Grants are essentially financial aid that is given to help fund specific research, programs, and projects. Medical grant awards have the capacity to impact not only the grant recipients but their entire communities and in many cases the world. It’s therefore imperative for medical professionals, researchers, hospital administrators, universities, and medical nonprofits to learn the skills to assure that they will be awarded the health and wellness funding they need.
Grant writing is a part of the process of applying for a grant because you are oftentimes required to write “proposals” and “submissions”. Grant writing can be done by yourself, but you can hire someone who has the specific knowledge needed to write the perfect grant submission. Studies and research done every day in the health and medical field bring us closer to cures for deadly diseases, different vaccinations, and to even help us find the cause of many different conditions. With this being said, funding for health and wellness grants requires large amounts of money and without fully understanding grant writing, these funds could be unattainable.
Eleven Tips for Grant Writing for the Health and Wellness Field
In order for the people in today’s world to make groundbreaking discoveries in health and science, they must fully understand what kind of research they want to do. For example, if someone wanted do research a cure for HIV or AIDS, they would need to fully understand the background of it, how it spreads, the warning signs and symptoms, etc. In hopes of successfully securing funding, you must have both knowledge and experience in the topic and grant writing skills.
1. Time
To make sure you have a well-thought-out and responsive grant application you need plenty of time for your grant application. It may seem simple to pull together a project such as this, especially if you already know all the details related to your research project, but grant applications generally require at least three drafts before they are ready for submission. Allow time for everything to be done without being rushed, including getting feedback from peers and colleagues. It’s best not to be rushed so you can take a few days off and come back to your proposal with fresh eyes, with time left to make any final changes that may be needed.
2. Choose Your Funder Carefully
Whether you are a nonprofit organization, IHE institute for higher education, a medical research facility, individual researcher, municipality or a for-profit organization, choosing the right funding source is crucial. Read eligibility criteria very carefully, then talk to the funders before submitting your application. Find out what types of projects they are interested in funding, and sign up for news forums. This will ensure that you will make the right decision on funders and that you will not miss any important information.
3. Advice
If it is your first time, or your one-hundredth time, seeking advice and knowledge from experts in the field will help you create a stronger needs statement. Collaborate with other grant writers within your networks, such as colleagues and mentors, that might have served on funding panels.
4. Create A Plan of Action
One of the biggest aspects of grant writing is planning out the entire application and proposal process. Just like getting all the facts, you would need when diagnosing a patient, like learning the symptoms and warning signs, it works the same as planning out your grant. The more open-minded you remain and the more ideas and interesting concepts you can come up with.
5. Surround Yourself with the Right People
The people you choose to be involved with your project will affect its evaluation. You can show proof that the people on your grant team are capable of delivering all the necessary expertise to complete the project and you can also return on the MRC’s investment. Personnel should account for about 80% of your budget, according to the NIH, and it’s worth investing in the best individuals for each job. Surrounding yourself with a great group of people provides you with more knowledge and the right amount of support.
6. Clear Hypothesis
Develop a clear and concise hypothesis when writing grants for medical research, or health. You need to focus on what you are doing and why you are doing it. Once you have decided on a hypothesis, provide knowledge to back up your hypothesis, that will convince the grant committee of the need for your research.
7. Justify
Always justify your research. Show calculations, research forums, your own specific research, or anything that is going to prove your methods.
8. Speak with Confidence
When writing your grant proposal, you need to use a confident voice in your writing. This will exude confidence in your proposed research and what you plan to achieve. Being informed, knowing the facts, symptoms and warning signs, statistics, etc., will allow you to submit your proposal with confidence. When you begin telling your story, use an intriguing hook to bring people into the submission.
9. Data
While it seems as if data can always help you back something up, this is not always the case. Throwing in a bunch of data that is useless and not really adding to the point, will only lessen your chances of receiving the grant you want. Using preliminary data that backs up and pushes your agenda is the best choice.
10. Review
Reviewing your own application and letting others within your team review it, highlighting mistakes, superfluous information, adding new information, etc. will help you tighten your proposal. Sometimes when we review things alone, we overlook simple mistakes that can end up hurting us. Letting someone else review, ask questions and come up with new ideas could give you a new perspective.
11. The Impact
Whether your research is or is not directly affecting economic or even social impact it is important to find out how it will. Explain your work, the consequences of your work, and the benefits of your work, talking about how it can affect the overall health of humans everywhere. Finding the pathways that link your research to many different benefactors will only improve your research.
Conclusion
Basically, there are many different ways you can improve your grant writing skills when presenting a proposal for health or medicine.
About the Author: Patrick Bailey is a professional writer mainly in the fields of mental health, addiction, and living in recovery. He attempts to stay on top of the latest news in the addiction and the mental health world and enjoys writing about these topics to break the stigma associated with them. https://mountainspringsrecovery.com/alcohol/abuse-symptoms-and-warning
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