), the institutional affiliation of the applicants (the department and university), name and address of the granting bureau, project dates, amount of funding requested, and signatures of university personnel authorizing the proposal (when necessary). Most funding agencies have specific requirements for the title page; make sure to follow them.

Abstract

The abstract provides readers with their commencement impression of your project. To remind themselves of your proposal, readers may glance at your abstract when making their final recommendations, so information technology may besides serve as their concluding impression of your project. The abstract should explain the primal elements of your research project in the future tense. Most abstracts state: (1) the full general purpose, (two) specific goals, (3) research blueprint, (4) methods, and (v) significance (contribution and rationale). Be as explicit as possible in your abstract. Use statements such as, "The objective of this study is to …"

Introduction

The introduction should cover the key elements of your proposal, including a statement of the problem, the purpose of research, enquiry goals or objectives, and significance of the research. The argument of problem should provide a background and rationale for the project and found the need and relevance of the research. How is your project dissimilar from previous research on the same topic? Will you exist using new methodologies or covering new theoretical territory? The research goals or objectives should identify the anticipated outcomes of the enquiry and should match up to the needs identified in the statement of problem. List only the principle goal(south) or objective(s) of your inquiry and salve sub-objectives for the project narrative.

Literature review

Many proposals require a literature review. Reviewers want to know whether you lot've done the necessary preliminary research to undertake your project. Literature reviews should exist selective and critical, not exhaustive. Reviewers desire to meet your evaluation of pertinent works. For more than information, come across our handout on literature reviews.

Projection narrative

The project narrative provides the meat of your proposal and may crave several subsections. The project narrative should supply all the details of the projection, including a detailed statement of trouble, research objectives or goals, hypotheses, methods, procedures, outcomes or deliverables, and evaluation and dissemination of the research.

For the project narrative, pre-empt and/or respond all of the reviewers' questions. Don't go out them wondering about anything. For example, if you propose to conduct unstructured interviews with open-ended questions, be sure you've explained why this methodology is best suited to the specific research questions in your proposal. Or, if you're using item response theory rather than classical test theory to verify the validity of your survey instrument, explain the advantages of this innovative methodology. Or, if you need to travel to Valdez, Alaska to access historical archives at the Valdez Museum, make information technology clear what documents you hope to find and why they are relevant to your historical novel on the '98ers in the Alaskan Aureate Rush.

Conspicuously and explicitly country the connections between your enquiry objectives, research questions, hypotheses, methodologies, and outcomes. As the requirements for a strong project narrative vary widely by bailiwick, consult a discipline-specific guide to grant writing for some additional communication.

Personnel

Explain staffing requirements in detail and make sure that staffing makes sense. Be very explicit nearly the skill sets of the personnel already in place (yous will probably include their Curriculum Vitae as part of the proposal). Explicate the necessary skill sets and functions of personnel you will recruit. To minimize expenses, stage out personnel who are not relevant to later phases of a project.

Budget

The budget spells out project costs and ordinarily consists of a spreadsheet or table with the budget detailed equally line items and a budget narrative (likewise known as a budget justification) that explains the various expenses. Even when proposal guidelines do non specifically mention a narrative, be sure to include a ane or two folio explanation of the budget. To come across a sample budget, turn to Example #one at the cease of this handout.

Consider including an exhaustive budget for your projection, even if information technology exceeds the normal grant size of a particular funding organization. Simply go far clear that you are seeking additional funding from other sources. This technique will brand it easier for yous to combine awards down the road should you have the good fortune of receiving multiple grants.

Make sure that all budget items meet the funding agency'due south requirements. For instance, all U.S. regime agencies accept strict requirements for airline travel. Be certain the cost of the airline travel in your budget meets their requirements. If a line item falls outside an bureau's requirements (east.g. some organizations will non cover equipment purchases or other capital expenses), explain in the upkeep justification that other grant sources will pay for the item.

Many universities require that indirect costs (overhead) exist added to grants that they administer. Cheque with the advisable offices to observe out what the standard (or required) rates are for overhead. Laissez passer a typhoon budget by the university officer in accuse of grant administration for assistance with indirect costs and costs non directly associated with research (e.g. facilities use charges).

