As a Research Office or a Dean’s office, your goal is to help improve the research profile, and the research income, of your institution. You administer grants and ethics procedures, you organize events, you answer questions and help faculty liaise with funders. You make sure applications are complete and give advice on what needs to be in them.
But you have a busy office. You can’t give detailed personal help to every single applicant. Furthermore, some of them don’t seem to value your advice. Not because it isn’t good, but because a bunch of cultural and structural perceptions about your part in “the administration” (said in an ominous voice) get in the way.
I can help you help them.
I’ve been helping offices like yours help researchers with SSHRC grant applications since the summer of 2005. Along the way I’ve learned a few things.
- Researchers submit better proposals.
- Researchers get excited about their research. Their intrinsic motivation to apply for grants and do research increases.
- Researchers value your office more because you got me to help them. They come to you sooner. They tell their colleagues to talk to you.
However, I have also learned that simply reviewing and commenting on a draft application, fairly close to the deadline, doesn’t offer the best value. I can only do so much at that point. The researchers who need the most help are most likely to be frustrated and disappointed with what can be done at this stage.
Grant Proposal Development Support
I now offer one basic service: a combination of a 1-hour coaching call with the researcher (over the phone) and a review of a draft with detailed written comments. Researchers using this service will also be able to ask me questions by e-mail.
This basic service is $575 (plus applicable taxes).
For the best results, researchers should contact me early in the process. Before they start doing substantial work on the proposal over the summer, for example. Or right after they receive the comments on an unsuccessful application. Researchers planning to apply to the SSHRC IDG competition should also have that initial consultation in the summer since they have more time to devote to proposal writing and related activities then.
The added benefit of this timeline is that I can reduce their frustration with the process and help them use their time more effectively. Researchers frequently complain about how much time a grant proposal takes and how valuable other things they could be doing with that time are. Though I don’t have a magic wand to make the hard work disappear, I can help reduce the time spent on worrying, unnecessary details, and procrastination, and make the time they do spend more effective.
I can bill your office in installments as the work is completed. That means that if, as a result of the coaching conversation, the researcher decides that they are not ready to apply for a grant yet, you will only pay for the coaching they received. In addition, I will help them plan a strategy that will improve their competitiveness in future.
Additional coaching is available at $175 (1-hour session).
Who I can help
If you look at a proposal and think “But where’s the science?”, I’m your gal. My background is in the humanities and social sciences. I am particularly good at helping those researchers whose proposals don’t look much like the kind of proposals scientists write — philosophers, literary scholars, historians, qualitative researchers, theorists…
If you are baffled as to what a particular researcher is trying to do or why it’s important, or if you think that their draft doesn’t really communicate those two things, I can help. My strengths are in helping researchers articulate their objectives and in explaining how the process works so that they understand what level of detail needs to be in the various sections of the proposal.
If you have social science and humanities scholars who are feeling frustrated and confused about the recent tightening of the rules about eligibility for SSHRC and CIHR, I can help them figure out how their program of research relates to the mandates of the 2 councils, what parts of it are likely to be eligible for which council, and how to frame their proposals to ensure that they don’t have to take a lot of time to explain their eligibility to program officers and committee members. I won’t help researchers get around the policy. I will help them understand it better and figure out how to thrive given that policy environment.
Talks & Workshops
In 2012, I am available for a limited number of on-campus visits to inspire your researchers. My day rate is $2500 (plus applicable taxes and expenses).
Combine a presentation/workshop with a number of in-person versions of the 1-hour consultation that is the first part of my grant proposal development service. Some researchers really prefer to meet face-to-face rather than by telephone. These would be billed as per telephone meetings and the day rate adjusted accordingly. Contact me to discuss details.
If your graduate studies office is wondering how to help PhD students with career choices, I would also gladly add an extra day to offer a full-day in-person version of the Conscious Careers course.