Tagged / grant writing

Grant writing workshops for BU Studentship Competition

To assist staff in preparing their applications for the internal PhD funding competition John Wakeford, Director of the Missenden Centre, is coming to BU to deliver 2 one day workshops on 31st January and 1st February.   There are only a small number of spaces remaining on each day so if you would like to come along please register here asap. 

The workshop will run from 9:30am to 4:30pm and it is an excellent chance to pick up some advice from John on bid writing in general as well as honing your application for the studentships.  The first 6 draft applications received by John will be reviewed as part of the day.  A copy of the draft programme of the day is below.

If you have any queries about the day please contact Susan Dowdle.

Draft programme

 9.15                Coffee and Registration

 9.30                Institutional context – information on the studentships and the support of the Graduate School. Questions.

                                    Prof Tiantian Zhang – new Head of Graduate School

                                    Dr Fiona Knight – Graduate School Manager

 10.00              Agenda sharing (participant introductions and identifying concerns and priorities to be covered).

 10.30              Introduction – National policy and recent developments. Questions and discussion.

 10.45              Coffee break

11.00              Reviewing good research bid.  Teams act as reviewers and prepare outline of comments.  Plenary feedback from John Wakeford and teams.

 12.00              What to do before applying.

 12.30              Lunch.  Groups discuss bidding narrative.

 13.15              Plenary discussion of points arising from narrative.

 13.30              Advising colleagues on draft applications.  Teams act as critical colleagues and prepare advice on drafts direct at different agencies.  Plenary feedback.     Questions and discussion.

 14.30              Coffee break

 14.45              Writing a good application.

 15.30              Reflecting after having an application turned down.

 16.00              Action planning: individual participants draw up plans for progressing own research.  Participants make suggestions to the university to help those bidding for funds.

 16.25              Evaluation

 16.30              Close

Grant Writing Workshop 26th January – Early Career Researchers

Guidance

Are you at an early stage in your academic career and need some help in perfecting your grant writing skills?  Dr Martin Pickard is coming back to BU on 26th January to run a full day workshop. 

The day is designed for early career researchers with no, or very little, experience in preparing research applications. It  covers the fundamental structure and arguments inherent within any research proposal and initially develops the principle ways to achieve this – whilst at the same time encouraging the necessary overarching approach.

The workshop will take place on Talbot Campus and run from around 9.30am until 4-5pm.  Lunch and refreshments will be provided.  There are a limited number of spaces on the workshop so if you would like to come to the event please email Susan Dowdle to book a space as soon as possible.

 

Structure of the Day

 

Session 1: Introduction and general approach to the funding mechanisms

These sessions are individually tailored to the session theme. They evaluate and present key insights into the fundamental approach principles behind a successful grant application in the respective research area and develop the essential common elements of a successful bid.

Break – Coffee – Includes 10 minute assignment exercise

Session 2  – Theory and practice – optimising the approach

This builds from session 1 detailing the “in depth” structure of a successful bid, the need to present and optimise the supporting arguments and justifications required and how to achieve this.

Break  – Lunch – including further assignment exercise

Session  3 – Building the case for funding – case studies and examples

Using the assignment exercises, and worked illustrations, this puts theory into practice covering most of the common pitfalls and provides the tips, tricks and techniques for optimising your proposal within minimum space.

Break – Coffee – including 10 minute assignment exercise

Session 4 – Theory into practice – interactive assignment analysis and workshop discussion

With analysis and reworking of both previous cases and current applications this primarily “Q & A” workshop session provides an important consolidation taking live examples through the optimisation process using the skills and techniques acquired throughout the day.

 

Grant writing – an art or a science?

Guidance

Martin Pickard from GrantCraft came to the university last week to deliver grant writing workshops focusing on applying to the research councils. Martin has an excellent track record of helping universities win funding and provided some top tips on how to prepare a better application.  His main aim was to encourage participants to start thinking of applications as a sales document – how to make an impact with every part of the application and convince the funder to ‘buy’ the research.  Fundamentally your research doesn’t change but it’s how you package it that matters.

One of the things that Martin advised was that when you give your applications to colleagues to review ask them to give you 10 reasons why they wouldn’t fund it.  You may not agree with everything they say but it gives you some constructive feedback and can help you think about whether you have fully defended your project.  The people reviewing your application for the funder may not be as close to the field as you and everyone has had those comments from reviewers where you wonder if they have a clue.  Don’t give your reviewers a chance to think, give them all the answers even if you think it’s obvious.

The other big message from Martin’s sessions was that you need to think about what the overarching problem is that your research is addressing and make that clear from the start.  This is bigger that just the research need that you are addressing and you need to think outside the box!  Once you start to think bigger, about where your research fits within other research, with practitioners and within society, it makes the section on impact much simpler because the message is there throughout your application.

And finally give yourself enough time…to think about it, prepare several drafts and get feedback from colleagues.

Martin is coming back in the new year to deliver a few more sessions. In January he is running a session aimed at staff preparing their first research grant and in February he is running two sessions on EU funding – one particularly looking at the Marie Curie scheme and the other at EU funding in general. If you’re interested in attending these sessions please contact Susan Dowdle from the Research Development Unit.