“CUR Dialogues is designed to bring faculty and administrators to the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area to interact with federal agency program officers and other grant funders. Attendees will also have the chance to engage in several networking opportunities.”

• Typically a 3-day workshop in mid- to late February
• The CUR Dialogues typically includes half-day grant development and writing workshop

CUR Proposal Writing Institute

• Four-day institute to bring draft proposal to nearly completed stage
• Typically held during the summer
• For people who have identified a funding source/program and have begun writing a draft proposal (draft submitted one week before Institute)
• Also possible to explore hosting a CUR Proposal Writing Workshop on our campus

National Science Foundation Grants Conferences

• These typically have ½-day grant writing workshops.
• Also have break-out sessions in wide range of program areas (biological sciences, geosciences, CAREER, etc.)
• Generally held twice a year

Live seminars or recorded webinars by Academic Research Funding Strategies, LLC

• "Competing for Funding from the National Science Foundation” – 3 hours
• “Competing for Funding from the National Institutes of Health” – 3 hours
• “How to Write Successful Grants for Instrumentation” – 2 hours
• “How to Write Successful Proposals for NSF CAREER, DoD Young Investigator and Other Grants for Early-Career Researchers” – 3 hours

NIH Regional Seminars

• “Each year, the Office of Extramural Research (OER) sponsors the NIH Regional Seminars on Program Funding and Grants Administration. These seminars are intended to help demystify the application and review process, clarify Federal regulations and policies, and highlight current areas of special interest or concern. …The seminars are appropriate for grants administrators, researchers new to NIH, and graduate students.”
• Always include ½ day workshops on best practices and nuts and bolts of putting together NIH applications.

Serve as a grant reviewer for a major funder, such as the NEH, ACLS, or NSF. Please note that, contrary to popular opinion, previous experience as a grantee is NOT required to be a reviewer.

• If NEH is your target funder: register as a potential panelist/reviewer in their system
• If ACLS is your target funder: send an email to [email protected] describing briefly which fields you would feel comfortable reviewing proposals, and attach your CV.
• If NSF is your target funder: email a program officer in the appropriate program.
• The US Department of Education regularly seeks reviewers for several of their programs

Ask another faculty member or expert in the field who has been successful in securing research grants to serve as a mentor during the external grant application process or read your grant proposal and provide comments and suggestions. Be sure to discuss with your potential collaborator your expectations for their role.