How To Make A Grant Template

What this handout is most

This handout will aid yous write and revise grant proposals for research funding in all academic disciplines (sciences, social sciences, humanities, and the arts). It'south targeted primarily to graduate students and faculty, although it will also exist helpful to undergraduate students who are seeking funding for research (east.k. for a senior thesis).

The grant writing process

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

Before y'all begin writing your proposal, you lot need to know what kind of enquiry you will be doing and why. You may have a topic or experiment in mind, simply taking the time to ascertain what your ultimate purpose is tin be essential to disarming others to fund that project. Although some scholars in the humanities and arts may not take thought about their projects in terms of research blueprint, hypotheses, research questions, or results, reviewers and funding agencies expect you lot 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 call up of grant writing as a linear process (from idea to proposal to award), it is a circular process. Many people offset by defining their enquiry question or questions. What cognition or information volition exist gained as a straight effect of your projection? Why is undertaking your inquiry of import in a broader sense? You lot volition 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.

Diagram one below provides an overview of the grant writing process and may assist you programme your proposal development.

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 inquiry pb to ideas for farther research and new grant proposals.

Cultivating an ongoing, positive relationship with funding agencies may lead to additional grants down the route. Thus, brand sure y'all file progress reports and final reports in a timely and professional person way. Although some successful grant applicants may fearfulness that funding agencies will decline futurity proposals because they've already received "enough" funding, the truth is that coin follows money. Individuals or projects awarded grants in the past are more competitive and thus more probable to receive funding in the hereafter.

Some general tips

1. Begin early.
2. Use early and often.
3. Don't forget to include a cover alphabetic character with your application.
4. Answer all questions. (Pre-empt all unstated questions.)
5. If rejected, revise your proposal and utilise over again.
6. Give them what they desire. Follow the application guidelines exactly.
7. Be explicit and specific.
8. Be realistic in designing the project.
9. Make explicit the connections between your research questions and objectives, your objectives and methods, your methods and results, and your results and dissemination plan.
10. Follow the awarding guidelines exactly. (We have repeated this tip because it is very, very of import.)

Before you start writing

Place your needs and focus

Start, place your needs. Answering the following questions may help you:

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

Next, recollect about the focus of your research/projection. Answering the following questions may help you narrow information technology down:

• What is the topic? Why is this topic of import?
• What are the research questions that you're trying to answer? What relevance do your research questions accept?
• What are your hypotheses?
• What are your research methods?
• Why is your research/project of import? What is its significance?
• Do you plan on using quantitative methods? Qualitative methods? Both?
• Will yous be undertaking experimental research? Clinical research?

Once you take identified your needs and focus, you tin begin looking for prospective grants and funding agencies.

Finding prospective grants and funding agencies

Whether your proposal receives funding will rely in large part on whether your purpose and goals closely lucifer the priorities of granting agencies. Locating possible grantors is a fourth dimension consuming task, but in the long run it will yield the greatest benefits. Even if yous 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.

There are many sources of information about granting agencies and grant programs. Most universities and many schools inside universities have Offices of Research, whose main purpose is to support faculty and students in grant-seeking endeavors. These offices usually have libraries or resources centers to help people find prospective grants.

At UNC, the Research at Carolina office coordinates research back up.

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

The UNC Medical Schoolhouse and School of Public Health each have their own Office of Enquiry.

Writing your proposal

Audition

The bulk of grant programs recruit academic reviewers with knowledge of the disciplines and/or program areas of the grant. Thus, when writing your grant proposals, assume that you are addressing a colleague who is knowledgeable in the general area, but who does not necessarily know the details nigh your research questions.

Call up that most readers are lazy and will not respond well to a poorly organized, poorly written, or confusing proposal. Be sure to give readers what they desire. Follow all the guidelines for the item grant you lot are applying for. This may require yous to reframe your project in a different calorie-free or language. Reframing your project to fit a specific grant's requirements is a legitimate and necessary office of the process unless it will fundamentally change your projection's goals or outcomes.

Last decisions near which proposals are funded often come downwards 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. Throughout the proposal, be as explicit as possible. Predict the questions that the reviewer may have and answer them. Przeworski and Salomon (1995) annotation that reviewers read with three questions in listen:

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

Be sure to answer these questions in your proposal. Keep in mind that reviewers may non read every word of your proposal. Your reviewer may only read the abstract, the sections on research design and methodology, the vitae, and the budget. Make these sections every bit clear and straightforward equally possible.

Style

The mode y'all write your grant will tell the reviewers a lot most you (Reif-Lehrer 82). From reading your proposal, the reviewers will form an idea of who yous are as a scholar, a researcher, and a person. They will decide whether you are creative, logical, analytical, up-to-engagement in the relevant literature of the field, and, almost importantly, capable of executing the proposed project. Allow your discipline and its conventions to determine the general style of your writing, but permit your own voice and personality to come through. Be sure to analyze your projection'south theoretical orientation.

