Research Project Grant Authorization Application: Fill & Download for Free

I come from a biomedical background, so this advice might be more geared towards a scientific research PhD. I'm also perhaps writing about what is expected of graduate students rather than the other way around. Nonetheless..First year graduate students are expected to take care of administrative tasks (sign up for health insurance, fill out paperwork, be familiar with graduate school requirements), make a large dent in coursework, find an appropriate lab and mentor that shares your interests, apply for external funding, and become familiar with some of the lab techniques or protocols that you'll likely use in the course of your project.Ideally, you will be able to finish more than half of your required PhD courses in your first year. If you're new to the field, this might be a difficult task, but since you will only have limited involvement in the lab during your first year (especially if you rotate labs), the first year is the best time to bog yourself down with homework and exams. You could also benefit from finding an opportunity to help out with someone else's project during your first year. A co-authored paper in your first year will make things much easier for qualifying/preliminary thesis exams and for grant/fellowship applications.I wish that I had spent more time in my first year applying for external funding for my research. Look for as many fellowships/scholarships as you can that you are eligible for and fire away. Even if you don't have a defined research project yet, you can really improve your resume and future prospects with independent research funding. Plus, applications are a great way to practice writing, and this will make publishing papers easier later on in your thesis work.

Ooooph. This one is a tough question for me. I am going to present a contradictory view on the benefits of completing a PhD. Hear me out first and then judge. But before I let you know about the benefits based on personal experience I have to share a little background story on my life.I started to pursue research from the first year of my undergraduate degree. By the time I graduated I was leading teams on research projects and supervised and taught students on research topics that I was pursuing during my undergraduate study. Even before I started my PhD I had published 30 peer-reviewed papers and patents (majority of which was published during my undergraduate study and then few during my masters’). Now to the benefits that I actually get from being a PhD are as follows (I am close to completion but haven’t completed yet so my answers might update later):You get to apply for Assistant Professor or higher position in academia in the developed countries such that you can finally be a PI or co-PI in a research grant to fund the research that you want to pursue. We live in a world where just your talent, capabilities and responsibilities dont earn you the respect of the funding committees or funding bodies to bestow you the role of a PI or co-PI in a research grant. Regardless of you having managed research projects and teams and have published your research output without having a PhD, you won’t be able to write a grant as a PI or co-PI in grants till you hold a position higher or equal to Assistant Professor or Senior Research Fellow in a recognises institute (at least this is the case for ESRC and EPSRC like funding bodies). These positions retrospectively are not possible to be achieved in the developed counties until you have a PhD.Bit of an ego-boost. I partly a lot with younger folks, who are undergraduates. When I tell them that I am pursuing a PhD yet partying with them, they find it really cool of me and think of me as some kind of a genius. To be honest, I don’t personally feel that way about me. I am just a scientist doing my job: research.You get to use the title of Dr. in front of your name for mailing services or for coupons when you go out shopping next time. This again acts as another point to boost your ego. Some times when you are delivering a talk or an interview on media, somehow having the Dr. title automatically makes you a person of authority or expert (although your talk or answers might not be any different from any other expert without the same title).You will get a reduced pay than compared to working in the industry for those years that you have spend in your PhD. Ok. Ok. This point is a pure sarcastic one. Before joining my PhD I was earning a salary of £150K/yr in the industry outside London in the UK. After joining the PhD I receive a stipend of £15K/yr. There’s a big fat zero missing. And after I graduate my salary as a new Assistant Professor will be no more than £40–50K /yr. But hey, at least I get to put my name as a PI or co-PO in grants if successful. Isn’t that why we are doing our PhD?!Another personal reason is that I get to prove my doctor wrong! When I was around 7 years of age I was diagnosed with mild-dyslexia after failing English literature class (spelled more than 20 words wrong in 3 sentences in a test and hence failing the exam). Given the case happened in India almost 20 years ago where there was no good support for dyslexic students like me, the doctor told my mom that there is no point in investing in my studies. I still remembered the disappointment in my mom’s eyes because at that time I was their only hope for higher education, the first in the family to go for higher education in the Univerity (my parents’ wishes). So doc, if you are reading, now I have two advanced degrees and will be adding PhD to my portfolio as well very soon. You were wrong about me and wrong about dyslexic students. If we want, we can achieve higher education successfully as well!Now, all these being said, I personally don’t think that I will benefit much more than just having a title of Dr. in front of my name by completing my PhD and hence, be applicable to apply for Assistant Professor position in the UK. And then finally apply for grants as PI and co-PI so that I can pursue the research that I want to.We live in a world where even if you are capable of doing something, people still judge you by your title (Dr. or Professor) and deem you to be worthy of a position only if you hold that title. I think we have to teach otherwise to our future generations. If you are capable then you should be able to pursue what you want to do and that includes applying for grants to be able to pursue research to contribute to a field even without having a fancy title or high academic position.Thank you for reading.Somdip Dey,The Traveling Man.

I am not very sure of the context in which you have asked this question. If you can be more clear about it, I can help you.If you have an idea for a research project, you must present that in the form of a proposal with technical principle and details. This is called technical proposal writingIn the Biotech and Pharma field, to get a funding for a R&D project, we submit proposals to get grants. Here the proposal must be as brief and to the point as possible. To achieve this, the proposal must be written in a skillful manner and should include all the technical keywords and be crisp and precise.This in itself is an art. The way you draft your proposal tells a lot about your knowledge of the project, your future path for the project and its application in the real world.In short, the technical proposal should tell everything and still be short. Should be technical enough to challenge the authorities, yet be simple enough for others to understand.