Grant Application for Graduate Researchers

Niles Zhao

Doing a PhD is no easy job. It is especially true with graduate researchers in humanities and social sciences. For many of us, the PhD projects are so demanding that we have little time or energy left for other activities. Nonetheless, I believe that there is one activity that you want to spend time on, that is, to apply for research grants.

Why should we apply for grants?

First, grants can better fund our research. Unlike in some other fields, research in language and linguistics usually doesn’t require much funding. However, we do need to pay participants and research assistants. While a lot of institutions, including the University of Melbourne, have internal research fundings, more often than not, they are just not enough. In addition, there is the cost of dissemination including presenting at regional and international conferences as well as publishing in open access journals.

Second, when preparing for an application, we will be prompted to rethink the significance of our research and how it contributes to the broader field. When trying to convince the funding body that the study deserves funding, we are also re-evaluating whether the time we plan to spend on it is justifiable.

Last but not least, the grant application experience will prepare us for a future career as academics. In many institutions, external funding is a measurement of achievement. If we continue to work in academia after graduation, we will probably need to do many more grant applications. Successful grant applications will also give us an edge in the academic job market as universities prefer candidates with grant application experience.

How to prepare for a grant application?

Before we apply, the first thing to do is make sure that we are eligible. In the case of the TIRF doctoral dissertation grants, there are two key requirements. First, applicants must be doctoral students who have advanced to candidacy, which at the University of Melbourne, means we must have passed confirmation. Second, the doctoral study must be related to English education, which excludes studies on languages other than English.

Once we know we are eligible and decide to apply, we need to gain support from our supervisors. Your supervisors are more experienced in grant applications and can give insightful feedback on our application materials. Furthermore, many grants demand letters of recommendation from supervisors. I am very grateful to my supervisors Dr. Jason Fan and Dr. Kellie Frost, who provided valuable support in my application.

When preparing the application materials, the most important thing is to follow the guidelines closely. TIRF, for instance, prescribes that the proposal should follow the APA referencing style. Any proposal that does not follow this style will be disqualified.

As this is an application for money, we also want to be careful with the budget. We should have an itemised budget where each item is justified. When preparing for the TIRF grant application, I included the links to the quotations of airfares and hotel rates.

My final tip is whenever we find a grant that we are eligible to apply for, we should go for it. The only grant we have absolutely no shot at is the one we never apply for!

The 2022 TIRF grant application is open now. You can find the details in the following link (application deadline: 18 May 2022).