Winning the granting game

New mentoring program helps professors find success

by Mark Reid

Faculty needing friendly advice on grant applications have a new mentoring program at their disposal.

The U of C now offers workshops for professors applying for Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC) Discovery Grants.

“ Some professors make the error of assuming that because they have their PhD they should be able to write a grant application. That’s false,” says Cam Teskey, the academic co-ordinator of the NSERC mentoring program and a professor of psychology at the U of C.

“ Grant writing is a difficult and onerous task and you need help – both from close colleagues and from people who are a little bit farther away from the topic.
“ However, when you win a grant, it gives you freedom. It allows you to do the research you want.”

The newly created NSERC mentoring program is modelled after the highly successful Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) mentoring program co-ordinated by Douglas Peers, a professor of history at the U of C.

Both mentoring programs offer tips on the writing and presentation of grant proposals, from an insider’s point of view. (Teskey and Peers have both sat on various grant-selection committees within NSERC and SSHRC, respectively, and have an intimate knowledge of what the committees are looking for in successful applications.)

“ The proposal has to be original and innovative, and something within your capacity as a researcher,” Peers says. “It can’t be premature, and you have to convince them you have mastered enough of the background.

“ The judges are very, very wise stewards of public money, and they want to invest in something that has a good likelihood of success. That means convincing the judges you have the skills, and have done your homework.”

Peers has hosted SSHRC workshops for several years, while Teskey offered his first NSERC workshop this summer.

Lori Foster, Associate Director of External Awards in the office of Research Services says the entire U of C community has much to gain by improving its success rate at winning grants from the three federal granting agencies.

For faculty members, winning grants gives professors the money and resources to pursue their individual research pursuits. It also allows them to hire and train graduate and undergraduate students in the art of scholarly research.

Students also benefit from attending a university with a strong research culture.
As researchers make new discoveries, they are able to pass the information along in the classroom, thereby improving the overall learning experience for students.

“ It creates a spin-off effect,” Foster says. “Any success in terms of grants from the granting councils translates into other successes for the institution. Many performance indicators used to assess universities are based on our success within the granting councils, as are the number of Canada Research Chairs assigned to any given university.”