Part 3b: Writing your grant like a pro - Structure and style of your grant narrative

3rd / 4th year PhD students who wish to pursue a career in research. It is advisable to follow this training much in advance (at least 3 months) of the envisaged grant deadline. This training is most useful in conjunction with the Rubicon Grant Writing Training. Ideally (but not compulsory), you have also participated in the courses ‘Beginner’s Guide to Grant Writing’ and ‘From Chaos to Focus’. You will need to register separately for these courses (Registration links for these courses can be found below).

One of the main hallmarks of an unsuccessful grant proposal is the disconnect between what the grant author has to propose and how the grant committee receives the proposal. Typically, this disconnect is caused by two factors: insufficient writing skills and the unjustified expectation that the grant committee has as much expertise and interest in the topic as the grant author.

This training takes you stepwise through the main techniques of compelling writing. Among these techniques are: achieving clarity, structuring your argumentation, achieving cohesion and coherence, simplicity, motivating the audience, and using the proper register and tone. You will use the Summary of your grant proposal to practice these techniques and produce a grant narrative that is fit to convince and enthuse a grant committee of educated, yet non-expert members.

Writing Your Grant Like A Pro is Part 3B of our four-step series on grant writing for PhD students:

• Part 1: Beginner’s guide to grant writing,
• Part 2: From chaos to focus: how to develop your own research plan in academia
• Part 3a: Rubicon Grant Writing Training

All courses can be taken separately as well.

Requirements for participation (compulsory):

• You have excellent English language skills (grammar and syntax)
• You have a clear idea about the research you would like to get funded
• You submit the registration assignment (Background of your grant proposal; see below) TOGETHER with your registration form

• Unfortunately this course is not taught currently. We will do our utmost to get it up and running again as soon as possible.

€ 200*

*PhD Scholarship students who cannot cover the costs with their PhD training budget can request a reduction in course costs. Please contact the Groningen Graduate Schools and we will inform you further.

During the course participants will learn to:

• understand the expectations of a mixed audience of grant reviewers and learn how to meet them
• write the background section of their potential grant proposal and fine-tune it to the reviewers’ expectations, applying key elements of structure and style
• learn how to 'sell' their grant proposal

Keywords: Grant proposal, writing techniques, audience, structure, elements of style, reviewers’ expectations

Groningen Graduate Schools, phd-cps@rug.nl

Find an overview of other grant writing courses offered by Talent Development here