10/25/2021 Grant Proposals (or Give me the money!

) – The Writing Center • University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Grant Proposals (or Give me

the money!)
What this handout is about
This handout will help you write and revise grant proposals for research funding in all academic
disciplines (sciences, social sciences, humanities, and the arts). It’s targeted primarily to graduate
students and faculty, although it will also be helpful to undergraduate students who are seeking
funding for research (e.g. for a senior thesis).

The grant writing process

A grant proposal or application is a document or set of documents that is submitted to an
organization with the explicit intent of securing funding for a research project. Grant writing varies
widely across the disciplines, and research intended for epistemological purposes (philosophy or
the arts) rests on very different assumptions than research intended for practical applications
(medicine or social policy research). Nonetheless, this handout attempts to provide a general
introduction to grant writing across the disciplines.

Before you begin writing your proposal, you need to know what kind of research you will be doing
and why. You may have a topic or experiment in mind, but taking the time to define what your
ultimate purpose is can be essential to convincing others to fund that project. Although some
scholars in the humanities and arts may not have thought about their projects in terms of research
design, hypotheses, research questions, or results, reviewers and funding agencies expect you to
frame your project in these terms. You may also find that thinking about your project in these terms
reveals new aspects of it to you.

Writing successful grant applications is a long process that begins with an idea. Although many
people think of grant writing as a linear process (from idea to proposal to award), it is a circular
process. Many people start by defining their research question or questions. What knowledge or
information will be gained as a direct result of your project? Why is undertaking your research
important in a broader sense? You will need to explicitly communicate this purpose to the
committee reviewing your application. This is easier when you know what you plan to achieve
before you begin the writing process.

Diagram 1 below provides an overview of the grant writing process and may help you plan your
proposal development.

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Applicants must write grant proposals, submit them, receive notice of acceptance or rejection, and
then revise their proposals. Unsuccessful grant applicants must revise and resubmit their proposals
during the next funding cycle. Successful grant applications and the resulting research lead to ideas
for further research and new grant proposals.

Cultivating an ongoing, positive relationship with funding agencies may lead to additional grants
down the road. Thus, make sure you file progress reports and final reports in a timely and
professional manner. Although some successful grant applicants may fear that funding agencies
will reject future proposals because they’ve already received “enough” funding, the truth is that

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10/25/2021 Grant Proposals (or Give me the money!) – The Writing Center • University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

money follows money. Individuals or projects awarded grants in the past are more competitive and
thus more likely to receive funding in the future.

Some general tips

1. Begin early.
2. Apply early and often.
3. Don’t forget to include a cover letter with your application.
4. Answer all questions. (Pre-empt all unstated questions.)
5. If rejected, revise your proposal and apply again.
6. Give them what they want. Follow the application guidelines exactly.
7. Be explicit and specific.
8. Be realistic in designing the project.
9. Make explicit the connections between your research questions and objectives, your
objectives and methods, your methods and results, and your results and dissemination plan.
10. Follow the application guidelines exactly. (We have repeated this tip because it is very, very
important.)

Before you start writing

Identify your needs and focus

First, identify your needs. Answering the following questions may help you:

Are you undertaking preliminary or pilot research in order to develop a full-blown research
agenda?
Are you seeking funding for dissertation research? Pre-dissertation research?
Postdoctoral research? Archival research? Experimental research? Fieldwork?
Are you seeking a stipend so that you can write a dissertation or book? Polish a
manuscript?
Do you want a fellowship in residence at an institution that will offer some programmatic
support or other resources to enhance your project?
Do you want funding for a large research project that will last for several years and involve
multiple staff members?

Next, think about the focus of your research/project. Answering the following questions may help
you narrow it down:

What is the topic? Why is this topic important?

What are the research questions that you’re trying to answer? What relevance do your
research questions have?
What are your hypotheses?

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What are your research methods?

Why is your research/project important? What is its significance?
Do you plan on using quantitative methods? Qualitative methods? Both?
Will you be undertaking experimental research? Clinical research?

Once you have identified your needs and focus, you can begin looking for prospective grants and
funding agencies.

