You’ve spent countless hours, days, and months working on your proposal. You’ve brainstormed with colleagues, had peers provide feedback, and sought help from your institution’s Office of Research proposal development team (PLUG: At UCD, that's us — UC Davis Proposal Development Services!). Your grant is nearly done, and it’s time for the last spit and polish prior to clicking "send." Before you do, review three of our key finishing tips! 

You want to write a grant but are not sure where to begin. Or you have ideas but need help narrowing them down and developing them into a project plan. If either is true for you, read on for steps to take towards building your next proposal. 

During his tenure as director of DARPA, George Heilmeier developed a set of questions to help reviewers evaluate proposed research—criteria that get at the heart of what a strong grant proposal should address. Today, the “Heilmeier Catechism" is integrated into review criteria for most other funding agencies. So, be sure to address each of these eight questions in your next grant proposal!

Not including an evaluation plan is one of the most common mistakes that people make in grant writing. Regardless of whether your funding solicitation requires a separate section for the plan or not, you will need to include some type of assessment strategy in your proposal. What is an evaluation plan, and how is it used? Read on to learn what assessments are and why they're critical in your grant! 

The two most common types of evaluation are formative and summative assessments. 

Reading an RFP (request for proposals) can sometimes seem daunting – especially if you’re new to grant writing or it’s for a funding agency that you’re not as familiar with. RFP’s contain key details about eligibility, scope, and fit, but it is also critical to review the review criteria. Understanding how your proposal will be evaluated will help you frame your writing for a particular opportunity and make it easier for reviewers to score your proposal in the best light. How do you do this? It’s actually simpler than you think...

"Success in grant writing is a matter of style and format as much as content." - Robert Porter (2007) 

In his seminal paper, "Why Academics Have a Hard Time Writing Good Grant Proposals", @Robert Porter discusses how even the most seasoned academic writers can struggle with grant writing. The challenges come in because the style and approach to grant writing is quite different from writing for journals or academic books.  

Page limits are among the most daunting parts of grant writing. With so much to say and such limited space to say it, why would you waste that valuable real estate on visuals? Read on for reasons why you should include visuals in your grant proposals (and how). 

When preparing a proposal, you will inevitably be told to “reach out to your program officer!”  There are many good reasons why this is such a common (and critical) piece of advice to grant writers...  

There are so many good reasons to incorporate diversity, equity and inclusion practices into your work. Including a range of perspectives, backgrounds, and/or subjects, only serves to strengthen the research at hand, while also ensuring that any findings are relevant and equitable for a wider audience. So how do you do this? Read on for some suggestions on how to incorporate DEI into your grant proposals. 

I used to tell my students that awarding points on assignments shouldn’t feel like a treasure hunt. Their job was to make their key ideas clear and easy to find – Something that holds true for many things, including grant writing! Read on for some tips on how to do this when preparing your next proposal. 

Whether you're naturally a procrastinator or just very busy, we all have something that we put off until the last minute. When it comes to funding your research, there are many good reasons to start early – and many things you can do now to help yourself later!