Research Grant

1. RESEARCH AND GRANT WRITING
AND PUBLICATION
Prof. GAMBARI, Amosa Isiaka
Dean, School of Science and Technology Education
Federal University of Technology, Minna, Nigeria
E-mail: gambari@futminna.edu.ng
Phone No: +234-803-689-7955

2.  Definitions
 Meaning of Grant Proposal
 Fund and Funders
 Key Elements of a Grant Proposal
 Review Process
 Why Proposal Fails
 Popular Websites for Funders
 Academic Publication
 Structure of Manuscripts
 Conclusion
Presentation Outline

3.  Definitions
Research is the systematic investigation into
and study of materials and sources in order to
establish facts and reach new conclusions
A research proposal is a written document
that provides an overview of the project, why it
is important, and what is needed to get it
done. It generally constitutes a request for
sponsorship
A grant is fund given by an end entity to an
individual or another entity for a specific
purpose linked to public benefit

4.  What is a Grant Proposal?
Grant are essential to expanding programme/project
resources
A Grant proposal must be clearly defined a specific problem
you have identified in your community or an area of interest
It must describe a plan that will address the problem, and
then your grant proposal must detail the plan in detail for the
funding body
Most grants are awarded on a competitive basis
Research and grants can actually make you rich

6.  Before You Write the Grant Proposal
Obtain grant proposal guidelines
Review eligibility requirements
Identify match/leveraging
requirements
Know the submission deadline
Determine the personnel needs
Other administrative requirements

7.  Qualities of a Good Grant Proposal
Its clear!
Its precise!
Its persuasive!

8. Grant Writing Procedures

9. • Consider Hiring a Professional Writer
Many organisations chose to hire
a professional grant writer. The
advantage with this is that the
grant writer can invest more time
to the proposal, which you might
not have.
There are team of professional
and experienced grant writers
ready to help you. E.g. Red Tape
Busters, grant writer Melbourne,
etc.

10. Funds and Funders

11. Types of Funds
Public funds (Government)
• Request for Proposal (RFP)
• Request for Application (RFA)
• Notice of Funding Availability
(NOFA)
Foundation (Private sector)
• National
• Special Interest
• Family
• Corporate or company-based

12. Key Elements
of a Grant
Proposal

13. • Cover letter
• Title of proposed research
• Thematic area
• Abstract or summary
• Background or significance of study
• Statement of the Problem
• Aim and objectives
• Research questions
• Literature review
• Theoretical framework
• Research Methodology
• Expected results/outcomes
• Innovation
• Budget
• References
• Brief CV of principal investigator or CVs of all
investigators
Key Elements of a Grant Proposal

14. • Letters of consent
• A proposal can be greatly
strengthened if letters of consent to
participate from collaborators,
cooperating organizations or
consultants are included in the
proposal
• Many sponsors (e.g., the World Bank)
Bank) actually require such letters
• Remember that they may prove
harder to obtain than initially thought
thought
• So plan early for them
Cover letter

15. • Come up with an attention
grabbing title that communicate the
key points and focus of the
application
• Title should reflect the content or
overall idea of the project.
• Be mindful of the word limit as
specified in the call notice Use
appropriate key words
• Avoid words that add nothing to
reviewers or reader’s
understanding such as “Studies
on...,” "Investigations...," or
"Research on some problems in.... ”
Title of Proposed Research

16. • Thematic area
• Select appropriate thematic area for
the proposed project
• Background to the research
• This should:
• Contain brief definition of research
problems and justification for
conducting the proposed research
with respect to needs of the society;
industry and economy
• Adequately highlight the originality of
of the proposed research
(innovation)
Background to the Research

17. • A comprehensive and precise
articulation of the research
problem that you intend to
address within the scope of
your research interest.
• Don’t forget to add the possible
causes of the problems and
how it will be addressed.
• Without a well-defined
research problem, your
proposal will be rejected
Statement of the problem

18. • Put the problem in context
(what do we already
know?)
• Describe the precise issue
that the research will
address (What do we need
to know?) which must be
linked to study.
• Show the relevance of the
problem (Why do we need
to know it?)
Guidelines for writing statement of the
problem

19. • Intended outcomes of the project
• Research objective should:
• Be SMART (specific, measurable,
achievable, realistic and time-
bound)
• Clearly correlate with, title,
methodologies, and hopefully
later with results and conclusions
• Focus on outcome as opposed to
process
• Use active and measurable terms
e.g. “To characterize”, “To
determine etc
Research Objectives