Finding prospective grants and funding agencies

Whether your proposal receives funding will rely in large part on whether your purpose and goals
closely match the priorities of granting agencies. Locating possible grantors is a time consuming
task, but in the long run it will yield the greatest benefits. Even if you have the most appealing
research proposal in the world, if you don’t send it to the right institutions, then you’re unlikely to
receive funding.

There are many sources of information about granting agencies and grant programs. Most
universities and many schools within universities have Offices of Research, whose primary purpose
is to support faculty and students in grant-seeking endeavors. These offices usually have libraries or
resource centers to help people find prospective grants.

At UNC, the Research at Carolina office coordinates research support.

The GrantSource Library, located in Bynum Hall, provides grant-seeking assistance to UNC students
and faculty. The GrantSource Library maintains a wide variety of resources (books, journals, and
online databases) and offers workshops to help students and faculty find funding.

The UNC Medical School and School of Public Health each have their own Office of Research.

Writing your proposal

Audience
The majority of grant programs recruit academic reviewers with knowledge of the disciplines and/or
program areas of the grant. Thus, when writing your grant proposals, assume that you are
addressing a colleague who is knowledgeable in the general area, but who does not necessarily
know the details about your research questions.

Remember that most readers are lazy and will not respond well to a poorly organized, poorly written,
or confusing proposal. Be sure to give readers what they want. Follow all the guidelines for the
particular grant you are applying for. This may require you to reframe your project in a different light
or language. Reframing your project to fit a specific grant’s requirements is a legitimate and
necessary part of the process unless it will fundamentally change your project’s goals or outcomes.

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Final decisions about which proposals are funded often come down to whether the proposal
convinces the reviewer that the research project is well planned and feasible and whether the
investigators are well qualified to execute it. Throughout the proposal, be as explicit as possible.
Predict the questions that the reviewer may have and answer them. Przeworski and Salomon
(1995) note that reviewers read with three questions in mind:

What are we going to learn as a result of the proposed project that we do not know now?
(goals, aims, and outcomes)
Why is it worth knowing? (significance)
How will we know that the conclusions are valid? (criteria for success) (2)

Be sure to answer these questions in your proposal. Keep in mind that reviewers may not read every
word of your proposal. Your reviewer may only read the abstract, the sections on research design
and methodology, the vitae, and the budget. Make these sections as clear and straightforward as
possible.

Style
The way you write your grant will tell the reviewers a lot about you (Reif-Lehrer 82). From reading
your proposal, the reviewers will form an idea of who you are as a scholar, a researcher, and a
person. They will decide whether you are creative, logical, analytical, up-to-date in the relevant
literature of the field, and, most importantly, capable of executing the proposed project. Allow your
discipline and its conventions to determine the general style of your writing, but allow your own
voice and personality to come through. Be sure to clarify your project’s theoretical orientation.

Develop a general proposal and budget

Because most proposal writers seek funding from several different agencies or granting programs,
it is a good idea to begin by developing a general grant proposal and budget. This general proposal
is sometimes called a “white paper.” Your general proposal should explain your project to a general
academic audience. Before you submit proposals to different grant programs, you will tailor a
specific proposal to their guidelines and priorities.

Organizing your proposal

Although each funding agency will have its own (usually very specific) requirements, there are
several elements of a proposal that are fairly standard, and they often come in the following order:

Title page
Abstract
Introduction (statement of the problem, purpose of research or goals, and significance of
research)
Literature review

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Project narrative (methods, procedures, objectives, outcomes or deliverables, evaluation,

and dissemination)
Personnel
Budget and budget justification

Format the proposal so that it is easy to read. Use headings to break the proposal up into sections.
If it is long, include a table of contents with page numbers.

Title page

The title page usually includes a brief yet explicit title for the research project, the names of the
principal investigator(s), the institutional affiliation of the applicants (the department and
university), name and address of the granting agency, project dates, amount of funding requested,
and signatures of university personnel authorizing the proposal (when necessary). Most funding
agencies have specific requirements for the title page; make sure to follow them.

