Writing Research Funding Proposal. Know Your Ways to Success

  The Steps of Research Funding Writing Process

A grant proposal or application is a document or set of doWriting Research Funding Proposal. Know Your Ways to Successcuments that is submitted to an organization with the explicit intent of securing funding for a research project. Grant writing varies widely across the disciplines, and research intended for epistemological purposes (philosophy or the arts) rests on very different assumptions than research intended for practical applications 

Before you begin writing your proposal, you need to know what kind of research you will be doing and why. You may have a topic or experiment in mind, but taking the time to define what your ultimate purpose is can be essential to convincing others to fund that project. 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 you to frame your project in these terms. You may also find that thinking about your project 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 think of grant writing as a linear process (from idea to proposal to award), it is a circular process. Many people start by defining their research question or questions. What knowledge or information will be gained as a direct result 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 plan to achieve before you begin the writing process.

The image below gives a sequence of steps for grant writing process .

Fig 1: Showing grant writing process

Some Advises for You: A must to follow

• Begin early.

• Apply early and often.

• Don’t forget to include a cover letter with your application.

• Answer all questions. (Pre-empt all unstated questions.)

• If rejected, revise your proposal and apply again.

• Give them what they want. Follow the application guidelines exactly.

• Be explicit and specific.

• Be realistic in designing the project.

• Make explicit the connections between your research questions and objectives, your objectives and methods, your methods and results, and your results and dissemination plan.

• Follow the application guidelines exactly. (We have repeated this tip because it is very, very important.)

Before writing : What's to do?

Identify your needs and focal points of proposing

First, identify your needs. Answering the following questions may help you:

• Are you undertaking preliminary or pilot research in order to develop a full-blown research agenda?
• Are you seeking funding for dissertation research? Pre-dissertation research? Postdoctoral research? Archival research? Experimental research? Fieldwork?
• Are you seeking a stipend so that you can write a dissertation or book? Polish a manuscript?
• Do you want a fellowship in residence at an institution that will offer some programmatic support or other resources to enhance your project?
• Do you want funding for a large research project that will last for several years and involve multiple staff members?

Next, think about the focus of your research/project. Answering the following questions may help you narrow it down:

• What is the topic? Why is this topic important?
• What are the research 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 research/project important? What is its significance?
• Do you plan on using quantitative methods? Qualitative methods? Both?
• Will you be undertaking experimental research? Clinical research?

Fig.2 : 5W's and 1H to identify needs and focal point of proposal writing

Once you have identified your needs and focus, you can begin looking for prospective grants and funding.

Who are the Funding agencies : Home work RIGHTLY

Whether your proposal receives funding will rely in large part 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. Even if you have the most appealing research proposal in the world, if you don’t send it to the right institutions, then you’re unlikely to receive funding.

Writing your proposal : The finishing 

Audience

Final decisions about which proposals are funded often come down to whether the proposal convinces the reviewer that the research project is well planned and feasible and whether the investigators are well qualified to execute it. 

• What are we going to learn as a result of the proposed project that we do not know now? (goals, aims, and outcomes)
• Why is it worth knowing? (significance)
• How will we know that the conclusions are valid? (criteria for success) 

Be sure to answer these questions in your proposal. Keep in mind that reviewers may not read every word of your proposal. 

Style

The way you write your grant will tell the reviewers a lot about you. 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 creative, logical, analytical, up-to-date in the relevant literature of the field, and, most importantly, capable of executing the proposed project. 

Develop a general proposal and budget

It is a good idea to begin by developing a general grant proposal and budget. 

Organizing your proposal : Finalization with logical sequence matters a lot

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

1. Title page
2. Abstract
3. Introduction 
• statement of the problem, 
• purpose of research or goals, and 
• significance of research
4. Literature review
5. Project narrative 
• methods, 
• procedures, 
• objectives, 
• outcomes or deliverables, 
• evaluation, and 
• dissemination
6. Supporting  Staff required
7. Budget and budget justification

Format the proposal so that it is easy to read. 

• Use headings to break the proposal up into sections. If it is long, 
• Include a table of contents with page numbers.

Title page

The title page usually includes a brief yet explicit title for the research project, the names of the principal investigator(s), the institutional affiliation of the applicants (the department and university), name and address of the granting agency, 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 should explain the key elements of your research project in the future tense. Most abstracts state: (1) the general purpose, (2) specific goals, (3) research design, (4) methods, and (5) significance (contribution and rationale). 

Introduction

The introduction should cover the key elements of your proposal, including a statement of the problem, the purpose of research, research goals or objectives, and significance of the research. 

Literature review

Literature reviews should be selective and critical, not exhaustive. Reviewers want to see your evaluation of pertinent works. 

Project narrative

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

Supporting Staff

Explain staffing requirements in detail and make sure that staffing makes sense. 

Budget

The budget spells out project costs and usually consists of a spreadsheet or table with the budget detailed as line items and a budget narrative (also known as a budget justification) that explains the various expenses. 

Timeframe

Explain the timeframe for the research project in some detail. 

Revising your proposal

Strong grant proposals take a long time to develop. Start the process early and leave time to get feedback from several readers on different drafts. Seek out a variety of readers, both specialists in your research area and non-specialist colleagues.

Here are some example questions may be used as checklist of completeness of your proposal:

• Have you presented a compelling case?
• Have you made your hypotheses explicit?
• Does your project seem feasible? Is it overly ambitious? Does it have other weaknesses?
• Have you stated the means that grantors can use to evaluate the success of your project after you’ve executed it?

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