Sally Dibb
Professor of Marketing
Open University Business School
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Research active academics are expected to
attract external research funding
Good for the University, brings money and
profile, contributes to REF, accreditations.
Good for you, CV building, encourages
team work, networking and collaboration
Provides great opportunities for publication,
dissemination and impact
Practitioners
Your discipline
Networks &
colleagues
Funders
Policy makers
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SIGNIFICANCE: Of the research problem
SUCCESS: Proposed project can solve the
problem
GOOD VALUE: Requested resources are
appropriate and sufficient
COMPETENCE: PI & research team can
deliver
Enticing the funder…
1. Uh oh… we
have a
problem….
2. But don’t worry,
we know how to
solve it!
3. And it will be worth it
4. And we are the
team to do it!
Funders have guiding aims,
which may change over time
Resources are limited so they
only fund the best
Investing in a project carries
risk. Funders must justify their
choices & be transparent
KNOW what they are and
CHOOSE funder accordingly
Your project must STAND
OUT from others
CONVINCE them that you
are aware of the risks & can
handle them
Your reviewer is reading through the proposals, but she’s left at the last
moment. It’s 6 a.m. on the day she’s flying to Washington. She’s sitting
at the bus stop, it’s raining, she has the flu, and she’s got your
proposal in front of her. Your writing should be able to persuade her
that this is a great proposal, even under those conditions.
Brett Tyler, Virginia Bioinformatics Institute.
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What the committee does:
◦ May include specialists and non-specialists,
supported by reviewers
◦ One or two-stage bidding process
◦ Sharing of bids among committee members,
e.g. 2 members per proposal suggest initial score
◦ Committee discusses and reviews scores, then
ranks proposals accordingly
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SIGNIFICANCE
◦ Show fit with the funder’s aims
◦ Make it stand out from the crowd and be memorable
◦ Show why it matters to non-specialists,
Likelihood of SUCCESS
◦ Provide a detailed description of your approach
◦ Offer evidence that this approach will work
GOOD VALUE
◦ Match the requested resources to the project description
◦ Show how these resources will fulfil the objectives. This
is NOT the same as being ‘cheap’
COMPETENCE of the team
◦ Include evidence to convince the funder that your team
and the institution behind it can deliver
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Follow the guidelines
Keep it simple and speed readable
◦ Suitable for non-specialists
◦ Simple writing, short sentences, no abbreviations
◦ Use and repeat memorable phrases
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Use a ‘top-down’ writing style
◦ Academics often do the opposite
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Don’t blind them with ‘science’!
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Use a clear and logical structure
◦ Consistent headings
◦ Lots of signposting and section links (e.g. ‘this
section explains that…’ and ‘the next section will...’
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Write the Description of Research first, then the
Background, Introduction and finally, the Summary
◦ Use key sentences in the Summary from the Case for
Support.
◦ Repeat key phrases several times
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Draft, redraft, and redraft
1.
2.
Introduction: project aims & research question
Background
i.
ii.
iii.
iv.
Describe your research
3.
I.
II.
III.
4.
Why the question is important (provide evidence)
Break the question down into 3-5 sub-questions, things
you need to know to answer the main question
Why you are competent
Why your approach will succeed
Explain what you will do, how you will do it, and how you
will know you have succeeded
Explain activity components that each answer one of the
sub-questions
Give an account of necessary resources
Your project outputs
Adapted from: www.researchfundingtoolkit.org
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Do what it takes to talk your way into more
experienced bid teams
Become friends with funders. Seek advice by
attending their events and through direct contact
Ask for input from bidding experts and choose
critical reviewers to read your bids
Get your Mum/Dad/neighbour to read it….
Bite off what you can chew, e.g. seed-corn calls or
those aimed at early career researchers, then build
from there
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You need to be good and lucky to succeed
Most bids fail and rejection hurts
Even bidding stars get regular rejections (and
feel sore/cross/angry/despairing about it)
Waste not, want not
◦ Recycle, recycle, recycle….
◦ Be creative. Different funders, responsive vs nonresponsive modes, talks, journal articles
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Aldridge, J. & Derrington, A. (2012) The Research
Funding Toolkit, Sage Publications.
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Different funders’ own websites
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www.researchfundingtoolkit.org
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JISC, details on bid writing found at:
http://www.jiscrsc.ac.uk/media/106046/good_bid_w
riting.pdf
Day Peters, A. (2003) Winning Research Funding
Gower.
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OU - Funding for Your Research
http://intranet6.open.ac.uk/research-scholarshipquality/main/funding-research
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VRE – Professional Skills for Research Leaders online short course: Module 3 - Funding Your Research
http://www.open.ac.uk/students/research/content/professionalskills-research-leaders
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Vitae website - Applying for Research Funding
https://www.vitae.ac.uk/doing-research/leadership-developmentfor-principal-investigators-pis/leading-a-research-project/applyingfor-research-funding/applying-for-research-funding