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Six Essential Questions When You Are Considering Applying for a Grant

Are you a researcher who is interested applying for a grant?

The first and most important point that many academically-trained people find difficult when they are first learning to write about grants is that this is a sales job, not an academic writing job. As such, you approach this with a different mindset. The focus must be different than when you are writing research articles to inform your colleagues.
  • How is your work going to be good for society? What will it do for other people?
  • Why are you the best person for the job? 
  • How is your proposal different than what went before? How does it build on what has already been done?

Here are six fantastic questions to help focus your efforts from https://www.emporia.edu/dotAsset/d54daadf-1c9b-4dd8-83bf-4733004f0f6e.pdf

1. What are you passionate about, i.e., where do you think you can make a uniquely significant contribution to  your field?
2. What is the need, problem, or issue you want to address and why is it important?
3. If present knowledge or practice is inadequate, why do we need to know more and do better?
4. In what sense is your idea innovative, i.e., how does it differ from what  has already been done?
5. What makes you think your idea or approach will have better outcomes?
6. What will your research contribute and who will benefit from it?



Think about these questions for a while before you start spilling words onto the page. What do you want to do for the world with your research?

When you are certain about the value of your research for others, then it will be time for further pre-writing steps along the road to a great grant.


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