A Students Perspective on Applying to Small Grants and Scholarships

Eloise Cave

Ph.D. Student

Florida Institute of Technology

Daly-Engel Shark Conservation Lab

Small Student Grants and Scholarships

• Alternative way to fund your research

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• Practice writing and getting a head start on content

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• Also demonstrates your ability to acquire funding

Where and How to Find Student Grants

• Google
• Your Institution
• Scientific Societies
• Zoos, Aquariums, Museums
• Local Clubs/Companies/Associations
• Conferences – pay attention to acknowledgments
• Social Media
• Creepy stalking on other more advanced students or recent grads CV

What To Do When You Find a Grant

• Make sure it fits your research
• Understand what the grant is intended for and what they will fund
• Look into the funders objectives and goals
• Large NSF like grant vs smaller grants and scholarships – propose your whole project or a portion of it
• If you need a budget, make it reasonable
• Grant says funding up to $10,000 but the average they fund is $5,000; Keep your budget around $5,000
• Look at what proposals they have funded

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Some Basic Writing Tips

• Keep it clear – not full of jargon
• 2-3 related research questions per grant
• Use subheading if possible
• Include figures if you are allowed
• For smaller student grants with a short word/page limit, keep it to a chapter of a Ph.D. or a part of your masters. Example: Sigma XI
• Look into the funders objectives, mission, goals etc.
• Explain how what you’re proposing is in line with their mission
• Use the same terminology as in the grant guidelines or in the funders website or in their mission statement
• If you have received other sources of small funding, don’t be afraid to mention it (either in text or more likely in budget or budget justification)

Some Basic Writing Tips

• Clearly explain how each budget item is contributing to the methods
• Re-read the intro over and over and over to make sure it includes all the information required to understand why the research questions are being asked and why you chose your budget items.
• Write backwards – come up with clear research questions, explain the methods on how you will answer those questions, then provide a concise intro that is only vital information required to understand the problem/literature gap.

Example Feed Back

• This was a great proposal, though lacking in some methodological details relating to how the downstream sequence data will be analyzed, and what some of the expected patterns might look like. Breaking the text into sections with heading would have also improved the proposal's structure.

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• - The hypothesis is presented in the Scientific contribution section. One suggestion is to present clearly how your data can resolve a conundrum, a hypothesis, or establish a system. The methodology seems complete but not fully clear how the data will resolve each aspect of the ' hypothesis that bull sharks are moving poleward as sea surface temperatures are increasing'.

Questions?