Writing a grant proposal needs you to use a lot of time, resources, and energy until you submit it. Therefore, it is not an easy process if you need to provide a quality grant. Follow through with all guidelines and specifications and ensure your budget is accurate with no mistakes. Unfortunately, your grant proposal can get rejected even after you put in all the effort and energy. Most times, it is because the reviewer did not get what they want in your application. Here are some of the things reviewers look for in the grant proposal you can consider.

Good proposal 

The first impression of the reviewer of your grant proposal attributes to the good proposal. A communicative, well-organized, and self-explanatory proposal is considered a good proposal. The material you provide should explain your objective and your field knowledge revealed according to the budget you provide. Therefore, your grant can get its first approval for us financial aid being a good proposal. That is if your grant proposal captivates the interest and attention of the reviewer through the initial data.

Effective first impression

Having an impactful first impression will help a reviewer learn the aim of your proposal. This should be thought out well in clear and concise writing, supported with sufficient data. All this is to help project the potentiality of your idea and the contribution you will offer in your relevant field. Not forgetting it helps determine your capability of researching the research process you provide in the grant proposal.

Common mistakes

As a reviewer goes through your proposal, they evaluate the text for any common areas according to the predetermined standards. Do not assume your reviewer is an expert in your field. This is a common mistake most grant writers make. Ensure your work is not vague by using unnecessary jargon, through the writing style you use, misspelling, wrong grammar, and formatting. Take your proposal writing seriously. If you want the reviewer to take it seriously as well. A reviewer is looking for conviction, clarity, and competence. If your proposal is not conveying this, it gets discarded fast.

Budget orientation

In this section of the grant application process, both the applicant and reviewer give equal attention to time and check. So, once you go through the budget guide the funders give, align your funding requests by showing your budget clearly and accurately. Through one look at the budget section, a reviewer can tell if your proposal is slacking, meeting the expectation, or overpassing the funders’ requirements, and it can get accepted or rejected. Plan and develop your project by complying with the funding allocations given to save you and your reviewers time and trouble.

Realistic goals

In the reviewers’ panel, the team comprises committees and peer review panels who review your grant following a certain criterion. They all have years of experience of up to 8 successful grant applications, which is a substantial amount. If they see a project with proverbial promises, they reject it at first glance. Due to the experience they have in grant reviewing. Too ambitious proposals with an impression of impracticality affect your chances and credibility as well. For this reason, be realistic and reasonable as possible in your proposal. If you get the grant, you will have to deliver upon every word you stated.

Existing resources

The availability of your research resources is another factor the reviewers evaluate the feasibility of your proposal. This is in terms of principal investigators or program directors’ qualifications and the support of your institution. Therefore, demonstrate the existing resources by listing down laboratory space, equipment, or any research related to the possession that consists of your inventory.

To sum up, it is always vital that someone else goes through your grant proposal before submission time. It is easy to miss the most obvious errors because of focusing on the same document most of the time. Thus, evaluate your proposal from a reviewer’s point of view, to go through it thoroughly until you are confident you are ready to submit it. Use the above ideas to know some of the things to be keen on as reviewers are out to look out for them.