Events
Five Tips for Writing Winning Grant Proposals
15 November 2022
Eastern Time (US & Canada) (UTC -05:00)
More than half of proposals are rejected for being “non-responsive.” This is because many scientists make the mistake of believing that a grant is a “grade”—that if their research is good enough, then a reviewer will give them money based solely on the merit of their research. The quality of a proposal is irrelevant, though, if the proposed research project does not align with the goals and purpose of the funding agency. A compelling grant proposal must be responsive to the topic, engaging to read, and easy to understand. This webinar presents five critical things a researcher can do to craft proposals that rise to the top of a reviewer’s stack.
*This program is intended for Optica Senior Members Only.*
About Our Speaker: Damon Diehl, NextCorps Luminate
Dr. Damon Diehl is a graduate of the University of Rochester’s Institute of Optics. His early career was in the startup world, where he used DoD SBIR grants as a springboard for technology and product development. He briefly ran his own grant-writing business before moving into a broader career as a technical writer. He was hired by Luminate to help teams develop more compelling investment pitches, and he joined the staff as the Technology Program Manager in 2019. Damon now leverages his years of experience in the optics industry to help Luminate startups develop their technologies and connect them with resources for design, assembly, and manufacturing. In 2010 he began developing the workshop “Grant Writing from the Ground Up” for the SPIE engineering society, and in 2021 he expanded the workshop into a book that is published by SPIE Press.
