Main Content Jump to Footer
Writing an application for a research and innovation grant
BEFORE applying for a grant you should read The Nuffield Foundation’s TERMS AND CONDITIONS OF AWARD for Research and Innovation Grants for Beneficial Social Change and check that these terms are acceptable to you and to the organisation that will be administering the grant.
Please also read our before sending in an application
There is no application form. The outline must be no more than three sides of A4, but you are welcome to include additional supporting information about yourself and your organisation.
Your outline application should describe:
- the issue or problem you wish to address
- the expected outcome(s); and the audience for these
- what you will do to achieve your aims; including the engagement of those to whom the outcomes of the project will be most relevant
- an outline of the methods to be employed
- an outline of the budget and the timetable (see budget guidelines)
There is no form (apart from the one page Summary Sheet) but your application should not normally exceed 10 typed sides of A4 in a legible font size (equivalent to Times Roman 12), including the budget and details of the applicants. The pages of your application MUST be numbered. (For more advice on what to put in the application, see below). Supporting documents such as reports will not form part of the application seen by Trustees but we can send them to external referees if you wish.
The Foundation consults independent expert referees, but decisions are made by Trustees, not all of whom will have expert knowledge of the subject in question. Proposals must therefore satisfy experts of your knowledge and grasp of the subject and your chosen methodology, whilst at the same time being comprehensible to lay people.
Your full application must include the following:
- Two hard copies of the Summary Sheet (available here). This is a one page cover sheet that must include a 150-word summary of the project, written in non-technical language.
- Two hard copies of your full application. This should be single sided, and of good print quality. Please do NOT send bound or stapled copies. This will make it easier for us to copy.
- A statement from your institution saying that they would be prepared to administer the grant, if awarded.
- An electronic copy of your application sent by email
Your full application should cover the following:
Background
What is the problem that the project will tackle? What other recent or current developments are there in the field? What is new about the project? To what extent does it build on previous work by you and by others? We do not want an exhaustive review of the literature, but need reassurance that you are aware of existing work in the field.
Outcomes
What are the objectives of the project? What will be the outcomes? What are the implications for policy and practice and how will these be taken up? How timely is the project?
Methods
How will you achieve your aims? What will you do in the course of the project? What is the timetable? What methods will you apply, and why have you chosen these? For research projects, the methodology must be described in detail and the research questions clearly identified. An important criterion in judging research proposals is whether the methods chosen are sufficiently rigorous to produce clear answers to the questions you are asking.
Ethical aspects.
You should make sure that your proposal addresses relevant ethical considerations (see Ethical Review of Projects)
Evaluation
How will you measure the success or failure of your project? It is often helpful to distinguish between monitoring progress, which is part of the management of the project, and evaluation, which is a more formal assessment of the outcome of a project, often carried out by an independent person. Evaluation is particularly important for development projects.
Communicating Outcomes
See section on Communication Outcomes and Reporting
Last Updated Wed, 11 June 2008