Grants and fundraising/Research grant collaboration group

This is a co-operative group in the developmental stages, Research Grant Composition Group (RGCC), dedicated to preparing grants for submission to funding agencies.

Research Group Summary

Project code: RGCG
Suggested Prerequisites:
- Knowledge of the process of preparing a proposal for research but not of applying for research grants
Time investment: a few weeks
Novelty of approach: uploading of proposals-in-the-raw to a public site where they can be co-operatively edited by members of the research team, and exposed to peer-review (with a small "P"), before being submitted to the research fund granting agency.

Associated local references: (to be created)

Research collaboration
School: School:Engineering
Department: Topic:Construction
Stream: Research
Level: Research funding application

Content summary

The Research Grant Composition Group is an on-line resource created to assist in the production of quality research grant-applications. This resource will assist in the development of learning groups organized around real problems of research practice by internally showcasing best-practices and providing access to useful outside resources and expertise.

Goals

This Learning Group offers learning activities to assist researchers in formulating proposals to be successfully offered to funding / grant foundations / agencies. Resources are shared and edited to meet the needs of all researchers with an initial focus on research in the areas of Construction Engineering and Topic:Education. The first Research Grant Composition Group,the Construction Engineering Research Grant Group is working on preparing grants in the area of Construction Engineering.

Additional Goals include:

Using the Web to learn about best practices
Working together to learn about and create proposals
Creating an environment to increase application success rates (our common goal)
Encouraging international peer review before application
Using information technology to link funders and applicants for research grants
Creating a learning group that achieves an increased application success rate
Aligning proposals with donor's needs.

Learning Materials

Learning materials and learning projects are located in the main Wikiversity namespace, and provide generic guidelines on making a Learning Group.

Here we simply make a link to the name of the steps (steps are Learning Projects which are independent pages in the main namespace) and start writing!

You can also read about the Wikiversity:Learning model. Steps should focus on learning activities for Wikiversity participants wishing to improve their grant acceptance ratios. This Learning Material in the Learning Projects can be used by multiple projects. For example, the Research Project proposal has many elements in common with Research Grant Application. We will therefore co-operate with other departments and use the same learning resource.

...

Texts / Resources

Grant writing
Directing Technology/Fund (Wikibooks)

Steps(Lessons)

The Steps will be posted as Firefox, Impress or PowerPoint presentations to be viewed before creating the research grant application.

Steps1: ...

Assignments

Creating bookmark files pointing to useful readings on successful grant applications and organize the bookmarks into logical bookmark folders and annotate these.

Pointing out the pragmatics of making grant applications in a real world where the research may be multi-disciplinary, but the funding agency mono-disciplinary.

Encouraging virtual group research projects / collaboration...

Activities

Activity 1: Lesson Plans using Skills & Links/Internet use.

Create a Word (.doc) or open source document and develop a grant proposal aligned with your research interests

Search for resources / information on the Web.

Organize information for grant applicants to use

Utilize effective communication (e-mail, web site, sharing ideas)

Activity 2: Web site / Detailed Steps / Advanced technologies
Activity 3: Building on previous knowledge

Readings

Each activity has a suggested associated background reading selection.

Reading 1.
Study guide:
Wikiversity article: OLPT
Etc.

Assessment

Each activity has a suggested self- and group-assessment.

Listing

The following list is of some specific grant proposals and projects and their descriptions:

Education for Americans about the Culture of Arab Israelis Grant Proposal - A project to create a better understanding of the Arab world, particularly for Americans.
Turkey Herding Deer EcoFarm - A plan to convert a small farm in Illinois USA into an educational center focused on Ecology (wiktionary | wikipedia | wikibooks), Sustainable agriculture (wiktionary | wikipedia | wikibooks), Agroforestry (wiktionary | wikipedia | wikibooks) and Renewable energy (wiktionary | wikipedia | wikibooks) systems.
Sandbox Server - A server which will function as a testing ground for several Wikiversity projects.
...feel free to add to this list..

References

Additional helpful readings include:

Active participants

Active participants in this Learning Group

Ian Kennedy, University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa
Dionysios ^(talk) 2007-07-10 (July 10, 2007) Time: 1539 UTC
CQ 14:50, 19 April 2007 (UTC)
Cormaggio ^talk 17:35, 19 April 2007 (UTC)
Historybuff 19:23, 21 April 2007 (UTC)
AFriedman 21:38, 14 February 2009 (UTC)
...

External links

Grant opportunities

US Grants

Graduate level students only

Franklin grants