Purdue Online Writing Lab College of Liberal Arts
Purdue University College of Liberal Arts
OWL logo

Welcome to the Purdue OWL



Grant Writing in the Sciences: Introduction



Researchers apply for grants for several reasons: grants provide funds to conduct research; they help support graduate students and postdoctoral fellows; they can allow researchers to delegate responsibilities to others (e.g., testing participants, coding data); they can provide researchers with a summer salary; and, importantly, they can be critical for promotion and tenure decisions (Sternberg 4-5).

To be competitive for funding, researchers must demonstrate that their project will make significant contributions to the field and has a high likelihood of success. Grant proposals typically describe in detail how the grant funds will be used, what the funds will allow the researcher to accomplish, and who will undertake the research activities. They are generally written in the following stages:

  1. Plan your project
  2. Locate funding opportunities
  3. Determine funder's requirements
  4. Write your grant proposal