Category Archives: Application advice
Applying for research funding – is it worth it?
A version of this article first appeared in Funding Insight on 6th March 2018 and is reproduced with kind permission of Research Professional. For more articles like this, visit www.researchprofessional.com Success rates are low and applications are more and more … Continue reading
Posted in Application advice, Career Young Researchers, Funding, University culture
Comments Off on Applying for research funding – is it worth it?
Mistakes in Grant Writing, part 95 – “The Gollum”
A version of this article first appeared in Funding Insight on 20th July 2017 and is reproduced with kind permission of Research Professional. For more articles like this, visit www.researchprofessional.com * * * * * * * * * * … Continue reading
Posted in Application advice, Frustrations, Funding, University culture
Comments Off on Mistakes in Grant Writing, part 95 – “The Gollum”
“Once more unto the breach” – Should I resubmit my unsuccessful research grant application?
This article first appeared in Funding Insight on 11th May 2017 and is reproduced with kind permission of Research Professional. For more articles like this, visit www.researchprofessional.com * * * * * * * * * * * * * … Continue reading
Posted in Application advice, British Academy, Career Young Researchers, ESRC, Funding, University culture
Comments Off on “Once more unto the breach” – Should I resubmit my unsuccessful research grant application?
How useful is reading examples of successful grant applications?
This article is prompted by a couple of twitter conversations around a Times Higher Education article which quotes Ross Mounce, founding editor of Research Ideas and Outcomes, who argues for open publication at every stage of the research process, including … Continue reading
Getting research funding: the significance of significance
In a excellent recent blog post, Lachlan Smith wrote about the “who cares?” question that potential grant applicants ought to consider, and that research development staff ought to pose to applicants on a regular basis. Why is this research important, … Continue reading
ESRC success rates 2014/2015 – a quick and dirty commentary
The ESRC has issued its annual report and accounts for the financial year 2014/15, and they don’t make good reading. As predicted by Brian Lingley and Phil Ward back in January on the basis of the figures from the July … Continue reading
Grant Writing Mistakes part 94: The “Star Wars”
Have you seen Star Wars? Even if you haven’t, you might be aware of the iconic opening scene, and in particular the scrolling text that begins “A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away….” (Incidentally, this means that … Continue reading
Posted in Application advice, British Academy, Career Young Researchers, ESRC, Frustrations, Funding, University culture
Comments Off on Grant Writing Mistakes part 94: The “Star Wars”
ESRC success rates 2013/2014
The ESRC Annual Report for 2013-14 has been out for quite a while now, and a quick summary and analysis from me is long overdue. Although I was tempted to skip straight through all of the good news stories about … Continue reading
Pre-mortems: Tell me why your current grant application or research project will fail
I came across a really interesting idea the other day week via the Freakonomics podcast – the idea of a project “pre-mortem” or “prospective hindsight” They interviewed Gary Klein who described it as follows: KLEIN: I need you to be … Continue reading
Posted in Application advice, Funding, Funding Policy, University culture
4 Comments
Six writing habits I reckon you ought to avoid in grant applications…..
There are lots of mistakes to avoid in writing grant applications, and I’ve written a bit about some of them in some previous posts (see “advice on grant applications” link above). This one is more about writing habits. I read … Continue reading