How to Write a Compelling Grant Proposal for Scientific Research (314)

19 and 20 June 2025

Dr Kaycie Butler

The ability to write effective grant proposals is key to a successful academic career, though it is often expected that academics will pick up the necessary skills in real time without any formal teaching – causing writing to be often stressful and inefficient.

The goal of this workshop is to equip researchers with the skills necessary to compose compelling grant proposals as well as provide key information to include and pitfalls to avoid. A good grasp of these basics of proposal composition will help academics save time and energy when they sit down to write.

Workshop content

This workshop will teach the basics of composing a scientific grant proposal, covering each key proposal section:

• Background;
• Proposed work;
• Innovation/impact;
• Specific Aims or summary page.

For each section, we will review in depth:

• The points and key parts to include in each section;
• A detailed breakdown of each section, showing how key points are organized;
• Step-by-step formulas for composing each section;
• Techniques for writing your proposal with the reviewer in mind.

Learning outcomes

At the end of the workshop participants will be able to:

• Effectively organize a grant proposal.
• Compose first drafts of individual sections of a proposal.*
• Recognize patterns in their proposal to provide self-feedback for editing.
• Receive feedback on individual proposal sections from both trainer and peers, if desired (with pre-drafted sections).

*We don't have the time in a short-format workshop to compose full drafts, but participants will leave the workshop knowing exactly how to do it.

ONLINE!

Date : Thursday, 19th and Friday, 20th June 2025

Schedule: From 9 am to 1 pm on both days

Location: Online

Trainer:

Dr Kaycie Butler is a writing consultant for EPFL and her independent company (www.butlerscicomm.com) – providing editing and manuscript consultation services to researchers across Europe and the US. In helping with hundreds of published manuscripts, she has developed simple, step-by-step tips and techniques that she teaches to busy researchers to enhance their writing, reduce their stress, and increase their impact. She has a Ph.D. in chemistry from the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, CA, USA and did her postdoc in chemical biology at EPFL.

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