Overview of the Intensive Grant Writing Workshop for Faculty

Please note that these are descriptions for the sessions held during past Intensive Grant Writing Workshops for faculty; the sessions and content may differ in future workshops.

General Information
The Intensive Grant Writing Workshop is designed especially for faculty who have a draft proposal and who are planning to apply to externally based funding committees that are interdisciplinary in nature.

The workshop accepts up to ten faculty, selected based on how well developed their proposals are, and with the goal of having a variety of disciplines represented in the group. Approximately three faculty members, who are also involved in leading the student workshops, lead the faculty workshop. Past faculty participants have come from the following departments: African American Studies, Educational Studies, Film Studies, Graduate Institute of the Liberal Arts, History, Political Science, Russian and East Asian Languages and Cultures, Spanish and Portuguese, Religion, and Women's Studies. The faculty leaders were from the following departments: Anthropology, English, Graduate Institute of the Liberal Arts, Institute of African Studies, and Philosophy.

The purpose of the Workshop program is to familiarize faculty with the processes and strategies involved in applying for external research awards and to sensitize them to the problems they may face in applications to multidisciplinary committees.

Preparation for the Workshop
After acceptance to the intensive workshop, the faculty participants submit a revised proposal along with their curriculum vitae.

After the proposals are received, all participants are sent a full set of all the proposals. They are then asked to prepare a brief presentation for the workshop that describes a proposal other than their own, and to carefully read all of the proposals and prepare to discuss them.

Workshop Sessions
The intensive workshop for faculty is held for one full day at the Emory Conference Center. A brief introductory session includes introductions and a review of the "life history" of a proposal.

The majority of the day is reserved for proposal presentations and discussions. Each faculty participant presents another’s proposal, summarizing the issues and methods presented. Presenters are asked not to critique the proposal, only to summarize. During the presentation and ensuing discussion the proposal writer is not allowed to speak or respond. After the presentations, others are given the opportunity to discuss the proposal. This is done to give the writer an idea of how a funding committee would read and discuss the proposal. Later in the day, the proposal writers have the opportunity to respond to the initial presentations and discussions and to continue the discussion about their proposal.

The final session of the day allows participants to ask follow- up questions. A final discussion about the workshop is also held, and faculty participants complete a workshop evaluation.