Develop a general proposal and budget

Because nearly proposal writers seek funding from several different agencies or granting programs, information technology is a skillful idea to brainstorm by developing a general grant proposal and budget. This general proposal is sometimes called a "white paper." Your full general proposal should explain your projection to a general academic audience. Earlier you submit proposals to unlike grant programs, you will tailor a specific proposal to their guidelines and priorities.

Organizing your proposal

Although each funding agency volition have its own (normally very specific) requirements, there are several elements of a proposal that are fairly standard, and they often come in the post-obit order:

• Title 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 suspension the proposal upwardly into sections. If it is long, include a tabular array of contents with page numbers.

Title folio

The championship page usually includes a brief even so explicit championship for the research project, the names of the principal investigator(due south), the institutional affiliation of the applicants (the section and academy), name and accost of the granting agency, projection dates, amount of funding requested, and signatures of university personnel authorizing the proposal (when necessary). Nigh funding agencies take specific requirements for the championship page; make certain to follow them.

Abstract

The abstract provides readers with their beginning impression of your project. To remind themselves of your proposal, readers may glance at your abstruse when making their final recommendations, so it may likewise serve equally their last impression of your projection. The abstract should explicate the key elements of your inquiry projection in the future tense. Virtually abstracts state: (ane) the general purpose, (ii) specific goals, (3) research design, (4) methods, and (5) significance (contribution and rationale). Be equally explicit as possible in your abstract. Utilise statements such as, "The objective of this report is to …"

Introduction

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

Literature review

Many proposals crave a literature review. Reviewers want to know whether you've washed the necessary preliminary research to undertake your project. Literature reviews should be selective and disquisitional, not exhaustive. Reviewers want to see your evaluation of pertinent works. For more information, see our handout on literature reviews.

Project 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 project, including a detailed statement of problem, inquiry 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 leave them wondering nigh annihilation. For example, if yous propose to comport unstructured interviews with open-concluded questions, be sure y'all'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 athenaeum at the Valdez Museum, make it articulate what documents yous hope to observe and why they are relevant to your historical novel on the '98ers in the Alaskan Golden Blitz.

Clearly and explicitly land the connections between your enquiry objectives, research questions, hypotheses, methodologies, and outcomes. Every bit the requirements for a strong project narrative vary widely by discipline, consult a discipline-specific guide to grant writing for some additional advice.

Personnel

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

Budget

The upkeep spells out project costs and usually consists of a spreadsheet or tabular array with the budget detailed equally line items and a budget narrative (besides known equally a budget justification) that explains the various expenses. Even when proposal guidelines practise non specifically mention a narrative, exist sure to include a 1 or two page explanation of the budget. To come across a sample budget, turn to Example #one at the end of this handout.

Consider including an exhaustive upkeep for your project, even if information technology exceeds the normal grant size of a particular funding organization. But make it clear that you are seeking boosted funding from other sources. This technique will make it easier for you to combine awards downward the route should you lot have the good fortune of receiving multiple grants.

Make certain that all budget items come across the funding agency's requirements. For example, all U.South. authorities agencies take strict requirements for airline travel. Exist sure the price of the airline travel in your upkeep meets their requirements. If a line item falls outside an bureau'due south requirements (due east.g. some organizations will not encompass equipment purchases or other capital expenses), explicate in the upkeep justification that other grant sources will pay for the item.

Many universities crave that indirect costs (overhead) be added to grants that they administrate. Bank check with the appropriate offices to find out what the standard (or required) rates are for overhead. Pass a typhoon upkeep by the university officer in charge of grant administration for assistance with indirect costs and costs not directly associated with inquiry (eastward.1000. facilities employ charges).

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

Timeframe

Explain the timeframe for the research project in some detail. When will y'all begin and complete each stride? Information technology may be helpful to reviewers if y'all nowadays a visual version of your timeline. For less complicated research, a table summarizing the timeline for the project will help reviewers understand and evaluate the planning and feasibility. Run into Example #2 at the end of this handout.

For multi-year research proposals with numerous procedures and a big staff, a time line diagram tin can assist clarify the feasibility and planning of the study. See Example #3 at the cease of this handout.

Revising your proposal

Stiff grant proposals take a long fourth dimension to develop. Start the process early and leave time to get feedback from several readers on different drafts. Seek out a diverseness of readers, both specialists in your research area and non-specialist colleagues. You may also desire to asking assistance from knowledgeable readers on specific areas of your proposal. For example, you may want to schedule a meeting with a statistician to help revise your methodology section. Don't hesitate to seek out specialized aid from the relevant enquiry offices on your campus. At UNC, the Odum Institute provides a variety of services to graduate students and faculty in the social sciences.

In your revision and editing, inquire your readers to requite careful consideration to whether you've made explicit the connections between your research objectives and methodology. Hither are some example questions:

• Take you presented a compelling case?
• Have you made your hypotheses explicit?
• Does your project seem viable? Is it overly ambitious? Does it have other weaknesses?
• Accept you stated the means that grantors tin use to evaluate the success of your project after you lot've executed it?

