Face to Face Workshop on Writing Proposals for Grant Funding

Date: 1^st & 2^nd , May 2023  

Time: 09:00 AM – 17:00 PM UAE Time
Early Bird Fee: 2125 AED (578 USD) (for registration fully completed prior April 1, 2023)
Webinar Fee : 2500 AED (680 USD) (for registration after April 1, 2022)
Venue: Pullman Creek City Center Hotel, Dubai, UAE

Overview

Gaining funding for research and activity-oriented projects is an important aspect of any academic’s life and is also increasingly critical to the status of institutions of higher education in national and global ranking systems.  At an individual level, the amount of funding raised is used as an indicator in applications for employment and promotion and successful grant applications make a huge difference to an individual’s curriculum vitae. At institutional level, grants allow for increased production of research and for enhanced visibility and networking with other universities and colleges.

Funding can come from large foundations as well as from business and the state. In some contexts, institutions and individuals rely heavily on projects intended to meet the needs of government and industry to fund their research. In others, the focus is more on gaining grants from philanthropic funding agencies.

Rejection rates for grant applications are very high, however. The Wellcome Trust, for example, funded only 20% of the applications it received in the 2017/2018 year.  The application process is likely to become even more competitive as we move into the future as the COVID-19 pandemic has impacted on the amount of funding made available by many state-funded organisations.

The aim of this workshop is to develop participants’ ability to write successful grant applications.  It does this by seeing the development of a grant application as a process which begins with the identification of potential funders in an individual’s area of research and potential academic activity.

It then moves on to reading actual funding proposals in order to identify the criteria that funders will use to judge applications.  Identifying criteria and writing a proposal which clearly demonstrates how will they be met is key to a successful application.  In the workshop, participants will be invited to work with calls for funding to identify these criteria (which, in some cases may be more difficult to spot than others) and to design projects that will ensure they are met.

Applications also require information about implementation and monitoring in a process that often calls for the completion of a ‘log frame’.  Developing a log frame means that project goals, outcomes, outputs and activities need to be identified.  Participants will be guided in seeing the differences between goals, outcomes, outputs and activities and in identifying indicators necessary for project implementation and monitoring.  The importance of developing means of verification for each indicator will also be addressed along with the need to state assumptions and identify potential risks.

Project funding is often only released in tranches and is dependent on the submission of regular reports. The final part of the webinar will deal with the need for reporting on progress in order to ensure continued funding and, also, to pave the way for more funding of future projects.

Webinar Objectives

By the end of the webinar participants will be able to:

• Find potential funders of research or academic activities in their own area of expertise
• Identify criteria for funding in a call for funding
• Identify the basic features of a project that will meet the criteria in their subject area
• Distinguish between goals, outcomes, outputs and activities in project design
• Identify indicators against which achievement can be measured
• Identify means of verification for those indicators
• Complete a project log frame

Key Topics

The workshop will be offered in the form of a number of interrelated sessions as follows:

Session 1: Identifying Potential Funders

• Who funds research?
• How do funders decide on what they will give money for?
• Where to look for calls for funding
• Getting notifications of calls for funding.

 Session 2: Analysing a Call for Funding

• Identifying eligibility for funding
• Examining criteria for funding
• Adapting existing ideas and proposals to meet calls and criteria
• Identifying the basic features of a project that will meet criteria

Session 3: Developing a Log Frame

• The difference between project goals, outcomes, outputs and activities
• Identification of indicators for the measurement of progress against goals, outcome and outputs
• Providing evidence to verify achievement against indicators
• Reflecting on progress and taking action to keep on track

Session 4: Project Reporting

• Reporting against indicators in a log frame
• Reporting deviations and asking for permission for project modifications
• Financial reporting
• Writing the final ‘closing off’ report

Who is this Webinar for?

• Academics interested in seeking funding for their research or for activity based projects in their area of interest
• Directors and Deputy Vice Presidents of Research
• Directors and Deputy Vice Presidents of Community Engagement

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