Funding success: Taking the fear out of the application process

New to funding? Petra Boynton, author of The Research Companion, gives her advice on the pressures and pitfalls of planning research proposals and getting funding for them.

Applying for funding when you’ve never done it before can feel daunting and stressful. People who brag about their funding successes were probably once baffled by the process themselves and may have had more applications rejected than approved. Winning funding is about practice, persistence and luck.

The first step is to be absolutely sure of what you want to do—and why—before you begin. Do you need to apply for funding right now? If not, it may make far more sense for you to invest some time in learning more about the process and how to do it well.