It can be difficult knowing how to start your application. What should the proposal look like? How much detail do they need? How should it be formatted?
One of the easiest ways of overcoming that is to read applications that other people have submitted before you. However, it can be tricky to get access to these. Some universities have banks of successful proposals that colleagues have been willing to share, but if you’re working in a smaller institution, or there’s not a culture of this, it might not be available.
Help is at hand. The people behind the ‘Jabberwocky Ecology‘ blog, Ethan White and Morgan Ernest, started offering up their grant proposals to all some years ago, and were joined by others. This led to the creation of the Open Grants website, with a more comprehensive offering of applications, both successful and unsuccessful.
I think this is a great initiative. It’s both brave and laudable for academics to share their proposals more widely. There is a natural reticence to do so, perhaps because of a fear that others might steal your ideas. However, new applicants aren’t wanting to steal your research so much as get generic help with how a good proposal is formatted, set out and structured. Their proposal will still sink or swim on the quality of the science they’re proposing. Helping them with the basics is just making sure the playing field is level.
So I’d encourage you all to engage with Ethan and Morgan’s idea, to use some of the proposals they’ve posted, but also to consider posting yours if – when – you’re successful.
Photo by 🇸🇮 Janko Ferlič on Unsplash