How to Write a Research Grant
1) Keep it Clear
 Avoid the use of jargon – especially to try and disguise an area of doubt or uncertainty, it will just confuse
the reviewer even more!
 Get a non-specialist to read your application – if they can follow it, it’s clear. They don’t have to
understand the technicality of the methodology to be able to understand the objective of your proposal.
2) Sell your idea, don’t just tell the reviewer about it
 Research Funding is competitive, so you need to make sure you and your idea come across better than
the rest.
 Having a clear pitch will help you sell your concept, make sure your proposal is clear about
o What you are going to do;
o Why it is necessary to do this work;
o How does your approach differ from what has gone before and what is the added value of your
approach;
o Why are you the right person to do this work at this time.
3) Avoid Empty statements
 You need to state your accomplishments, skills and achievement very clearly and convey how they are
relevant to the work you are proposing to do
 Empty statements are boastful and cannot be relied upon
 Substantiated statements enhance your credibility
Empty Statement v. Substantiated Claim
I will publish extensively
I would submit two articles to peer-reviewed journals. I have already published on the Korean ‘Prisoner of War
Olympics’ (1952) in an edited collection on sport history and am currently revising an article accepted by Life
Writing – the leading peer-reviewed interdisciplinary journal for life-writing scholars
We have published on how different outcome measures provide complementary information
The results of my research have so far led to the creation of a novel eLearning system – Topolor, and 18 papers
(of which I am first author) published in journals, book chapters and A-level conference proceedings such as AIED,
AMCIS, ITiCSE, UMAP, EC-TEL, ICALT, ICWL (with three of them receiving the ‘best paper award’.) I have been
presenting the progress and results of my research at national and international conference, including top ones in
our research field (UMAP, EC-TEL, ICALT).
My work is of interest to other academics
I have organised interdisciplinary seminars led by pioneering academics, such as Professor Joanna Bornat’s (Open
University) seminar on cross-national oral histories
Using skills acquired on a Digital Humanities course, I would continue these conversations – and involve a wider
audience – by hosting an online symposium following the event on our webpage (which has had almost 2000
visits since February 2013)
I have good networking skills
I co-organised in November 2013 and brought together forty scholars in this emergent field
My research is novel
The research carried out has led to novel findings, including design principles, an evaluation framework and
learning behaviour patterns for social personalised adaptive eLearning. However, there are several outstanding
questions that require further investigation that will be addressed in this proposal.