Grant Readiness Workshop

Grant Readiness Workshop eLife Ambassadors November 2025 open seeds mentoring & training program open seeds mentoring & training program OLS is dedicated to capacity building and diversifying leadership in research. We imagine a future where research is accessible, inclusive, and equitable. Yo Yehudi Co-Executive Director Irene Ramos Research Fellow Bethan Illey Finance Manager Jilaga Nneoma Web Designer Camille Gonzalez Executive Assistant OLS Team Riva Quiroga Research Fellow Sara Villa Training & Community Lead Patricia Herterich Co-Executive Director Malvika Sharan Bérénice Batut Non-executive directors OLS Team Our 800 mentors, mentees, facilitators, and expert speakers ●How can we support project leads to take their next step? ●Challenges ○Coordinating with collaborators ○Finding the time ○Meeting funder expectations ○CV narrative ○Communicating to non-experts ○Limited mentorship From Seeds to Systems Illustration by Marcela Terán via The Barefoot Guide (CC-BY-NC) ●Sketch a mental model of the funding landscape and grant readiness process. ●Interpret impact reporting requirements across different type of call proposals. ●Practice giving and receiving feedback. ●Identify resources to support grant preparation. 6 What you will learn 60 min - Grant readiness 10 min - Break 60 min - Impact reporting requirements 10 min - Break 40 min - Additional resources 7 Agenda ●This session is being recorded. The full recording will be available to eLife Ambassadors, and only the presentation sections may be uploaded to the OLS YouTube channel ●Feel free to use the chat. ●Captions are available via Zoom. ● Edit your Zoom name: ○Your name ○Add W for Written ○Add S for Spoken 8 Reminders open seeds mentoring & training program open seeds mentoring & training program 1. Grant readiness Grant Proposals A genre for seeking support from a funder Grant Proposals ➔Little exposure to similar genres as a student ➔Successful examples are not usually available ➔The format and content changes from funder to funder ➔Sometimes it’s difficult to imagine who the reviewers are Grant Proposals ➔Little exposure to similar genres as a student ➔Successful examples are not usually available ➔The format and content changes from funder to funder ➔Sometimes it’s difficult to imagine who the reviewers are It’s not unusual to feel that you are in the dark the landscape what is being funded? Innovation / economic growth 21 Based on slide by Pete Kolarz (RoRI) now1945 gen 1 “Basic” Research (“curiosity-driven”, “bottom-up”, “discovery”) gen 2: 1960s Help solve societal problems gen 3: 2000s Emergency support (gen 4: 2020s) throughout Increased interest in research culture / landscape /careers seed funding / pilot grants research project grants infrastructure travel bursaries other fellowships research fellowships collaborative grants open access . . . event organization who is funding research? research institutions national research agencies national ministries national research councils philanthropic organizations international consortia & partnerships international & supranational organizations industry (e.g. Belmont Forum) (e.g. Horizon Europe, UNESCO) (e.g. CZI, Wellcome Trust, Mellon) professional associations & learned societies . . . your project funders Concept note Full proposal DecisionReviewIdea Check requirements Funding opportunity ●Community engagement ●Collaboration network ●Meeting funders ●Visibility ●Institutional support ●Preliminary data ●Recommendation letters Beyond writing What about your experience with grant proposals? ●Introduce yourself. ●Take turns to share your experience developing grant proposals. ●What has helped you gain this experience? 33 activity open seeds mentoring & training program openseeds mentoring & training program break open seeds mentoring & training program open seeds mentoring & training program 2. Impact open seeds mentoring & training program openseeds mentoring & training program let’s start by looking at some examples CZI - Essential Open Source Software for Science application form CZI - Essential Open Source Software for Science focused on a specific community explicit on the application form application form Open Research Community Accelerator (ORCA) - Catalytic Awards application form Open Research Community Accelerator (ORCA) - Catalytic Awards explicit on the form implied: alignment with funder’s priorities focus: community application form Invest in Open Infrastructure - IOI Fund for Network Adoption application form Living Data - Inclusion Champion Program Motivation Statement Please explain how attending Living Data 2025 will benefit your work and community (300 words maximum). Describe how participation would advance your work in biodiversity science, conservation, or policy, and how you would share knowledge with your community. application form assessing leadership & role in your community impact at personal