Abstract

The abstract provides readers with their first impression of your project. To remind themselves of
your proposal, readers may glance at your abstract when making their final recommendations, so it
may also serve as their last impression of your project. The abstract should explain the key
elements of your research project in the future tense. Most abstracts state: (1) the general purpose,
(2) specific goals, (3) research design, (4) methods, and (5) significance (contribution and
rationale). Be as explicit as possible in your abstract. Use statements such as, “The objective of this
study is to …”

Introduction

The introduction should cover the key elements of your proposal, including a statement of the
problem, the purpose of research, research goals or objectives, and significance of the research.
The statement of problem should provide a background and rationale for the project and establish
the need and relevance of the research. How is your project different from previous research on the
same topic? Will you be using new methodologies or covering new theoretical territory? The
research goals or objectives should identify the anticipated outcomes of the research and should
match up to the needs identified in the statement of problem. List only the principle goal(s) or
objective(s) of your research and save sub-objectives for the project narrative.

Literature review

Many proposals require a literature review. Reviewers want to know whether you’ve done the
necessary preliminary research to undertake your project. Literature reviews should be selective and
critical, not exhaustive. Reviewers want to see your evaluation of pertinent works. For more
information, see our handout on literature reviews.

Project narrative

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The project narrative provides the meat of your proposal and may require several subsections. The
project narrative should supply all the details of the project, including a detailed statement of
problem, research objectives or goals, hypotheses, methods, procedures, outcomes or deliverables,
and evaluation and dissemination of the research.

For the project narrative, pre-empt and/or answer all of the reviewers’ questions. Don’t leave them
wondering about anything. For example, if you propose to conduct unstructured interviews with
open-ended questions, be sure you’ve explained why this methodology is best suited to the specific
research questions in your proposal. Or, if you’re using item response theory rather than classical
test theory to verify the validity of your survey instrument, explain the advantages of this innovative
methodology. Or, if you need to travel to Valdez, Alaska to access historical archives at the Valdez
Museum, make it clear what documents you hope to find and why they are relevant to your historical
novel on the ’98ers in the Alaskan Gold Rush.

Clearly and explicitly state the connections between your research objectives, research questions,
hypotheses, methodologies, and outcomes. As the requirements for a strong project narrative vary
widely by discipline, consult a discipline-specific guide to grant writing for some additional advice.

Personnel

Explain staffing requirements in detail and make sure that staffing makes sense. Be very explicit
about the skill sets of the personnel already in place (you will probably include their Curriculum
Vitae as part of the proposal). Explain the necessary skill sets and functions of personnel you will
recruit. To minimize expenses, phase out personnel who are not relevant to later phases of a
project.

Budget

The budget spells out project costs and usually consists of a spreadsheet or table with the budget
detailed as line items and a budget narrative (also known as a budget justification) that explains the
various expenses. Even when proposal guidelines do not specifically mention a narrative, be sure to
include a one or two page explanation of the budget. To see a sample budget, turn to Example #1 at
the end of this handout.

Consider including an exhaustive budget for your project, even if it exceeds the normal grant size of
a particular funding organization. Simply make it clear that you are seeking additional funding from
other sources. This technique will make it easier for you to combine awards down the road should
you have the good fortune of receiving multiple grants.

Make sure that all budget items meet the funding agency’s requirements. For example, all U.S.
government agencies have strict requirements for airline travel. Be sure the cost of the airline travel
in your budget meets their requirements. If a line item falls outside an agency’s requirements (e.g.
some organizations will not cover equipment purchases or other capital expenses), explain in the
budget justification that other grant sources will pay for the item.

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Many universities require that indirect costs (overhead) be added to grants that they administer.
Check with the appropriate offices to find out what the standard (or required) rates are for overhead.
Pass a draft budget by the university officer in charge of grant administration for assistance with
indirect costs and costs not directly associated with research (e.g. facilities use charges).

Furthermore, make sure you factor in the estimated taxes applicable for your case. Depending on
the categories of expenses and your particular circumstances (whether you are a foreign national,
for example), estimated tax rates may differ. You can consult respective departmental staff or
university services, as well as professional tax assistants. For information on taxes on scholarships
and fellowships, see https://cashier.unc.edu/student-tax-information/scholarships-fellowships/.

