Standard Research Grant Writing Seminar

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Standard Research Grant Writing Seminar

• Information session given at
• the University of Alberta by
• Wafa Bitar
• April 28, 2008

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Grant Writing Seminar

• The Presentation overview
• SSHRCs objectives to 2010
• What is new at SSHRC?
• Standard Research Grants Program
• Adjudication committees
• Peer Review process
• Preparing your program of research
• Preparing your Curriculum Vitae

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Grant Writing Seminar

• Our Ambitions to 2010
• SSHRCs objectives align with the goals and
  priorities set out in the governments Science
  Technology Strategy
• To enhance the quality of, and support for,
  research and research training in the social
  sciences and humanities
• To enable connections among disciplines,
  including those in engineering and the natural
  and health sciences, as well as between research
  and the larger community, in Canada and in the
  rest of the world and
• To increase the impact of research and research
  training for the benefit of society.

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Grant Writing Seminar

• Key Objectives to 2010
• To optimize program design and delivery by
• developing a long-term strategy for management,
  business, finance
• improving our entire suite of programs
• advancing harmonization with other agencies
  (including in strategies related to national
  priority areas) and
• improving service delivery.
• To develop and implement a new knowledge
  mobilization strategy to put knowledge into
  action and
• To more effectively articulate value-for-money
  for investments in SSH research by developing
  better measures for reporting on results and
  impacts and improving performance, evaluation and
  audit approaches to inform corporate
  decision-making.

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What is New at SSHRC
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Grant Writing Seminar

• What is New at SSHRC
• 2nd year of using Notification of Intent to Apply
  (NOI)
• Continue with the Internationalisation of
  adjudication committees
• On going - 11 million targeted for research
  research training in Management, Business
  Finance (Éric Bastien, Program Officer
  613-992-3407)
• 12 million targeted research in Environment and
  Northern Research (Jacques Critchley, Program
  Officer 613-992-5145)

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Grant Writing Seminar

• Management, Business and Finance
• 11 million per year in new SSHRC funding started
  in 2007
• program suite year one Research Grants IOF
  RDI Clusters Knowledge Impacts in Society
  Public Outreach CURA MCRI Workshops
• year one over 450 applications 196 grants
• program suite for year two tbd (fall deadlines)
• eric.bastien_at_sshrc.ca [phone]

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Grant Writing Seminar

• Environment and Northern Research
• 12 million in annual federal funding received
  for new SSHRC programming in 2008 and beyond for
  research on
• how the environment affects the lives of
  Canadians
• the social and economic development needs of
  northern communities
• deadline tbd (fall 08)
• jacques.critchley_at_sshrc.ca [phone]

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Grant Writing Seminar

• 2006-2007 Standard Research Grants Competition
  Results
• Success rate of 33.1, variation across
  Committees
• 2,731 applications, 904 awards
• Average three-year award of 83,106
• Recommended for funding limited to 65 of total
  applications per committee

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Grant Writing Seminar

• Some Statistics for the University of Alberta

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Standard Research Grants Program
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Grant Writing Seminar

• Objectives of the Standard Research Grants
  Programs
• Peer-reviewed independent programs of research
• Training of future researchers
• New theoretical or methodological approaches
• Disciplinary and multidisciplinary research
• Communication of research results both within
  beyond academia

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Grant Writing Seminar

• Characteristics
• Three-year cycle
• Team and individual applications
• Funding of a Program of Research
• 100,000 per year or 250,000 over 3 years

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Grant Writing Seminar

• Eligibility
• Affiliation with a Canadian post-secondary
  institution
• Submission of the Final Research Report
• Students not eligible
• PhD candidates met PhD requirements by April 1
  has affiliation
• Postdoctoral applicants affiliation by April 15
  
• Citizenship no longer an issue
• Program should meet SSHRCs Mandate

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Grant Writing Seminar

• New Scholar Category
• Has not been awarded, as a principal
  investigator, an SRG, MCRI or a Strategic Grant
• AND at least one of the following criteria
• Completed highest degree less than five years OR
• Held tenure-track position less than 5 years OR
• Never had a tenure-track position OR
• Career interrupted or delayed for family reasons
• Benefit Score weighting

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Adjudication Committees
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Grant Writing Seminar

• Adjudication Committees
• To choose one of the 24 committees
• Consult our website for the list of committees
• We try to balance the committee size

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Grant Writing Seminar

• Adjudication Committees
• Consult the list of previous members of the
  committee http//www.sshrc.ca/web/about/committee
  s/standard_research_e.asp
• Check the list of results of past competitions
  SSHRC Awards Research Engine http//www.outil.ost
  .uqam.ca/CRSH/RechProj.aspx?vLangueAnglais
• Contact your program officer
• Committee 15 (interdisciplinary and
  multidisciplinary committee)
• Not a catch-all committee
• Fully explain the inter/multi nature of proposal

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Peer Review Process
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Grant Writing Seminar

• Choosing Committee Members
• Overall competence and credibility
• Scholarly stature of the individual nominees
• Appropriate representation on the basis of
• areas of expertise
• small/mid-size/large university
• geographical region
• language
• gender

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Grant Writing Seminar

• Choosing External Assessors
• Goal - Two Assessors per file
• Suggested Assessors
• Conflicts of interest
• a close friend
• a relative
• a research collaborator
• a departmental colleague
• a student previously under the applicants
  supervision
• a person with whom the applicant is involved in a
  dispute
• a person with whom the applicant is involved in a
  partnership

