Programme
Morning: Things you need to know.
Afternoon: Things you need to do.
Questions to answer before you start
- State the overall aim of your project in terms that would be intelligible to someone outside your research field.
- Name the funder and research scheme you are targeting.
- What makes the research aim important for the target funding scheme.
- Describe the overall research methods.
- For each research question or aim that will be answered by your project (ideally there will be 3).
- State the aim or question
- Describe how the research will answer this question or meet this aim.
- Say what makes it important to answer this question or meet this aim in the context of your project.
Impact
- Who will benefit most from this research?
- How will they benefit?
- What will you do to ensure that they benefit?
If you can't answer the questions, don't start.
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Alternative Questions
Imagine you got your grant 6 months ago
- For the current sub-project
- What are you actually doing in this sub-project (40 words)?
- What outcome will you get?
- What makes this outcome important?
- Repeat for the other 2 sub-projects
- What will be the overall outcome of the project?
- What makes the overall method inherently plausible?
- Have you used the method to produce high quality outputs?
- What is the significance of the overall outcome?
- What will it allow us to do that we cant do now?
- Who wants to do that?
- Which priorities of the funder does the project meet, and how?
- What must be done to maximise the benefit from the project?
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Strategy
Your strategy must accommodate the likelihood of rejection
- Most well-written grant applications get rejected.
- Rejection can be a devastating experience
- If you need a grant, you should plan to write 5 or 6 based on the same set of ideas
- Never get down to your last rejection.
- If you get 6 rejections, it's time to develop a new set of ideas.
- You need to be able to multiplex grant applications
- Different Outcomes?
- Different Datasets?
- Different Objectives, Same Aims?
- You need to be able to write well and quickly.
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Should I use a successful application as an example to copy?
- Can you find single-sentence answers to the following questions in 10 minutes:-
- What is the overall aim of the project?
- What makes the aim important?
- What are the overall research methods?
- For each aim or research question (there should be 3 or 4):-
- What is the aim or question?
- How will the research will answer this question or meet this aim.
- What makes it important to answer this question or meet this aim in the context of your project.
- If you can't, it's a bad example to follow.
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Writing Guidelines
- Should repetitions use the same words or different words?
- Punchline at top of para (~6 paras per page)
- One verb per sentence (no adverbs)
- Short sentences
- Avoid value claims (state evidence instead)
- Bullet lists good, lists in sentences bad.
- No initialisations
- unless the expansion is in the same paragraph
- or no expansion is needed
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Case for Support as Sales Pitch
- Introduction
- Tell them the Outcome & how important it is.
- Tell them everything that is to come
Aims & Objectives
- Nobody is sure what Aims & Objectives mean, so you can hijack them to reiterate the sales pitch.
Subprojects
What is a sub-project?
- You break your project into components (subprojects) to make it easier to explain.
- The sub-projects can be sequential
- Or parallel
- Or even different analyses of the same data
- The only requirement is they produce different, important outcomes.
- Each sub-project should produce an important outcome
- That way the explainer will give a sales pitch.
- If they know what makes the outcome important.
- The perfect number of sub-projects is 3, but 4 is OK.
What a Grant Application has to Achieve
Andrew Derrington
Funders' questions
IS THE PROJECT IMPORTANT (to Them)?
- Direct Outcomes (discoveries)
- Indirect Outcomes (training, career development, mobility...)
WILL THE PROJECT BE SUCCESSFUL?
- Will it produce the direct outcomes?
- Will it produce the indirect outcomes?
ARE THE APPLICANTS COMPETENT?
- Can they do the research?
- Can their institution support it?
WOULD A GRANT BE VALUE for MONEY?
- Are the resources requested Necessary, Sufficient, and Proportionate
Answers to Funders' Questions
Which question do you start with?
That’s how you write a zombie grant...
If the description of the research is less than 50% of the case for support it is probably a 'zombie'.
Always start with the competence question
The Decision: what is the process?
Implications of the decision process?
10 Key statements
10 statements define a case for support
- KS1 States the overall aim, the specific approach & an example of success with that approach
- KS2 Says what makes the overall aim important
- KS3,4&5 Say that we need the sub-project outcomes (AIMS) & why.
- KS6 Introduces the project
- KS7,8&9 Summarise the research activities in the sub-projects (OBJECTIVES) and their outcomes.
- KS10 Says what will happen when research is done (Impact?)
- Use the key statements as the summary.
- Re-use the key statements to introduce the case for support
- Use a key statement to begin each subsection
- Then follow it with the detail
- that convinces the referee
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Use Layout to Communicate with Skimmers and Speed-Readers
Teach Terminology with Tag Phrases
KeySentences 3,4 & 5
’We need to know’ + tag phrase because....
We need to know the relationship between the performance of single neurons and the performance of the whole visual system in order to establish the likely contribution of single neurons to perception. . . .
KeySentences 7,8 & 9
’We will do this sub-project in order to characterise’ + tag phrase
We will record single neurons during perceptual tasks and calculate sensitivity functions for neural responses and for task performance in order to characterise the relationship between the performance of single neurons and the performance of the whole visual system.