20. • Provide brief review of recent
related literature or works to the
proposed research in order to
present the research trend and
progress, and identify the
gap.
• Knowledge gap identified in
literature review section help to
better define the statement of the
research problem
• Use appropriate search engines to
generate current and relevant
literature
• Avoid review obsolete literature
Literature review

21. • Provides a well-supported
rationale to conduct a
proposed study, and helps the
reviewer to understand the
perspective
• A good theoretical frame
work assures the reviewer
that the proposed research is
not based merely on personal
instinct or guess, but rather
informed by established
theory and empirical facts
obtained from credible
published research
Theoretical framework

22. • Briefly describe the approaches and
methods that will be employed to
achieve the desired outcomes, a
timeline and a detailed workplan.
This section can be organized in
different ways:
• By activities tied to specific
procedures
• By objectives tied to standard
methods
• By functional categories such as
planning, development, and
implementation
• Emphasis should be made where
ethical clearance need to be secured
for the proposed study
Research methodology

23. • The applicant is required to highlight
the expected results the project will
achieve during the project period in
line with the project objective(s)
• The description of the expected results
is a way of helping the reader
understand the linkage between the
project and its rationale
Expected results

24. • This section will introduce
reviewers to the innovative
approach you will use to address
the problem
• A brief summary of the
uniqueness of the project
• How different is the proposed
project to previous or other
projects?
Innovation

25. • Detailed analysis of the amount required to execute the
proposed research.
• Budget format:
• Line-item budget,
• Budget narrative,
• Budget components,
• Salaries, Fringe benefits,
• Supplies and materials,
• Equipment,
• Facilities,
• Personnel Cost,
• Consultant/contractual fees,
• Travel,
• Overhead/indirect costs, etc.
Budget

26. • The maximum number of
references to be cited are
indicated in the call notice in most
cases
• Follow the reference format in the
call notice
References

27. • Full names, rank and area of
specialization of members of the
research team are provided, and
the Principal Investigator is
indicated
• Research team members should
have adequate experience or
training in the area of the
proposed research
• Inter-University/Intra-University
and industry collaboration are
encouraged
Research Team

28. • Aim
• To evaluate competence and
intellectual merit of the proposed
study
• To evaluate the broader impacts of
the proposed study
• To evaluate contributions to societal
goals and developmental needs
• Merit review criteria
• Intellectual merit and the potential to
advance knowledge
• Broader impacts-potential to benefit
society and contribute to the
achievement of specific, desired
societal outcomes
Review Process

29. • What is the potential of the proposed study
to:
• Advance knowledge in its own field or
across different fields (intellectual merit);
and
• Benefit society or advance desired societal
outcomes (Broader impacts)?
• To what extent do the proposed activities
suggest and explore creative, original, or
potentially transformative concepts?
• Is the proposed study design well planned ,
and based on sound rationale or scientific
principles?
• How qualified is the individual, team, or
organization to conduct the proposed
activities?
Review Process

30. Why Proposal Fail

31. • The problem is not of sufficient
importance or is unlikely to produce
any new or useful information
•
• The problem is scientifically
premature and warrants, at most,
only a pilot study
• The description of the nature of the
research and of its significance
leaves the proposal nebulous and
diffuse, and without a clear
research objective
Problem

32. • The description of the approach is too diffuse
and lacks in clarity to permit adequate
evaluation
• The proposed study has not been carefully
designed
• The statistical aspects of the approach have
not been given sufficient consideration
• Experimental control is either inadequately
conceived or inadequately described
• The equipment contemplated is obsolete or
otherwise unsuitable
Approach

33. • The investigator does not have
adequate experience or training for
the proposed research
• The investigator appears to be
unfamiliar with recent and pertinent
literature or methods
• The investigator proposes to rely
heavily on insufficiently
experienced associates or
colleagues
Investigator

34.  Inability to write the clearly and concisely
 Lack of human capacity development
 Low budget or too large (padding) for the proposed
study
 Gender inequality in most cases
 Absence of inter-disciplinary research
 Preliminary Data not convincing
 No innovation is noted
 Significance is unclear
 Failure to strictly adhere to call guidelines
 Lack of international collaborators (bigwigs)
Others

35. Proofreading

36. • Final draft of a proposal should be
proofread by someone other than
the primary grant writer
• Ask other successful investigators to
proofread your grant and provide
feedback
• Make sure your grant is
grammatically correct
• Check spelling and punctuation
• Look for errors in logic or
presentation
Proofreading

