Strategic Assessment
The first step in preparing a grant is identifying the most appropriate funding opportunity. You always want to match your interests with those of the funding agency. Ideally, you would want your application to convey the message of: “You said you were looking for a grant on X? Well, here it is – just what you’re looking for.”
In order to produce the best match and come up with the best submission strategy, we first have you complete two forms – one about the organization and the other about the specific project(s) you have in mind – in order to give us an idea of the scope of the work, at what stage of the research you are, and basic parameters that determine eligibility, such as whether you’re an academic institution or a small business, domestic or foreign, relevance for military grants, etc.
Your consultant then reviews the grants landscape and plays matchmaker between your goals and what the funding agency is looking for, identifying those funding opportunities to which your proposal would be most responsive. The end product is a prioritized list of the funding opportunities that are available over the next few months. Based on this list, you can select – on your own or in discussion with your consultant – one or more grants to work on for a given deadline. Ideally, and if it is allowed, then it would be best to apply to multiple funding opportunities to increase your chances for success, rather than put all of your eggs in one basket.
Keep in mind that the grants landscape is very dynamic. While some funding opportunities remain open for several years, others are announced as one-time offers (which may or may not be renewed next year), with a single deadline, which may only be announced ~3 months before the deadline, such that we cannot know about them too far in advance. New funding opportunities are always being announced, while others expire. Therefore, it is recommended to conduct a Strategic Assessment of the grants landscape every 3-4 months.