Furthermore, make sure you factor in the estimated taxes applicable for your case. Depending on the categories of expenses and your particular circumstances (whether you are a foreign national, for example), estimated revenue enhancement rates may differ. You tin can consult respective departmental staff or university services, as well as professional tax assistants. For information on taxes on scholarships and fellowships, run across https://cashier.unc.edu/student-tax-information/scholarships-fellowships/.

Timeframe

Explicate the timeframe for the research project in some detail. When will you brainstorm and complete each step? It may exist helpful to reviewers if you lot present a visual version of your timeline. For less complicated inquiry, a table summarizing the timeline for the project volition help reviewers sympathize and evaluate the planning and feasibility. See Case #ii at the end of this handout.

For multi-year research proposals with numerous procedures and a large staff, a time line diagram tin can help clarify the feasibility and planning of the study. Come across Example #3 at the end of this handout.

Revising your proposal

Strong grant proposals have a long fourth dimension to develop. Start the procedure early and leave time to get feedback from several readers on dissimilar drafts. Seek out a variety of readers, both specialists in your enquiry expanse and non-specialist colleagues. You may also want to request assist from knowledgeable readers on specific areas of your proposal. For instance, you may want to schedule a meeting with a statistician to assistance revise your methodology section. Don't hesitate to seek out specialized assistance from the relevant research offices on your campus. At UNC, the Odum Institute provides a diversity of services to graduate students and kinesthesia in the social sciences.

In your revision and editing, inquire your readers to give careful consideration to whether you've fabricated explicit the connections between your research objectives and methodology. Here are some instance questions:

• Accept you lot presented a compelling case?
• Accept you made your hypotheses explicit?
• Does your project seem feasible? Is it overly ambitious? Does it take other weaknesses?
• Have you stated the means that grantors can employ to evaluate the success of your project later y'all've executed it?

If a granting agency lists particular criteria used for rating and evaluating proposals, be certain to share these with your own reviewers.

Example #ane. Sample Budget

Detail	Quantity	Cost	Subtotal	Total
Jet Travel
RDU-Kigali (roundtrip)	one		$half dozen,100	$6,100
Maintenance Assart
Rwanda	12 months	$i,899	$22,788	$22,788
Project Allowance
Research Assistant/Translator	12 months	$400	$4800
Transportation within land
–Phase 1	four months	$300	$ane,200
–Stage 2	8 months	$1,500	$12,000
Electronic mail	12 months	$60	$720
Audio cassette tapes	200	$two	$400
Photographic and slide film	twenty	$5	$100
Laptop Estimator	1		$ii,895
NUD*IST 4.0 Software			$373
Etc.
Total Project Allowance				$35,238
Administrative Fee				$100
Total				$65,690
Sought from other sources				($15,000)
Total Grant Request				$fifty,690

Jet travel $six,100
This estimate is based on the commercial high season charge per unit for jet economy travel on Sabena Belgian Airlines. No U.Due south. carriers fly to Kigali, Rwanda. Sabena has student fare tickets available which will exist significantly less expensive (approximately $2,000).

Maintenance allowance $22,788
Based on the Fulbright-Hays Maintenance Allowances published in the grant application guide.

Research assistant/translator $four,800
The research assistant/translator volition be a native (and primary) speaker of Kinya-rwanda with at least a four-year university caste. He/she will accompany the primary investigator during life history interviews to provide assistance in comprehension. In addition, he/she will provide commentary, explanations, and observations to facilitate the master investigator'south participant observation. During the first stage of the project in Kigali, the research assistant volition work forty hours a week and occasional overtime as needed. During phases 2 and three in rural Rwanda, the banana volition stay with the investigator overnight in the field when necessary. The salary of $400 per calendar month is based on the average pay rate for individuals with similar qualifications working for international NGO's in Rwanda.

Transportation within country, phase 1 $1,200
The primary investigator and research assistant will need regular transportation within Kigali by coach and taxi. The average taxi fare in Kigali is $6-8 and bus fare is $.fifteen. This figure is based on an average of $10 per mean solar day in transportation costs during the first project phase.