37. • Check the deadline. Late proposals not
considered,
• Check signature and date
• Make sure font size, margins and length
are within guidelines
• Page limitations
• Administrative approval –Sponsored
Programmes will help. Let them know early
• Letter from consultants/collaborators
• Manuscript/Publications
• Cover letter
• Electronic or delivery service or both? File
format
• Web sites can get jammed near deadline
Submission

38. Popular Websites

39. • The Foundation Centre: www.fdncentre.org
• Foundation online: www.foundations.org
• The Grantsmanship Centre: www.tgci.com
• Nonprofit Resource Centre: www.not-for-profit.org
• The Government: www.grants.gov
• Other Resources
• Funding Directories
• Foundation Annual Reports
• Professional Memberships
Popular Websites for Funders

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Other Important Points to Note
Writing with clarity
 The importance of grammar and clarity
Ensure CQPSR
 Cite accurately
 Quote accurately
 Paraphrase accurately
 Summarise accurately
 Reference accurately and consistently
Give your work to a more experienced colleague to
check for you (subject experts & language experts)
Check for plagiarism before submitting
Presentable, organized and well packaged

41. 41

42. Academic Publication

43. 43
Why Publishing Research Project Output?
PUBLICATION is a means of sharing
knowledge with the scientific
community.
Note
 Research is not complete until is
published
 If your research does not generate
paper, it might just as well not
have been done

 “If it wasn’t published, it wasn’t
done” - in E.H. Miller 1993

44. 44
Channels for Dissemination
Channels for disseminating research project outputs
 Focused/target group meeting
 Stakeholders meeting
 Press briefing/press release/Newsletters
 Printed or digital material (leaflets, brochures and
posters)
 Project workshops/seminar
 Conferences
 Project website/Institution repository
 Social media platform (researchgate, twitter,
LinkedIn, mendeley, facebook etc)
 Journals

45. Structuring a manuscript

46. Outline of a good TITLE
• Must attract readers attention
• Must reflect the content of the paper
• Must be informative but concise
Keywords
• Used by indexing and abstracting
services
• It reflect the subject matter of the
manuscript
• The number of keywords should not
be more than 5
Manuscript flow: Structure

47. Outline of a good ABSTRACT?
• Short and precise
• General statement about the topic
• State the objective of the study
• State method used
• Summarize most important result
• State major conclusion and significance
Manuscript flow: Structure
Outline of INTRODUCTION
• General Statement/background to study
• Review of past works on the study
• Establish the research gap/problem
statement
• State your contribution

48. Outline of a good METHODOLOGY
• Include detailed information to enable
readers reproduce the experiment
• Use supporting materials/reference to
indicate previously published procedure
• Use flowchart if need be
Outline of a good RESULT presentation
• The result should be essential for
discussion
• Use sub-heading to keep results of same
type together-it make it easier to read
and review
• Use high quality illustrations (tables and
figure) to present your results
Manuscript flow: Structure

49. Outline of a good Discussion
• How do your results relate to original
question/objectives outlined in the introduction
• Relate your conclusion to existing knowledge
• Discuss weaknesses and discrepancies
• Explain what is new without exaggerating
• Do not repeat results
Outline of a good Conclusion
• Conclusion/summary, perspectives, implications
• Show how your work advance the field from the
present state of knowledge
• Provide clear justification for your work and
indicate uses and extension if appropriate
• Suggest future work
Manuscript flow: Structure

50. Outline of Reference
• Only cite the main scientific
publication/material relevant to your
work
• Cite more recent publication from
reputable journals (not more than
5year)
• Avoid excessive citation of
publication from the same region
• Avoid excessive self-citation
• Cite at least 3 papers from the
intended journal
Manuscript flow: Structure

51. • Make the reference list and the in-
text citation conform strictly of
journal style and format.
• Checking the format is normally a
large job for the editors, so make
their work easier and they will
appreciate it.
• Use referencing software if
possible (e,g Endnote, Mendeley,
etc)
Cont…

52. Conclusions

53. Conclusions
You need to be highly motivated
to win a grant
Success usually comes after
repeated and consistent
attempts
Focus on getting the following
right: The problem statement;
The objectives, methodology,
The grammar and flow.
Don’t be too ambitious in your
aims and objectives
You may sound unbelievable
Failed projects cause long-term
reputation damage to
researchers

54. THANK YOU FOR YOUR
ATTENTION