Inclusive Environments and Metrics in Biology Education and Research
(iEMBER) Grantwriting Community of Practice
Introduction to the Grantwriting Program
Our initial discussions, and your responses to our previous survey earlier, showed us that we are a diverse community with a range of career paths, career stages, and grant experiences. Recognizing this range of experience, we want to provide ways for all to participate, regardless of where they may be in a grant-writing process, or how much experience they may have. One way is to provide a range of opportunities to participate, that can allow everyone to carry on their work regardless of whether they just want to learn about writing grants, or they are raring to go with their proposal, team, and identified mechanism for funding and deadline all set.
Our pilot experiment will aim to support the development of numerous applications at once, regardless of the stage of development, need for new members or collaborators, and need for involvement from our end. To that end we have set up dedicated “Office Hours” for supporting all kinds of groups working on proposals, with time to work together on proposals following short presentations on particular, needed topics, and “Grantwriting Coffee Hours”, with speakers talking about various topics, with an opportunity afterward for discussion.
Thoughts? Please fill out our survey to let us know if you have particular needs, especially if they aren't being addressed with the programing described below.
Coffee Hours:
We have found, in previous Coffee Hours, participants sharing a number of experiences shedding light on the “hidden curriculum” of the grant-writing process; we have a wealth of experiences among our community, and we want to support this continued sharing and learning from each other, as well as from grant-writing professionals.
We are therefore continuing to have Coffee Hours provide spaces for more nuanced discussions about the “hidden curriculum” of the grant-writing process. You can find links and specific details for the upcoming sessions below - generally these will be one hour on the First Thursday of the Month beginning: 10am PT/11am MT/12pm CT/1pm ET. An invited speaker will talk about a particular theme, followed by questions and conversations. Our upcoming slate of talks includes:
April 4th: Dr. Charles Henderson - Grantwriting Coffee Hour: Navigating Internal Policies and Politics
Grants that demonstrate they have support from university administration can be looked upon favorably as they more frequently lead to eventual institutionalization of the projects proposed therefore having a good working relationship with heads/chairs, deans, chancellors, provosts, and presidents are often a key component of a successful proposal.
We will record presentations and share resources throughout. Please stay tuned; we will post here as we go along!
Office Hours:
One of the hardest things with grantwriting is simply carving out time to write, and work together as a team. We want to provide space to do that, but also for people to come with questions, discussions and requests for help or collaboration.
We also want to provide an opportunity for people to participate in authentic grantwriting practice regardless of where they are in their journey or professional development. Some of you know exactly what you are applying for, and have your team ready; others may be looking for team members, or for ideas on what to apply for, or simply want to learn more about the process, working with others. We at iEMBER have some projects that we need help with, that vary in the opportunity for participation (some with no room for new team members, but could benefit from your input; others are completely open-ended, with just the seed of an idea!). Regardless of whether you have a proposal you are working on, or simply want to get involved, we want to provide space for you to join in, and connect with others.
To this end, we will be hosting “Office Hours” every month, which will be two hours on the Third Thursday of the Month, beginning: 10am PT/11am MT/12pm CT/1pm ET. Links can be found below for upcoming Office Hours, which begin in January 2024.
Grantwriting Coffee Hours
| Month | Day | Time | Topic(s) | Host(s) | Materials (videos, slides, etc) |
| April | 4 | 1:00 PM ET, 12 PM CT, 11 AM MT, and 10 AM PT | Navigating Internal Policies and Politics | iEMBER Steering Committee with special guest speaker Dr. Charles Henderson | TBD |
| March | 7 | 1:00 PM ET, 12 PM CT, 11 AM MT, and 10 AM PT | Budget Building, and Sponsored Project Office perspectives | iEMBER Steering Committee | TBD |
| February | 1 | 1:00 PM ET, 12 PM CT, 11 AM MT, and 10 AM PT | Broader Impacts and Innovation in Dissemination | iEMBER Steering Committee with special guest speaker Dr. Craig Ogilvie | Video |
| January | 4 | 1:00 PM ET, 12 PM CT, 11 AM MT, and 10 AM PT | Shifting Institutional and National Contexts | iEMBER Steering Committee with special guest speaker Dr. Adrienne Dixson | Video |
| December | 7 | 1:00 PM ET, 12 PM CT, 11 AM MT, and 10 AM PT | Building a Team, and Writing to the Call | iEMBER Steering Committee | |
| November | 2 | 1:00 PM ET, 12 PM CT, 11 AM MT, and 10 AM PT | Project Ideation/Contacting Program Officer | iEMBER Steering Committee with special guest speaker Dr. Bonnie Green | Summary Page |
| October | 5 | 1:00 PM ET, 12 PM CT, 11 AM MT, and 10 AM PT | Grant Evaluation: Choosing an evaluator for your grant and why it is important. | iEMBER Steering Committee with special guest speaker Dr. Ellen Puccia | TBA |
| April 2023 | 28 | 1:00 PM ET, 12 PM CT, 11 AM MT, and 10 AM PT | Intro to the iEMBER Grant-writing Community of Practice | Gary McDowell | Recording and Slides |
Grantwriting Office Hours
Two hours on the Third Thursday of the Month, beginning: 10am PT/11am MT/12pm CT/1pm ET
This will provide protected time for teams to work together on writing, with space for questions and conversations arising among the community.
Upcoming Office Hours
| Month | Day | Time | Virtual Link |
|---|---|---|---|
| April | 18 | 1:00 PM ET, 12 PM CT, 11 AM MT, and 10 AM PT |