- Tag phrases provide meaning - link between aims and objectives
- Use them in headings (make them short enough)
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Re-cycle Text From Case for Support
- Repeat key sentences and tag phrases
- to provide common structure, and
- to link
- Maintain structure and order Back to Programme
Sentences 7, 8 & 9 and 3, 4 & 5
The Sales pitch:- We need to know” & “This will tell us”
- Sentences 7, 8 & 9: "This will tell us" (One per Subproject)
- Summarise the research activities and state the outcome of a sub-project.
- "We will do X and this will tell us Y"
- Structures the Research Plan/Methodology. Introduces a subsection.
- States an OBJECTIVE (and the aim it will deliver).
- Sentences 3, 4 & 5: ’We need to know’ (One per subproject)
- Say why we need the outcome of the sub-project.
- "We need to know Y because Z"
- Structures the Background: Introduces a subsection
- States an AIM
- Can be paraphrased as a Research Question
- Rookie mistakes
- Failing to mention research activities in 7, 8 & 9
- Describing the research activities instead of outcomes in 3, 4 & 5
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Sentences 6 & 10
Sentence 6 (Project Intro)
Sentence 10 (Project Outtro)
Sentence 1 & 2
The Elevator Pitch
Sentence 1 should have 3 parts:-
- What the project will achieve, in terms meaningful to the whole committee.
- The general research approach, to suggest you will be successful.
- An example of your achievements using that approach, to show you are competent.
Sentence 2 says what it is that makes the outcome important. For example....
- Quantify the real-world problem it will help to solve.
- Say what it will allow us to do that we can't do now.
- Prepare to say which named priorities of your funder it contributes to, and how?
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Standard Structure
Introduction - Key Sentences 1-10
Background - 5 subsections - sells the project outcomes.
KS1 State the overall outcome (GENERAL AIM). Then add the detail
KS2 Say what makes the outcome important. Then justify in detail.
KS3,4,5 Say why we need each research outcome (AIMS) & add detail after each
If you can't say why rewrite KS 7,8 & 9
Methods. Describes the Project
KS6 Summarise the project. Then add detail.
KS7,8,9 Summarise each sub-project (OBJECTIVE) & the AIM it achieves. Add detail after each.
KS10 Say what happens after the project (impact?). Then add detail.
Alternative Structure
Aim and Objectives introduce the Programme (BBSRC)
Introduction to Background - Key Sentences 1-5
Background - 5 subsections - sells the project outcomes.
KS1 State the overall outcome (GENERAL AIM). Then add the detail
KS2 Say what makes the outcome important. Then justify in detail.
KS3,4,5 Say why we need each research outcome (AIMS) & add detail after each
If you can't say why rewrite KS 7,8 & 9
Programme and Methodology Describes the Project.
BBSRC requires AIM & OBJECTIVES. Use KS1 & 6-10; then introduce project.
KS7,8,9 Summarise each sub-project (OBJECTIVE) & the AIM it achieves. Add detail after each.
KS10 Say what happens after the project (impact?). Then add detail.
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First Sentence Exercise
Why is the first sentence important?
It has to be good enough to make the reader read on
They will have 99 other applications.
- They know most of them are headed for the shredder.
They also have a TV.
What will make them want to read your application?
- Importance?
- Success?
- Competence?
The Perfect First Sentence
What the project will achieve, in terms meaningful to the whole committee.
The general research approach, to suggest you will be successful.
An example of your achievements using that approach, to show you are competent.
The Exercise
Interview your neighbour (3 mins)
Swap roles and interview again (3 mins)
Write a sentence for your neighbour's project (2 mins)
Write a Sentence for your own Project (2 mins)
Optimise and discuss.
Remember
- What the project will achieve, in terms meaningful to the whole committee.
- The general research approach, to suggest you will be successful.
- An example of your achievements using that approach, to show you are competent. . . .
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A Bad Sales Pitch
Outcomes Activities and Importance Claims
This project will focus on the human factors that influence the management of disease in livestock, analysing how and why livestock farmers make their decisions, and how this affects disease control, farm productivity and competitiveness, acceptance of agricultural innovation, and adoption of new technologies. Working closely with the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) and world-leading research institutions in North America and mainland Europe, the project will:
- Synthesise existing evidence on barriers and enablers affecting the implementation of Animal Health and Welfare (AHW) best practice
- Identify and examine successful examples of best practice co-production, communication and adoption (including state-sponsored advice, private advisory agencies and extension services) focussing on transferrable lessons from other sectors, international case studies and specific examples from individual livestock sectors in the UK
- Undertake a programme of empirical work to 'follow' the chain of best practice from the issuer of guidance/regulation (public, private or third sector organisation), via key actors in the information supply chain, to individual on-farm practice. Bovine tuberculosis will be used as the focus for the research
- Communicate the findings to a wide range of stakeholders in government and the farming industry, informing policy and practical interventions to enhance AHW management.