Oh, Mr. Grant!

I’ve never written a grant before. I’ve never even worked on helping to write a grant. I’m not sure why, its just never happened. I’ve always said one of the things I wanted to do was write grants to bring in money so I can do the cool things I want to do – but the right grant has never jumped out at me. I’ve offered to help the faculty writing their grants, by working on the technology portion of it – but nobody has ever taken me up on it. Several people have asked questions, but nothing beyond that. One of the big problems we’ve seen is that people write grants and then forget to include the hardware and software requirements.

Grants have always seemed so complicated to me. I’m really good at putting budgets together. Putting words on paper is not a problem either.. But the structure and formality has always been a bit daunting. I’m told that one you write your first one, it gets easier, and once you write one and get it, it gets even easier.

Do those of you who have written grants think it’s hard? What is your success rate and what do you attribute to that success?