Funding has never been easy to obtain. Each year, the National Institute of Health (NIH) receives thousands of applications for competing and non-competing Research Project Grants (RPGs). The NIH is part of the United States Department of Health and Human Services that supports over 25000 organizations worldwide. In 2017, the NIH received over 50,000 RPG applications, of which only about 640, involving 11,000 principal investigators, secured funding (Lauer, 2018).

What happened to the rest?

Rejection!

Thousands of applications do not qualify for funding due to formatting and structural errors that can easily be avoided with guidance and preparation.

Grant applications are a window of opportunity for the researcher; these present your work to people who matter and decide whether they want to invest in the project. The manner in which you present your application is absolutely crucial. There are steps a potential grant writer can take to ensure their proposals do not end up in the bin, but in fact, make it to the top of the stack.