Applying for research grants will be a familiar term for students who aspire to be a researcher. For researcher and scholars funding is a very important aspect to support the research in their respective field. For a researcher related to a scientific organization that willing to pour their money to cover the research cost, the funding is not an issue. However, for an independent researcher or in a scientific organization with a limited budget, they have to look for the money somewhere else, including applying for research grants. The effort to get the research grant can be somehow tiring and frustrating, as it tends to drain time and energy to prepare for the proposal and the application. Moreover, patience is also needed when you are in the process of applying for a research grant, as there is always a possibility that even after all the effort the fund provider chooses to award the grant to other parties due to various reasons.
In order to increase your chance to be awarded the grant, we recommend you to follow the steps and tips in this article for your research grant application process. You can use the steps as a guideline in applying for the grant, so you know what has to be done as well as the consideration. Here the step by steps:
- Look for and identify potential sources of funding. The source of funding is varied, from the nonprofit public organization or government-funded body. Either way, the most important point in this particular process is to know and identify fund provider that most likely willing to provide the fund. You can predict this by checking on the organization’s interest, vision, and objectives. The organization with similar objectives with your research is more likely to award you the grant. For a list of fund provider, you may want to visit the FoundationCenter.org.
- The next step in applying for research grants is to learn about the fund provider guidelines for grant research application. You have to make sure you read and learn all of the grant research application guidelines before sending your application to a particular organization. This step is important because a lot of otherwise qualified applicant is disqualified because of a minor mistake in their proposal.
- Identify and evaluate the unique and distinctive aspect of your research project. The grant provider will have a lot of applications to choose and the decider often lies in the uniqueness of a particular research project. So, in order to increase the possibility of your proposal to be chosen, you have to able to show them that your research is different than the other.
- Calculate the numbers. Because the grant is related to money and command accountability, it is recommendable to you to present your research description with valid number and statistics.
- Mention and specify the effect of your research project to the society. Grant provider will more likely to award the grant to a research project which has considerable impact on the real world.
References:
- SciDev.net: How do I apply for a research grant?
- U.S. Department of Health and Human Services: Grant Application Basics
- Images: lupusmn.org, lgmd2ifund.org