Timeframe

Explain the timeframe for the research project in some detail. When will you begin and complete
each step? It may be helpful to reviewers if you present a visual version of your timeline. For less
complicated research, a table summarizing the timeline for the project will help reviewers
understand and evaluate the planning and feasibility. See Example #2 at the end of this handout.

For multi-year research proposals with numerous procedures and a large staff, a time line diagram
can help clarify the feasibility and planning of the study. See Example #3 at the end of this handout.

Revising your proposal

Strong grant proposals take a long time to develop. Start the process early and leave time to get
feedback from several readers on different drafts. Seek out a variety of readers, both specialists in
your research area and non-specialist colleagues. You may also want to request assistance from
knowledgeable readers on specific areas of your proposal. For example, you may want to schedule
a meeting with a statistician to help revise your methodology section. Don’t hesitate to seek out
specialized assistance from the relevant research offices on your campus. At UNC, the Odum
Institute provides a variety of services to graduate students and faculty in the social sciences.

In your revision and editing, ask your readers to give careful consideration to whether you’ve made
explicit the connections between your research objectives and methodology. Here are some
example questions:

Have you presented a compelling case?

Have you made your hypotheses explicit?
Does your project seem feasible? Is it overly ambitious? Does it have other weaknesses?
Have you stated the means that grantors can use to evaluate the success of your project
after you’ve executed it?

If a granting agency lists particular criteria used for rating and evaluating proposals, be sure to
share these with your own reviewers.

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Example #1. Sample Budget

Item Quantity Cost Subtotal Total

Jet Travel

RDU-Kigali 1 $6,100 $6,100

(roundtrip)

Maintenance
Allowance

Rwanda 12 months $1,899 $22,788 $22,788

Project Allowance

Research 12 months $400 $4800

Assistant/Translator

Transportation
within country

–Phase 1 4 months $300 $1,200

–Phase 2 8 months $1,500 $12,000

Email 12 months $60 $720

Audio cassette 200 $2 $400

tapes

Photographic and 20 $5 $100

slide film

Laptop Computer 1 $2,895

NUD*IST 4.0 $373

Software

Etc.

Total Project $35,238

Allowance

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Administrative Fee $100

Total $65,690

Sought from other ($15,000)

sources

Total Grant Request $50,690

Jet travel $6,100

This estimate is based on the commercial high season rate for jet economy travel on Sabena
Belgian Airlines. No U.S. carriers fly to Kigali, Rwanda. Sabena has student fare tickets available
which will be significantly less expensive (approximately $2,000).

Maintenance allowance $22,788

Based on the Fulbright-Hays Maintenance Allowances published in the grant application guide.

Research assistant/translator $4,800

The research assistant/translator will be a native (and primary) speaker of Kinya-rwanda with at
least a four-year university degree. He/she will accompany the primary investigator during life
history interviews to provide assistance in comprehension. In addition, he/she will provide
commentary, explanations, and observations to facilitate the primary investigator’s participant
observation. During the first phase of the project in Kigali, the research assistant will work forty
hours a week and occasional overtime as needed. During phases two and three in rural Rwanda, the
assistant will stay with the investigator overnight in the field when necessary. The salary of $400 per
month is based on the average pay rate for individuals with similar qualifications working for
international NGO’s in Rwanda.

Transportation within country, phase one $1,200

The primary investigator and research assistant will need regular transportation within Kigali by bus
and taxi. The average taxi fare in Kigali is $6-8 and bus fare is $.15. This figure is based on an
average of $10 per day in transportation costs during the first project phase.

Transportation within country, phases two and three $12,000

Project personnel will also require regular transportation between rural field sites. If it is not
possible to remain overnight, daily trips will be necessary. The average rental rate for a 4×4 vehicle
in Rwanda is $130 per day. This estimate is based on an average of $50 per day in transportation
costs for the second and third project phases. These costs could be reduced if an arrangement
could be made with either a government ministry or international aid agency for transportation
assistance.