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

Example #1. Sample Budget

Item	Quantity	Cost	Subtotal	Total
Jet Travel
RDU-Kigali (roundtrip)	1		$6,100	$6,100
Maintenance Allowance
Rwanda	12 months	$i,899	$22,788	$22,788
Project Allowance
Inquiry Assistant/Translator	12 months	$400	$4800
Transportation inside country
–Stage i	4 months	$300	$1,200
–Phase 2	8 months	$1,500	$12,000
Email	12 months	$sixty	$720
Audio cassette tapes	200	$two	$400
Photographic and slide picture	20	$5	$100
Laptop Estimator	1		$2,895
NUD*IST 4.0 Software			$373
Etc.
Full Project Assart				$35,238
Administrative Fee				$100
Total				$65,690
Sought from other sources				($15,000)
Total Grant Request				$50,690

Jet travel $6,100
This gauge is based on the commercial high season rate for jet economy travel on Sabena Belgian Airlines. No U.S. carriers fly to Kigali, Rwanda. Sabena has student fare tickets available which will be significantly less expensive (approximately $2,000).

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

Research banana/translator $4,800
The inquiry assistant/translator will be a native (and primary) speaker of Kinya-rwanda with at least a 4-twelvemonth 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 primary investigator's participant observation. During the first phase of the project in Kigali, the research assistant will piece of work twoscore hours a week and occasional overtime as needed. During phases 2 and three in rural Rwanda, the banana will stay with the investigator overnight in the field when necessary. The salary of $400 per month is based on the average pay rate for individuals with like qualifications working for international NGO's in Rwanda.

Transportation within country, phase 1 $ane,200
The master investigator and enquiry banana volition need regular transportation within Kigali by bus and taxi. The boilerplate taxi fare in Kigali is $6-8 and double-decker fare is $.15. This figure is based on an average of $10 per day in transportation costs during the start projection stage.

Transportation inside country, phases two and three $12,000
Project personnel will too require regular transportation between rural field sites. If information technology is non possible to remain overnight, daily trips volition exist necessary. The boilerplate rental rate for a iv×4 vehicle in Rwanda is $130 per day. This estimate is based on an average of $l per mean solar day in transportation costs for the second and third projection phases. These costs could be reduced if an arrangement could exist made with either a government ministry building or international help agency for transportation assistance.

Email $720
The rate for email service from RwandaTel (the just service provider in Rwanda) is $threescore 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 Us.

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 pic will exist necessary to document visual data such every bit landscape, environment, marriages, funerals, customs events, etc.

Laptop estimator $2,895
A laptop computer volition be necessary for recording observations, thoughts, and analysis during research projection. Price listed is a special offer to UNC students through the Carolina Computing Initiative.

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

Administrative fee $100
Fee prepare by Fulbright-Hays for the sponsoring establishment.

Example #2: Projection Timeline in Tabular array Format

Exploratory Research	Completed
Proposal Development	Completed
Ph.D. qualifying exams	Completed
Enquiry Proposal Defence	Completed
Fieldwork in Rwanda	Oct. 1999-Dec. 2000
Data Analysis and Transcription	Jan. 2001-March 2001
Writing of Typhoon Capacity	March 2001 – Sept. 2001
Revision	Oct. 2001-Feb. 2002
Dissertation Defence force	Apr 2002
Concluding Approval and Completion	May 2002

Example #3: Project Timeline in Chart Format

Some closing advice

Some of us may feel ashamed or embarrassed virtually request for money or promoting ourselves. Often, these feelings accept more to do with our ain insecurities than with problems in the tone or style of our writing. If y'all're having trouble because of these types of hang-ups, the most important thing to go along in heed is that it never hurts to ask. If you lot never inquire for the money, they'll never give you lot the money. Besides, the worst thing they tin can do is say no.

UNC resources for proposal writing

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

The Odum Institute for Enquiry in the Social Sciences
http://www.irss.unc.edu/odum/jsp/home.jsp

UNC Medical School Part of Enquiry
https://www.med.unc.edu/oor

UNC Schoolhouse of Public Health Office of Research
http://www.sph.unc.edu/research/

Works consulted

We consulted these works while writing this handout. This is not a comprehensive list of resources on the handout's topic, and we encourage you to do your own enquiry to discover boosted publications. Please practice non utilise this list as a model for the format of your own reference listing, as it may not lucifer the citation mode you are using. For guidance on formatting citations, please see the UNC Libraries citation tutorial. We revise these tips periodically and welcome feedback.

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

Levine, Southward. 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 Candid Suggestions on the Fine art of Writing Proposals." Social Science Research Council. https://s3.amazonaws.com/ssrc-cdn2/art-of-writing-proposals-dsd-eastward-56b50ef814f12.pdf.

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

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

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