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Grant Writing Seminar

• Evaluation Criteria (Record of Research)
• Over the last 6 years, unless career interruption
• Quality and significance of published work
• Originality and impact of previous research
• Quantity of research activity
• Importance of other scholarly activities
• Recent output
• Dissemination to non-academic audiences
• Productivity from previous grant(s)
• Training of future researchers

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Grant Writing Seminar

• Evaluation Criteria (Program of Research)
• Originality contribution to advancement of
  knowledge
• Appropriateness of the theoretical
  approaches/framework
• Appropriateness of the research
  strategies/methodologies
• Good literature review
• Suitability of plans to communicate research
  results
• The nature and extent of research training

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Preparing your program of research
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Grant Writing Seminar

• Preparation
• Notice of Intent to Apply (NOI)
• On-Line Mid-June
• Deadline August 15th
• Optional Not Binding
• On-line, Very brief, easy to fill-out

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Grant Writing Seminar

• Preparation
• Do not submit a premature proposal
• Invest time in the preparation of your proposal
• Ensure that there are no errors
• Present a well-written and carefully crafted
  proposal
• Team Think carefully about the role of each
  member
• Collaborators CVs are not considered in the
  weighing of the Record of Research score

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Grant Writing Seminar

• Overall Presentation
• Convey and inspire confidence
• Present a challenging topic
• Clearly establish the need for the research
• Demonstrate its importance and originality
• Strike a balance between ambition and realism

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Grant Writing Seminar

• Overall Presentation (continued)
• Prepare your proposal with the Assessors and
  Committee in mind
• Demonstrate how this new research builds upon
  past work
• Have your grant proposal read by colleagues who
  have been successful in previous SRG competitions
• Follow the application and CV instructions

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Grant Writing Seminar

• Summary Page
• Clearly indicate the purpose, the objectives, the
  context and potential impact of the proposed
  research
• Written for Non-Specialists

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Grant Writing Seminar

• Statement of Objectives Theoretical Framework
• Clear and precise objectives
• Clear theoretical or conceptual framework
• Define all key terms or concepts
• Provide a complete literature review
• Append a list of all references cited

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Grant Writing Seminar

• Methodology
• Explain and fully justify methodology
• Synergy between objectives / hypotheses,
  methodology and the proposed budget

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Preparing your Curriculum Vitae
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Grant Writing Seminar

• Presenting your Curriculum Vitae
• New Scholar or Regular Scholar?
• Follow the instructions
• Organize your publications by categories
  refereed, non-refereed, etc.
• Avoid inflating the CV
• Demonstrate productivity from previous grants

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Grant Writing Seminar

• Presenting your Curriculum Vitae - continued
• Extenuating Circumstances /Career Interruptions
• Serious health problems, death of a loved one,
  ageing parents, and leave (e.g. child birth,
  parental, adoption leave)

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Grant Writing Seminar

• Budget
• Reasonable and fully justified budget
• Check the list of eligible and ineligible
  expenses
• Explain the role of students
• Link between research objectives and budget

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Grant Writing Seminar

• Committee Comments The Top 4 Critiques
• Incomplete or outdated literature review
• Lack of theoretical rationale
• Lack of specificity and justification in the
  methodology
• No link between the conceptual framework and the
  methodology

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Grant Writing Seminar

• Peer Review Process
• Peer review
• Recruiting committee members
• Finding external assessors
• Teleconference and benchmark files
• Ranking
• Streamlining the adjudication meetings - Top 15
• Flagging system

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Grant Writing Seminar

• Your Proposal Things to Avoid
• Resubmitting the same application without taking
  into consideration previous committees comments
• Criticising committee members, other scholars
• Not clearly defining team members student roles
  responsibilities
• Personal or miscellaneous information that is
  neither requested nor relevant to the application
• Space saving font, margins, paragraph breaks,
  etc.

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Grant Writing Seminar

• Your Proposal Things to Avoid - continued
• The Trust Me application - Assume your record
  speaks for itself, and submit an underdeveloped
  program of research
• Include a prominent researcher as a Co-Applicant
  but do not give him/her a clearly defined role
• Exaggerated Claims
• No other research has been done
• You have nothing to learn from recent scholarship

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Grant Writing Seminar

• Your Research Record Things to Remember
• Indicate productivity from past SSHRC grant (s)
• List your publications only once
• List only articles that are within the 6 year
  time frame
• Include page s be consistent in your method
  of referencing

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Grant Writing Seminar

• Your Budget Things to Avoid
• Incorrect calculations
• Request non-student personnel, without proper
  justification
• Ask for an 8,000 notebook when all you need is a
  simple word processor
• Include ineligible expenses in your budget
• Plan to attend many conferences and fly business
  class

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Grant Writing Seminar

• Other SSHRC Programs Initiatives
• Canada Foundation for Innovation (CFI)
• Infrastructure funding
• Joint review process
• Separate application see CFI website
• Sport Participation Research Initiative
• SRG Application
• SRG Category 4A list to Sport Canada

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Grant Writing Seminar

• How to stay informed and involved?
• Visit the web site for regular updates.
• www.sshrc.ca
• Contact your Program Officer