🎙️ Podcast Link 🎙️

Getting started on applying for and winning grant funding 💰 can be overwhelming, especially for early career researchers like postdocs in academia.

One of the typical ways researchers get into the funding ecosystem is through small grant programs, both internal to their organisation and through external funding bodies.

In this video I cover key concepts and plenty of advice for how to effectively apply for small grants, with lots of context on what the organisations funding these grant schemes are typically looking for.

🙏 Please reshare if of interest to you, your colleagues, friends and/or family!

Complete topic list and timestamps:

📌 (0:00) Specific Advice for Small Grant Applications
📌 (0:20) Two Main Types: Internal and External
📌 (0:40) Small Grants are Often Gateways to Bigger Things
📌 (1:07) Training and Development Opportunities
📌 (1:41) Gateway to Bigger Internal Opportunities Too
📌 (1:57) External: Both Pilot Schemes and Self-Contained
📌 (2:18) Application Effort Should Scale to Grant Size
📌 (2:44) Application Structure Can Replicate Larger Grants
📌 (3:10) Budget Planning Also Required
📌 (3:23) Support from Supervisor and Career Alignment
📌 (3:47) Written Support from Collaborators / Partners
📌 (4:01) The “Why Hasn’t It Been Solved Already?” Question
📌 (4:26) Good Answer: New Tools, Techniques, Equipment
📌 (4:44) Good Answer: A New Growing Problem
📌 (4:59) Good Answer: Unique Positioning
📌 (5:14) Good Answer: Unique Research Environment
📌 (5:30) Bad Answer: No-one Else Will Fund the Research
📌 (6:20) Specific and Narrow Scope
📌 (6:54) Specific Example: Establishing a New Dataset
📌 (7:17) Specific Example: Drone Navigation Research
📌 (7:47) Set Against Your Exciting, Grand Vision
📌 (8:11) Imagine Writing Your Subsequent Grant
📌 (8:52) Specific Outcomes
📌 (9:16) What Measures and Indicates Success?
📌 (9:31) Feasibility on Top of Existing Workload
📌 (9:59) Promising Preliminary Work
📌 (10:13) Aligned With or Distanced From Current Research?
📌 (10:32) IP, Duplicate Funding, Conflict of Interest
📌 (11:01) Leveraging Existing Resources and Experience
📌 (11:36) Small Grants Can’t Pivot Much
📌 (12:04) Opportunity for Substantial Interactive Feedback
📌 (12:36) Small Grants Will Always Be a Part of Your Career
📌 (13:15) Some of Your Best Work Will Be From Small Grants

Full Video Notes

• Grant Advice Tailored: common principles but also tailored advice for specific types of grants, this video about small grants
• What are small grants: often internal to a university, or pilot type studies from external funding programs. 
• Small grants are frequently gateways: while specific outcomes, typically not justified by themselves (from grantor or grantee perspective). But they need to generate value in of themselves as well.
• Internal small grant schemes: primarily a career development opportunities for ECRs, funding track record for CV, experience in applying for, managing, reporting on a project yourself (rather than your supervisor’s projects), gateway to future funding applications. Sometimes gateway to larger internal funding opportunity like a university centre.
• External small grant schemes: most often run as a pilot study to shape future larger scale research. Some ongoing small schemes based around philanthropic or community-based initiatives.
• Applying for the Grant: usually a lightweight process, often a cut down version of external funding applications. E.g. Abstract / summary, significance & innovation, outcomes, benefit, budget. Other optional: career development alignment, capacity to take on, support from relevant supervisory parties.
• General principles: 
• Motivation: The tough question that always needs answering: “if this is so important, why hasn’t it been solved already?” Common answers include one or more of:
  • New rapidly emerging and growing problem / challenge / need
  • Timeliness of tools, techniques being just right
  • Your unique skillset / multidisciplinary perspective
  • Unique working environment and equipment
• Bad Motivations!
  • Companies aren’t interested
  • Research bodies aren’t interested
• Specificity and narrow depth is generally good. Limited resources, limited time, often grant will be done on top of other principal responsibilities.
  • E.g. new benchmark dataset: what specific need does this fill? Why isn’t there a dataset already? 
  • E.g. new drone navigation system: what specific need does this fill that isn’t already met by big companies? 
• Realistic Ambition, Grand Vision: realistic appraisals of what can be done in the project itself add authenticity. Pair with the bigger picture grand vision for a compelling combination.
• Clear pathway to bigger and better things: assuming the project is moderately successful, what does this enable for you? What specifically could you write in a follow on, larger application for funding? Specific proof-of-concept that an idea is promising, specific dataset that enables future research…
• Concrete Outcomes: what are the specific artifacts (often papers or key results) that are likely to result? How would you determine whether the project has been successful?
• Feasibility: how are you going to manage this on top of your existing primary workload? Good answers: enthusiastic student or research assistant lined up ready to go. Some pilot work already done establishing feasibility?
• The Alignment / Non-Alignment Issue: depends on the scheme, some will want clearly separate from day job, some will want close alignment. Separation motivated by duplication of research concerns, IP concerns, conflict of interest concerns. Alignment motivated by effectiveness arguments, derisking. Need to consider either way.
• Well Planned and Derisked: Typically tough combination of both short duration, and fractional workload assignment: there’s even less room for multiple pivots or unexpected setbacks. Get the plan right the first time, there shouldn’t need to be lots of Plan Bs in a small grant.
• Formative Opportunity: typically more chance for constructive and iterative feedback than an external funding scheme. Can often talk directly to the evaluators. Take the opportunity!

Small Grants Versus Large Grants: as you advance in your career, not a case of switching entirely from small to larger grants – both in parallel. Small grants will continue to play a role: they suit postdocs, PhDs and small specific projects, with major training and development advantage.