BRILLIANT BIDS CREATING FUNDING APPLICATIONS THAT STAND OUT J A - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

BRILLIANT BIDS – CREATING FUNDING APPLICATIONS THAT STAND OUT J A N E T TAY L O R A N D N I N A H A K A N PA A

SURF’S UP UP N I N A A N D J A N E T ’ S C O O L C H A R I T Y

WE HATE POLLUTION, BUT WE LIKE HAVING FUN • ‘Making the world a better place through surfing ’

THE FUNDING CALL: £250,000 funding * is available for multi-disciplinary projects up to 24 months in duration that address Surf’s up aims which include: • Engaging surfing communities to tackle ocean pollution • Helping people of all ages and abilities to learn to surf • Developing cutting edge technologies that help people surf, for example through board design, clothing and other technological advances * we don’t actually have £250K to give away today!

ELIGIBILITY: • Applications are only eligible from researchers who have attended the ‘Welcome to the Research Conference event’, and from researchers based at Edinburgh Napier University • Project teams must have members from more than one School • Applications should indicate if they are from non-surfers or surfers

APPLICATION PROCESS: • Each group will have 20 mins to prepare their application. • Deadlines for applications close at 12.30 pm . Each project team should prepare a verbal presentation of their project of no more than 2 mins which can be accompanied by a visual aid using one side of Flipchart paper. • The application should briefly describe: – The aim of the project – What the project will do and who will do it – Rough costings (for people, equipment, field work or travel) – Outputs – Impact

APPLICATION CRITERIA: • Applications will be judged against the following criteria: – Importance and innovation of the project – Likelihood of successful delivery (within budget and to timescale) – Multi-disciplinary nature of the project – Engagement with surfing communities – Impact on real world problems – Alignment with the funder’s aims

DECISION PROCESS: The panel will consider all eligible applications and will use the following scoring for each criteria: 0 – no evidence that the project meets the criteria 1 – some evidence that the project meets the criteria 2 – strong evidence that the project meets the criteria • The panel’s decision will be final and the panel reserve the right to not fund any projects. The successful project team will be informed after the panel meeting. Funding will then be released to the project team within 3 months* *remember this is all just for fun and Nina and Janet don’t actually have any money to give away.

YOUR TIME STARTS NOW!

UNDERSTA TAND WHAT FUNDERS ARE INTERESTED IN Research that addresses their aims • Have you understood what the funder is about? Excellent research • Is your research innovative? Outcomes and impact.

MAPPING AGAINST THE FUNDERS INTERESTS • Research the funder to see what their priorities are – Web sites – Annual reports • Most funders have an individual named as specific contact for each grant – use them!

WHAT ARE FUNDERS LOOKING FOR? Importance Success Value Competence

AUDIENCE • The people reading your application are likely to be non-specialists • They are also very busy people • Its really important that your application is: – easy to read and understand – easy to remember – convincing

GET FEEDBACK FROM ‘CRITICAL FRIENDS’ • Choose non-specialists • Choose people with grant committee experience • Don’t choose people who will be too nice • Don’t choose people who never win research grants

COMMON PITFALLS • Not being clear on what you plan to do or how you will do it • Expecting the reviewers to have lots of time to read your proposal • Not showing why the project is important • Not showing that you have the skills and experience to successfully carry out the work

SELL YOUR PROPOSAL ! Why this Why you? question? Why Why here? now?

AND THE WINNER IS…?