Transportation inside country, phases 2 and three $12,000
Project personnel will also crave regular transportation between rural field sites. If it is non possible to remain overnight, daily trips volition exist necessary. The boilerplate rental rate for a 4×4 vehicle in Rwanda is $130 per day. This estimate is based on an boilerplate of $50 per day in transportation costs for the 2d and third project phases. These costs could be reduced if an arrangement could be made with either a government ministry or international aid agency for transportation assistance.

Email $720
The rate for email service from RwandaTel (the but service provider in Rwanda) is $60 per month. Email access is vital for receiving news reports on Rwanda and the region as well as for staying in contact with dissertation commission members and advisors in the U.s..

Audiocassette tapes $400
Audiocassette tapes will exist necessary for recording life history interviews, musical performances, community events, story telling, and other pertinent data.

Photographic & slide film $100
Photographic and slide film will be necessary to document visual data such as landscape, surroundings, marriages, funerals, community events, etc.

Laptop figurer $2,895
A laptop computer will be necessary for recording observations, thoughts, and analysis during inquiry project. Price listed is a special offering to UNC students through the Carolina Computing Initiative.

NUD*IST 4.0 software $373.00
NUD*IST, "Nonnumerical, Unstructured Information, Indexing, Searching, and Theorizing," is necessary for cataloging, indexing, and managing field notes both during and following the field research phase. The program will aid in cataloging themes that emerge during the life history interviews.

Authoritative fee $100
Fee prepare by Fulbright-Hays for the sponsoring institution.

Case #2: Project Timeline in Table Format

Exploratory Enquiry	Completed
Proposal Evolution	Completed
Ph.D. qualifying exams	Completed
Research Proposal Defence force	Completed
Fieldwork in Rwanda	October. 1999-Dec. 2000
Information Analysis and Transcription	January. 2001-March 2001
Writing of Typhoon Capacity	March 2001 – Sept. 2001
Revision	Oct. 2001-Feb. 2002
Dissertation Defence	April 2002
Final Approval and Completion	May 2002

Case #3: Project Timeline in Chart Format

Some closing advice

Some of us may experience aback or embarrassed about asking for money or promoting ourselves. Oft, these feelings have more to practice with our own insecurities than with problems in the tone or style of our writing. If you're having trouble because of these types of hang-ups, the most of import thing to keep in mind is that it never hurts to enquire. If y'all never enquire for the money, they'll never give yous the money. Besides, the worst thing they tin can do is say no.

UNC resources for proposal writing

Enquiry at Carolina
http://research.unc.edu

The Odum Institute for Inquiry in the Social Sciences
http://world wide web.irss.unc.edu/odum/jsp/home.jsp

UNC Medical School Function of Research
https://world wide web.med.unc.edu/oor

UNC School of Public Health Part of Research
http://world wide web.sph.unc.edu/research/

Works consulted

We consulted these works while writing this handout. This is non a comprehensive list of resources on the handout'south topic, and we encourage you to do your own inquiry to discover additional publications. Please do not utilize this list as a model for the format of your own reference list, every bit it may not match the citation style you lot are using. For guidance on formatting citations, please see the UNC Libraries citation tutorial. Nosotros revise these tips periodically and welcome feedback.

Holloway, Brian R. 2003. Proposal Writing Across the Disciplines. Upper Saddle River, New Bailiwick of jersey: Prentice Hall.

Levine, S. Joseph. "Guide for Writing a Funding Proposal." http://www.learnerassociates.net/proposal/.

Locke, Lawrence F., Waneen Wyrick Spirduso, and Stephen J. Silverman. 2014. Proposals That Work. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

Przeworski, Adam, and Frank Salomon. 2012. "Some Aboveboard Suggestions on the Fine art of Writing Proposals." Social Science Inquiry Council. https://s3.amazonaws.com/ssrc-cdn2/art-of-writing-proposals-dsd-e-56b50ef814f12.pdf.

Reif-Lehrer, Liane. 1989. Writing a Successful Grant Awarding. Boston: Jones and Bartlett Publishers.

Wiggins, Beverly. 2002. "Funding and Proposal Writing for Social Science Faculty and Graduate Student Research." Chapel Hill: Howard W. Odum Constitute for Research in Social Science. 2 Feb. 2004. http://www2.irss.unc.edu/irss/shortcourses/wigginshandouts/granthandout.pdf.

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