and community level (“champion”) 49 aligning your impact paragraph with a specific call 1. Choose one call example. Select the option that best fits your project (impact on communities or beneficiaries, impact in terms of alignment with the funder’s strategic goals, impact in terms of advancing knowledge or methods) 2. Review the call example. Identify the key terms, priorities, and expectations stated in the call. 3. Read your current impact paragraph. Highlight any parts that already address the call’s priorities, need clarification or stronger alignment to the way the call is defining value, are missing and need to be added 4. Rewrite your impact paragraph. Produce a revised version that states the relevance and value of your project clearly and it’s aligned with how the call defines impact. activity 50 Please explain how your project will deliver tangible benefits to the specific communities or beneficiary groups you aim to support. Describe who will benefit and in what ways, outline the pathway through which your project will create positive change, and/or explain how your approach reflects meaningful community involvement or responsiveness to identified community needs. Please explain how your project advances existing scholarship by delivering a significant development in new knowledge, innovative methods or tools, and/or strengthened conceptual frameworks. Describe how your project represents a clear advance over current approaches and/or how it has the potential to stimulate new and innovative research in the field. Please explain how your project contributes to improving research culture by delivering a significant development in practices that promote transparency, openness, integrity, equity, and/or inclusion in the research environment. Describe how your project advances the funder’s strategic goals for strengthening positive research practices and how it supports a more trustworthy, inclusive, and sustainable research ecosystem. a b c open seeds mentoring & training program openseeds mentoring & training program about the review process screening peer/panel review EoIscreening peer/panel review decision-making panel screening peer/panel review some variations of the review process Wellcome Trust - Wellcome Early-Career Awards Wellcome Trust - Wellcome Early-Career Awards applicants know who will be in their panel if shortlisted ANID (Chilean Research and Development National Agency) applicants can check who will be in their review panel before applying Software Sustainability Institute - Fellowship you don’t know who will be in the review panel, but you can prepare for their backgrounds to be very diverse 57 Begin by briefly stating what your project is about so your partner has enough context to understand the intended impact. Exchange your revised impact paragraphs. Read your partner’s paragraph once for overall understanding and a second time with the criteria in mind. Assess the paragraph using the following criteria: giving and receiving feedback about your paragraph activity Call A Impact on community Is it clear which community or group will benefit? Call B Alignment with the funder’s strategic goals Does the paragraph explicitly reference the funder’s priorities or objectives? Call C Contribution to advancing knowledge or methods Does the paragraph mention the new knowledge or methods the project will generate and how it advances the field beyond current approaches? build networks events communities ●Training and Capacity Building Program for CZI Science ●Grant Writing Workshop for Early and Mid-Career Researchers ○By The Global Health Network (TGHN) and the Wellcome Trust–funded Pathogen Variants Network. 65 examples of grant writing resources How have you used AI to prepare proposals? (or How do you feel about using AI to prepare a proposal?) 66 discussion 67 AI across the grant development process Some agencies have developed guidance for the use of AI in the development and review of grant proposals. An example from Canada: https://science.gc.ca/site/science/en/interagency-researchfunding/policies-and-guidelines/guidance-use-artificial-intelli gence-development-and-review-research-grant-proposals 68 how funders are using AI Translation of multilingual applications Applicants matchmaking in collaborative proposals Classification of proposals by topic Matching proposal with reviewers One way to use it as support is by uploading all relevant call documents to NotebookLM and using it to ask questions or create a checklist for self-assessing your proposal before submitting. 69 how AI can support grant development *remember that LLMs can make mistakes and you always need to check the output! ●Feedback survey ●More Seeds to Systems activities coming 2026! ●OLS Newsletter Thank you! we-are-ols.org OLS Community: Current & Previous Funders Thank you! 72 All icons used in this presentation are from Noun Project: https://thenounproject.com