The three foci of grant development

Grant development is more than just grant writing. It takes sponsor research, Program Officer relationship-building, and idea development.  Yet, when it comes to actually writing the proposal, you're smart not to go in with one focus.

The Venn diagram depicts the three essential foci of a good grant proposal. According to Wood (2012), "In the study of rhetoric, successful communication is traditionally expected to address all three equally. The speaker, or in this case, the principal investigator or project director, needs to establish credibility so that the audience will bother to read the message. Equally important, the speaker must analyze the audience -- in this case the reviewers -- to tailor the message specifically for them. In proposal development, the proposal is your message, and the sponsor's personnel and reviewers are your audience."

So, given Wood's framework, let's dig into these core pieces of the proposal.

Principal Investigator
I know I've said it before, but competitive grant applications don't just propose a fantastic idea and realistic project, but they also show that the PI is the best person to carry-out and/or lead the project and bring the fantastic idea to fruition. Certainly, there are spaces reserved for making this case in a proposal, such as the biosketch, but before you begin writing your proposal, take some time to identify exactly why you are the best person to conduct the research you're proposing.

Reviewers
Reviewers are the audience for your grant proposal, and they play a large role in deciding whether or not your proposal is funded. So, it makes sense to focus on who they are, what they want, and even the climate in which they read your proposal. Some things to remember are reviewers end up reading a lot of proposals in a short period of time. They want to see an exciting/compelling project, but they want the proposal to be easily understandable, well-organized, and clear.

Proposal
Bearing in mind your strengths and your reviewers, you must apply these components in your vehicle for communication - your proposal. Your proposal must first and foremost, propose a project that is a good fit for the sponsor, follows all the rules in the program announcement or proposal guide, and then be clearly written and easy to navigate.

If you can really be excellent in all of these foci, with a great research project, you'll be able to knock it out of the park!

Resources:
What do reviewers really want, anyway? - Robert Porter

Wood, B. (2012). The writing (Chapter 6) in Licklider, M.M. (Ed.). Grant seeking in higher education: Strategies and tools for college faculty. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.