Grant Seeking in Higher Education by Mary M. Licklider & The University of Missouri Grant Writer Network

Author:Mary M. Licklider & The University of Missouri Grant Writer Network
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Wiley
Published: 2012-07-10T00:00:00+00:00

Summary

The budget and budget justification should tell the story of your project in parallel with your project narrative. Any discrepancies among the budget, budget justification, and proposed activities may confuse reviewers. If you mention in the narrative that you will use 100 mice, and 150 mice are listed in the budget, reviewers may begin to wonder if your statistical power analysis and cell sizes are appropriate. If you indicate that a particular individual will be involved in only two years of the project, but the budget shows salary and fringe benefits for this person for all five years of the project, reviewers will begin to question your attention to detail. This brings us to a caution: always double-check your math, making sure the numbers listed in the budget justification match the numbers in your budget and match the numbers and activities in the project narrative. It is all too easy as drafts evolve for inconsistencies to creep in. If you arrange for a friendly review of your proposal, as recommended in Chapter 5 (“Friendly Review”), be sure to include the budget and budget narrative in the materials you provide to the reviewer. It is far easier for someone unfamiliar with your project to catch these kinds of inconsistencies than it is for a member of your team.

The logical justification that you provide for the budget expenses is part of the logical argument that the proposal presents. If expenses are justified relative to the aims and methods of the project, this bolsters your argument. If, on the other hand, there is another way to accom­plish your aims without spending nearly as much, this weakens your argument.

Besides reading the budget and budget justification for the story of your project, reviewers will look at these parts of your proposal as samples of your work. If the budgeted amounts are realistic and reasonable, if the budget represents a sufficient amount of funding to do the work well but without extravagance, the reviewers and sponsor personnel are more likely to believe you will do the work conscientiously and respect the sponsor’s investment. If you have a very large project, consider doing a budget by activity if this will make the budget easier for the reviewer to comprehend.

A grant award is about more than just the project that the award will fund. Grant awards are about moving the sponsor’s agenda forward and can represent the first step in building a long-term relationship with a given sponsor. A solid budget and budget justification will not be enough to land a grant award, but they are vital factors in the total proposal package that will land you that award.

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