Grant Writing for Professors: How to Get Your First Research Grant

Grants pay for your research, summer salary, graduate students, and equipment. Without grants, your research slows down.

Common Grants for Education Researchers

– Institute of Education Sciences (IES)

– National Science Foundation (NSF)

– Spencer Foundation

– William T. Grant Foundation

– University internal grants

Step 1: Find the right grant opportunity. Read the RFP carefully.

Step 2: Start small with internal grants ($5k-$20k), then external small grants, then large grants.

Step 3: Write a compelling narrative with clear research questions, methodology, budget, timeline, and broader impacts.

Step 4: Build a strong team including co-investigators and get letters of support.

Step 5: Get feedback from your grant office, senior faculty, and a statistician.

– Proposal is too vague

– No pilot data

– Overly ambitious

– Ignoring review criteria

– Typos and formatting errors

Federal grants take 4-8 months. Outcomes: Funded (celebrate), Revise and resubmit (good), Rejected (normal, try again).

Grant writing is a skill. Your first proposal will be hard. Start with small internal grants to learn the process.