Is this course right for me?

Target Audience: SBS Academic staff at all levels who have identified a potential funder for a proposed grant application and would like additional in-depth support to enhance their chances of success.

The Programme:

The GWC will provide structured support (including a departmental mentor who will provide feedback, an RKES mentor for any of your questions, and dedicated attention from our SBS R&I Office) and will ensure we provide you with necessary support until submission of your proposal.  

Please note: the GWC is not designed to help you identify a funding scheme for your goals or career stage. For this reason, if you do not have a clear funding scheme in mind already, you may not find this to be the right time for this programme and we suggest you wait until the next one.

Participants should aim to attend all sessions*. The programme is designed for in-person/on-campus sessions only. 

The session dates and times are as follows:   

Session 1 - Wed 21 May 1-4pm (SW1.08): Introduction to the SBS Grant Writing Challenge (GWC) & the Funding Landscape  
Overview of the logistics of the GWC; tailored presentation of the funding landscape from RKES colleagues; tips from successful SBS grant holders

Session 2 - Wed 28 May 1-4pm (CW4.05): Work Packages, KE & Impact
Professor John Quigley, Vice Dean Research (Business) & Professor Stuart McIntyre, Associate Dean Impact (Business)

Session 3 - Wed 4 June 1-4pm (CW4.05): Communicating your Vision, Approach & Capability to Deliver
Professor Dora Scholarios, Associate Dean Research (Business)
Structured support developing your key questions and the statement of your vision, approach and capability as an individual or team to deliver the proposed project.

Session 4 - Tue 10 June 10am-1pm (CW4.05): Meeting Funder Expectations
Louise Virdee, Strategic Research & Knowledge Exchange Development Manager, Research and Knowledge Exchange Services
Expert colleagues discuss issues relating to writing the Resume for Research and Innovation (R4RI), sometimes known as a narrative CV, and building equality, diversity and inclusion, sustainability and principles of trusted and responsible research into your proposal – all features now required by funders.

Session 5 - Tue 17 June 10am-1pm (CW4.05): Resources & Cost Justification; Costing your Project
Susan Anderson, Costing Manager, Research and Knowledge Exchange Services

Session 6 - Wed 25 June 1-3pm (CW4.05): How Panels Work
Professor Jillian MacBryde &  Professor Norin Arshed, Hunter Centre for Entrepreneurship Strategy & Innovation

*Please contact Dora Scholarios (d.scholarios@strath.ac.uk) if you cannot make one of these scheduled sessions.

We will be sending more instructions about the activities which will complement each session. Participants also will be able to attend optional writing workshops organised to help with writing tasks [details to be confirmed].

Applying for the Challenge

If you are interested in participating in the Challenge, you should contact the Director of Research (DoR) in your Department and make sure you receive an acceptance confirmation from the DoR.

You should then send this along with a one page introductory summary. This should include the following:

• The funding scheme you wish to aim at [deadlines do not need to align with the period of the Challenge]
• The timeline you wish to work to [This is essential. If you have not thought about a timeline yet, you may wish to wait for another GWC.]
• An outline in broad terms of your topic area – provide a summary of the importance and nature of the general area
• State of the art in your chosen topic area, its limitations and how your proposal will overcome these deficiencies. Try to summarise the scientific quality of the proposed research, and why this proposal is likely to be better than similar proposals
• The name of a mentor who has agreed to work with you throughout the challenge (if you are unsure of a mentor, consult with your DoR in the first instance; please indicate if you have not identified anyone).

Submit your summary to sbs-rke@strath.ac.uk using the subject line ‘SBS Grant Writing Challenge - your name’ by Monday 12 May 2025, 12:00pm.  We will confirm participation within 2 days.

If you require any further information please get in touch with d.scholarios@strath.ac.uk  

Prerequisites