The complexity and variety of funding programmes can be daunting even for seasoned researchers. So, in larger universities in the US, central research offices support researchers in securing funding for their work.
How do these offices help academics and foster research and innovation? As a senior research development coordinator, my job is to assist researchers across our university as they compete for funding. I often describe our work as falling into three broad categories: on-demand resources, direct proposal support and ongoing training.
1. On-demand resources
One of the quickest ways to reach the greatest number of people is to create a toolbox of resources to which researchers can turn whenever they need guidance. That toolbox includes training videos, recorded seminars and resource guides, either developed in-house or through partnerships with external experts.
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One of the resources we’re proudest of in the Office of Research and Innovation is the proposal library we launched last year. It’s a curated collection of about 75 successful proposals submitted by Virginia Tech faculty to a wide range of funders, from federal agencies to private foundations.
Why does this matter? Because seeing real examples is an effective way to learn to write a winning proposal. Solicitations provide guidelines but seeing how an experienced colleague worked within those guidelines to frame a compelling argument, structure a technical section or articulate broader impacts makes new territory much less intimidating.
2. Direct support for major proposals
Support for major proposals is where we shift to working one-on-one with researchers. What we call centre-scale grants – generally $US10 million (£7.5 million) or more – can define an institution’s research profile and reputation. They also give high-performing teams funding at a scale that lets them explore the bounds of their scholarship’s potential impact. But they’re complex and multidisciplinary, and require everything from a commanding vision backed up by technical expertise to credible workforce development programmes, education and outreach strategies, and robust management plans.
Proposals of this magnitude become about much more than writing. They’re about orchestration: of multiple principal investigators, dozens of contributors and external partners. There are budgets, timelines, stakeholder engagement needs and reams of documentation.
A central point of coordination can provide assistance, from project management and meeting facilitation to writing and editing, aligning the proposal with university priorities, and ensuring that all those components come together into a vision that a sponsor is excited about enabling. We also arrange peer reviews that evaluate the proposal for clarity, persuasiveness and competitiveness.
These efforts can consume 80 per cent of my time when one is in play. But the potential return is extraordinary. Winning a large centre-scale grant doesn’t just bring in dollars; it creates a critical mass of talent and infrastructure that accelerates discovery and amplifies impact beyond the university.
3. Active training
Finally, the third bucket – training. Structured, interactive learning has no substitute as a valuable on-demand resource. That’s why we run programmes such as the Proposal Development Institute – a two-day crash course for new faculty that covers everything from identifying the right funding agency to writing a data management plan.
We also offer specialised workshops, such as one on the NSF Career programme (an early career award) and another on writing NIH R01 proposals for independent projects, a cornerstone of biomedical research. We bring in successful grantees and experienced reviewers to demystify the process and share the practices that have worked for them.
Why invest in training? Because writing a strong proposal isn’t intuitive, nor is it inscrutable. It’s a set of teachable skills that researchers can master to become both more confident and more competitive.
Start where you are
Some institutions have sprawling research development offices; others are lean. But wherever you fall on that spectrum, the task is always to stretch the resources you have to meet researchers where they are. Building a proposal library can be done by one person (with the help of generous faculty) and pays dividends almost immediately; supporting major proposals is a team sport that may take years to bear fruit. But even modest steps make a difference.
And research success doesn’t happen in isolation; there will always be other people on campus who have the same vision you do, and who are committed to applying their talents to helping researchers pursue theirs. Find those allies. Sometimes our job is as simple as reassuring faculty that there is someone who knows the answer to whatever that day’s impossible task is; that’s true for us, too.
Research development brings money in the door but that’s not the ultimate goal. The partnerships and creativity involved in crafting a competitive proposal simultaneously build a culture of innovation, collaboration and impact that elevates the entire institution and gives ideas the opportunity to thrive.
Eleanor Nelsen is senior research development coordinator in the Office of Research and Innovation at Virginia Tech.
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