There are not a lot of people who like to write grant or fellowship proposals. Especially not if you are just starting your career in academia and you are not even sure about the difference between grants and fellowships. Luckily, the workshop “Grant proposal writing” tried to help the large group of PhD-students (and some Postdocs) with their writing struggles.

In addition to some very helpful tips on how to structure your proposal, a large part of the workshop was dedicated to understanding the people who actually read your proposals. You need to understand that they need to be intrigued. First, write your question down in such a way that the reader thinks: ‘Oh, hey! That is some interesting question!’. After that, write your objectives so that the reader thinks: ‘Oh, hey! That is a smart way to solve this interesting question!’.

It is also important to remember that not all readers and panel members are experts in your field. So, keep it simple! And lastly, when grants are looking for ‘high risk research’ they likely mean a little bit less risky than you think.

Unfortunately you can do everything right and still be unlucky. But, the workshop made me like writing grant or fellowship proposals a lot more!