The project I proposed during GradFund’s Summer Mentoring Program in 2009 is not exactly the dissertation I’ll be defending this summer, but it— and the work I continued to do with GradFund over the next six years— shaped that dissertation and the course of my graduate career. Even as one of the few incoming grad […]
Proposal Writing Advice
Proposal Writing Advice
Becoming Fulbright Competitive
If you are a U.S. citizen and you plan to apply for funding to support overseas research, now is the time to consider whether a Fulbright fits with your plans. The Fulbright-IIE competition for the 2017-18 year has opened and the on-campus deadline for graduate students planning to apply to the study/grant award is September […]
Dissertation Completion vs. Postdoctoral Fellowships in the Humanities: Being Future-Oriented
If you’re in your final year of graduate study, you may be planning to apply for postdoctoral fellowships. This can be a particularly challenging application to manage, even if you’ve previously had success securing external funding. Here at GradFund Conversations, we’ve recently discussed how to pitch a second project, but in today’s post we will discuss the difference between applying […]
The Four “C”s of Grant Writing
An effective grant application will be clear, concise, comprehensive, and compelling. These four “C”s may help you focus the drafting and revision process for any application. Clear Aim to describe your research project so that it is intelligible to an interdisciplinary review panel. Reviewers for award competitions often have to wade through hundreds of applications. […]
Multiple Documents, One Story
The multiple documents that comprise an award application should tell a single story. Since funder awards normally require some combination of a previous research statement, a biographical essay, and a research proposal, you will want to make sure that all of your essays cohere into a compelling narrative. Each of the documents serves a distinct purpose, of […]
Securing Small Grants: Strategies and Benefits
Success in Grant Writing Series Editor’s Note: Welcome to the first installment of our Success in Grant Writing series, which will feature guest blog posts written by Rutgers graduate student winners of prestigious fellowships and grants. If you would like to share your experience with successful grant writing, please contact us through our website, gradfund.rutgers.edu As […]
Laying the Groundwork: Describing Your Preliminary Results
Hello, GradFund Readers! Whether you are a second-year PhD student preparing an NSF GRFP or an ABD (all but dissertation) PhD candidate applying for a Louis Bevier Dissertation Completion fellowship, effectively describing your preliminary research can make or break your chances of success. Today, we are going to discuss getting the most out of the […]
Pitch a Second Project: Postdoctoral Fellowships in the Humanities
To be competitive for a postdoctoral fellowship in the humanities, you will need to describe your plans for a second project. Doctoral students who are still in the process of dissertation writing often find this to be a challenging task. You may wonder, “How I can I think about a second project when I haven’t […]
Best Practices in Grantsmanship: Working with Institutional Contacts
Best Practices in Grantsmanship Series note: Welcome to the second installment of Best Practices in Grantsmanship. In this series we will periodically post advice and suggestions that reflect best practices in grantsmanship. In the first installment, we introduced the key partnerships in the application process. Below, we address how to determine whether you will need to work with institutional contacts and the […]
Best Practices in Grantsmanship: Key Partnerships during the Application Process
Best Practices in Grantsmanship Series note: Welcome to the first installment of Best Practices in Grantsmanship. We will periodically post advice and suggestions that reflect best practices in grantsmanship. Applying for grants successfully rarely happened alone. While a researcher will be quick to point out that much about writing a grant application is a solitary […]