Email $720
The rate for email service from RwandaTel (the only service provider in Rwanda) is $60 per month.

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Email access is vital for receiving news reports on Rwanda and the region as well as for staying in
contact with dissertation committee members and advisors in the United States.

Audiocassette tapes $400

Audiocassette tapes will be necessary for recording life history interviews, musical performances,
community events, story telling, and other pertinent data.

Photographic & slide film $100

Photographic and slide film will be necessary to document visual data such as landscape,
environment, marriages, funerals, community events, etc.

Laptop computer $2,895

A laptop computer will be necessary for recording observations, thoughts, and analysis during
research project. Price listed is a special offer to UNC students through the Carolina Computing
Initiative.

NUD*IST 4.0 software $373.00

NUD*IST, “Nonnumerical, Unstructured Data, Indexing, Searching, and Theorizing,” is necessary for
cataloging, indexing, and managing field notes both during and following the field research phase.
The program will assist in cataloging themes that emerge during the life history interviews.

Administrative fee $100

Fee set by Fulbright-Hays for the sponsoring institution.

Example #2: Project Timeline in Table Format

Exploratory Research Completed

Proposal Development Completed

Ph.D. qualifying exams Completed

Research Proposal Defense Completed

Fieldwork in Rwanda Oct. 1999-Dec. 2000

Data Analysis and Transcription Jan. 2001-March 2001

Writing of Draft Chapters March 2001 – Sept. 2001

Revision Oct. 2001-Feb. 2002

Dissertation Defense April 2002

Final Approval and Completion May 2002

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Example #3: Project Timeline in Chart Format

Some closing advice

Some of us may feel ashamed or embarrassed about asking for money or promoting ourselves.
Often, these feelings have more to do with our own insecurities than with problems in the tone or
style of our writing. If you’re having trouble because of these types of hang-ups, the most important
thing to keep in mind is that it never hurts to ask. If you never ask for the money, they’ll never give
you the money. Besides, the worst thing they can do is say no.

UNC resources for proposal writing

Research at Carolina
http://research.unc.edu

The Odum Institute for Research in the Social Sciences

http://www.irss.unc.edu/odum/jsp/home.jsp

UNC Medical School Office of Research

https://www.med.unc.edu/oor

UNC School of Public Health Office of Research

http://www.sph.unc.edu/research/

Works consulted

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10/25/2021 Grant Proposals (or Give me the money!) – The Writing Center • University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

We consulted these works while writing this handout. This is not a comprehensive list of resources
on the handout’s topic, and we encourage you to do your own research to find additional
publications. Please do not use this list as a model for the format of your own reference list, as it
may not match the citation style you are using. For guidance on formatting citations, please see
the UNC Libraries citation tutorial. We revise these tips periodically and welcome feedback.

Holloway, Brian R. 2003. Proposal Writing Across the Disciplines. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey:
Prentice Hall.
Levine, S. Joseph. “Guide for Writing a Funding
Proposal.” http://www.learnerassociates.net/proposal/.
Locke, Lawrence F., Waneen Wyrick Spirduso, and Stephen J. Silverman. 2014. Proposals That Work.
Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
Przeworski, Adam, and Frank Salomon. 2012. “Some Candid Suggestions on the Art of Writing
Proposals.” Social Science Research Council. https://s3.amazonaws.com/ssrc-cdn2/art-of-
writing-proposals-dsd-e-56b50ef814f12.pdf.
Reif-Lehrer, Liane. 1989. Writing a Successful Grant Application. Boston: Jones and Bartlett
Publishers.
Wiggins, Beverly. 2002. “Funding and Proposal Writing for Social Science Faculty and Graduate
Student Research.” Chapel Hill: Howard W. Odum Institute for Research in Social Science. 2 Feb.
2004. http://www2.irss.unc.edu/irss/shortcourses/wigginshandouts/granthandout.pdf.

 This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-

NoDerivs 4.0 License.
You may reproduce it for non-commercial use if you use the entire handout and attribute the source:
The Writing Center, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

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