Crafting fundable proposals: A team approach to grant writing

Getting funding is tough! A new initiative where departmental staff members provide input for their colleagues' grants got off to a great start.

by Mike Toscano

I have organized a grant writing and development course aimed at PhD students and early postdocs who are keen to gain grant-writing experience. However, they have questions regarding how to get started and what to be included. The course involves an exercise where participants submit a two-page research proposal that is then circulated to two members of the class for review. The student reviewers (i.e., not the author) present the idea and their evaluation using a standard evaluation template.

From this discussion, the first Vetsuisse grant review was held with five participants reviewing four grants. As in the class, grants were presented by the lead reviewer with a second reviewer contributing. In the discussion where one member who did not read the research proposal beforehand, the actual author was excluded but she/he could listen to the entire discussion. Even though my grant got torn to shreds by my colleagues, the discussion was exactly what I needed to see how my ideas were not being communicated. Based on the positive feedback from participants, we agreed that this was the first, but definitely not last session. Plans were made for a second round in February 2025 so please watch this space and look for the announcement!

When presenting, the author of the proposal is in the room but can’t interact with the others. The course gets positive reviews from participants who are surprised that their ideas which seemed so clear during writing are so difficult to understand by others. Although I lead the course, I have learned so much seeing how great ideas can get lost and strategies for presenting complicated ideas. Following the discussion with Vetsuisse colleagues, I wondered if our faculty could benefit as well? Beyond the benefit of getting honest and open feedback from fellow scientists leading to a better grant, we also learn about research activities in our departments and opportunities for collaboration.