Research Proposal Workshop

Overview

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Alumni Membership

An Intensive Workshop For Researchers

Tuition for this comprehensive 3-day training is $1195 /$1095 with early registration.

"I got it--$239,000 for three years. It is big money to start and I consider this a clear signal that this workshop helps potential grantees in getting funded, at least it was for me."

Dario C. Ramirez, M.Sc, Ph.D.
Free Radical Biology and Aging Research Program
Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation
Oklahoma City, Oklahoma

Effective Training for Intense Competition
Research grant awards are critical in the professional lives of researchers. Our 3-day proposal writing workshop is team-taught by expert trainers who understand what can make a proposal more competitive and more likely to be competitively reviewed.

This highly interactive training engages participants in active thinking about how to frame their research questions, discuss the significance of their work for society and their own fields, distill the proposal into an effective abstract, and clearly convey the skills of the investigator.

The curriculum is designed to train researchers and faculty, at colleges and universities, to incorporate planning into their writing and to help participants draft viable proposals capable of being carried out. Often, success in obtaining grant funding is an essential career skill for faculty at research and academic institutions.

Developed in 2002, in partnership with Sigma Xi, The Science Research Society, the Research Proposal Workshop has been presented at universities, health organizations, and a National Institutes of Health center. Participants have included researchers, university and college faculty, post-doctoral fellows and doctoral students. This workshop is specifically designed for those who seek funds to conduct research in areas of scientific and social significance.

The workshop explores a number of fundamental issues:

• Using key elements (the abstract, title and research aim sections) in marketing crucial concepts
• The major factors that affect success in a competitive process
• How to strengthen each section of the proposal
• Review processes and how feedback leads to funding
• Developing relations with grant makers

Feedback from workshop participants highlights the importance of the workshop in:

• Articulating focused and manageable research questions
• Strengthening significance statements
• Improving strategies for identifying the skills and capacities of the investigator
• Organizing the proposal into a logical sequence of ideas that answer the questions reviewers will be asking
• Identifying potential funding sources, and understanding the need to respond to the demands of specific grantmakers.

"It's official: I got the grant—first round of the Pathway to Independence awards too! If I hadn't learned how to focus my specific aims, my grant proposal could have been interpreted as a giant fishing expedition that no one would fund! I am deliriously happy and feel like I have just won the lottery. Thanks for an excellent class!"
--Michelle Block, Ph.D.
Department of Anatomy & Neurobiology
Virginia Commonwealth University Medical Campus
Richmond, Virginia

If your institution would like to host the Research Proposal Workshop, please call (800) 421-9512; within California, dial (213) 482-9860.