PROPOSALS
Having a great idea for a research project is only the first step of the proposal process.
The journey from having a brilliant idea to getting a funding decision is not quick, easy, or straightforward. There are a lot of steps along the way: understanding the ins and outs of your particular funder, identifying your audience(s) and their expectations for your work, drafting a proposal that both grabs the reviewer’s attention and meets the assessment criteria, weighing up reviewer comments to craft a PI response that manages to be polite and factual …
If you’re looking for a little help along the way, Academic Smartcuts offers several levels of support when it comes to developing a grant proposal.
PROPOSAL AUDIT
To help researchers submit competitive proposals, a proposal audit is available to review a final draft of an EPSRC standard mode proposal (New Investigator Award, Fellowship, or Standard Mode). Proposals are read from three perspectives:
- As an editor, I check whether the language can be improved or clarified. Changes are made to the proposal with Track Changes, allowing the applicant to decide which suggestions to take onboard and which to discard.
- Wearing a portfolio manager’s hat, I identify places in the proposal that could be strengthened to help ensure it is seen by the ideal panel or reviewers, and I will flag up areas that may potentially cause a problem when processing the proposal.
- Although I am unable provide any guidance regarding the scientific feasibility of the project, I will also consider the proposal from the point of view of a reviewer based on common questions and comments.
A one-to-one session to discuss feedback and address any questions is included in the price.
TRAINING
Courses are available for those who are interested in exploring the funding process in more depth. Professor Dan Allwood and I take participants from techniques to develop and evaluate their first ideas (Proposal Launchpad) through to writing their a draft proposal (Couch to £500K) and understanding what it’s like to serve on a prioritisation panel.
Author John Steinbeck once said, “Ideas are like rabbits. You get a couple and learn how to handle them, and pretty soon you have a dozen.”
This programme helps researchers learn how to approach idea generation, preliminary project research, and horizon scanning to ensure that they have a solid foundation in finding and evaluating their ideas throughout their entire academic career. This helps them move beyond fixating on trendy topics or the latest buzzwords, and instead stand out from the crowd in a positive way.
Each session guides researchers through the practices that will allow them to develop viable research ideas, which in turn will make writing a proposal much more straightforward, with less scrambling to retrofit their idea to the proposal framework.
Couch to £500K: Turning an Idea into a Proposal:
This is an extended course that is delivered in two stages. The first is designed to provide the required foundation for participants to understand the funding process; this is available for remote delivery to up to 100 people. The second stage is limited to a cohort of up to 20 participants, and provides a mix of guidance, reflection time, feedback, and practice to produce a draft grant proposal by the end of the programme. The programme is available in fellowship and hybrid versions.
Mock Prioritisation Panel:
This two-day course allows participants to experience the final stage of the EPSRC peer review process and understand how a prioritisation panel works in practice.
GUIDEBOOKS
Three guidebooks are currently available to introduce aspects of the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council and the proposal creation process.
EPSRC Proposal Bundle
Buy all three digital guidebooks to save 20%.
Guidebooks are included in the price of the training courses and as part of the proposal audit; please check whether you already have access.
Are you interested in an audit for non-EPSRC or non-standard mode proposals, or would you like additional information about any of these offerings? Please use the form below to submit your query or arrange a free chat to discuss further.
Please get in touch if you have any questions.