hi everyone, I'm not sure if this has been asked before, but any advice on this will be much appreciated!

How can one learn about the grant application process?
Is there a website somewhere, do people do courses on this?
I have seen this condition for job adverts, how are we expected to respond to this one?

thanks very much
love satchi

Hi Satchi!
I am sure there are plenty of online resources that can provide advice on this, but in my own experience I have learnt about the grant application process both at workshops held at universities I studied or worked at and through actually writing grants with other researchers. The best experience I would say is to have to a go, it is in some ways rather like writing a paper, it takes a long time and even when you have a great proposal it doesn't necessarily mean that you will get funding unforunately. I have had some successful grants and some not successful - but even when they are not successul you get feedback and you can feed that into your next application.

If you haven't had any direct experience with writing grants, you can still write about the skills that you have that are needed to do this well e.g. having great writing skills, ability to work collaboratively as a team (rare you would write a grant on your own with no co-authors or collaborators), awareness of the wide range of funding bodies available, and finally just showing that you are keen to learn about the grant application process and happy to go on training. Is there any funding that you have gained through your research work, e.g. travel grants, student bursaries or even PhD funding ? if so you can and should mention this too. Good luck!

I'm sure there will be training at your uni, or maybe via research councils or Vitae which can guide you on this. However, if a job description asks for experience of making grant applications, they're probably seeking people who have successfully secured funding, rather than been on a course. So if the opportunity arises to get some actual experience, take it.

Hi psychresearcher and HazyJane
Many thanks for your advice. I was given full funding for my phd but I didn't apply for the grant. It was already there. I haven't had the opportunity to write for any grant applications so I'll have to go with writing about the skills I have that are needed to do it.

thanks again
love satchi