Tips For Writing a Winning Grant Proposal

Writing a winning grant proposal is not an easy task. This series of tips aims to provide the main ‘ingredients’ that will make your grant proposal a successful one.

1. Aim for funding opportunities with the highest success rates. There are many funding opportunities available for submission, some local, some international. Many funding organizations will list the success rates of applying to their funding opportunities on their website. Usually, local funding opportunities have higher success rates than international ones, so look to your local funding organizations first.
2. Target the most suitable funding opportunity for your needs. There are a few items to take into consideration when choosing a funding opportunity. First, check your eligibility for each specific opportunity. Some calls for submissions are targeted towards specific topics or principal investigators with specific qualifications (for example, young physicians with up to a specific number of years of experience). It is imperative to check if you meet the qualifications and eligibility criteria, and if your subject of interest is suitable.
3. Register before you apply. Most funding organizations require a registration process to be completed before the commencement of the submission process. Check the registration deadline carefully and gather the information needed to register in advance to allow enough time for completing the registration process.
4. Plan your proposed research in an organized manner. Unclear or unorganized research goals can result in wasting valuable time which could have been spent on working on other sections of the grant or bringing the research design to a state of excellence. Thus, be prepared in advance and know what you want to do and how you are going to do it before you start the writing process.
5. Highlight the ways in which your research proposal is unique and innovative. What makes it stand out from other submitted proposals? Think about these aspects from a reviewer’s point of view. How does your application differ from anything else that has ever been done before?

These are just 5 tips that are critical for planning a successful grant proposal.

Written by:

Liat Laufer

Medical Writer