How to Craft a Strong Application
For all applications
Make sure your budget matches your project description.
A common mistake in previous cycles by applicants is having budgets that do not match what is described in their written materials. Any expense in the budget should be explained somewhere in your application. For example, if a number of budget line items relate to a convening of some kind, your application should explain the details of this convening: who will participate, what will the structure/format be, what will the outcomes and/or outputs be, etc.?
Be specific about project activities and how funds will be used to execute them.
Within the space constraints, make sure you provide as much detail as possible about what you plan to do in concrete terms and how the grant funds are required to enable these activities. After a reviewer reads your application, it should be very clear to them what you will do, on what timeline, and how you are using the funds to do it.
Use funds efficiently in relation to impact.
Every year we receive far more competitive applications than we are able to fund. This means that while we by no means want applicants to cut corners, we do expect applicants to use the funds efficiently. What this means is that every line item should clearly contribute to the goals, outcomes, and outputs of your project.
Specific to Research
Be creative and expansive with how you think about impact.
We appreciate that many applicants will be primarily concerned with how their research will impact their specific discipline. However, your application will be stronger if you can demonstrate impact in multiple domains. You can demonstrate that by answering any of the following questions: How might your research impact your teaching and/or the learning opportunities of undergrad or grad students? Could there be popular outlets for sharing your research that will help it impact communities beyond academia? Or might your research inform any collaborations with academics outside your field and/or specialization?
Do not assume readers will easily understand the significance of your work.
Because reviewers are likely not experts in your field, you need to show not tell when it comes to making the case for the importance of your research. In other words, do not simply write “this research will change my field,” but explain why and how it will do so in a way that a general educated audience could understand.
Don’t forget about sustainability.
In previous cycles, relatively strong applicants often failed to have strong sustainability plans. Sustainability is important because it indicates that the impact of the project will not be a one-off or short-lived, but that GIF is seeding a project that will grow and yield benefits over the years to come. You can demonstrate sustainability through durable outputs, plans to apply to external grants to extend the project, etc. As always, the more specific you can be, the better. Name specific sources of funding you plan to target and when, name specific courses that will be impacted and how, etc.
Specific to Study Abroad
Be creative yet practical.
We particularly welcome applications that offer something new to our existing slate of study abroad programs. This can be in terms of geographic location, academic field, or program structure. At the same time, ultimately programs will not run if not enough students enroll. High costs or a program whose scope is particularly niche may risk not attracting enough students. Finally, while certainly world events can be hard to predict, if a country is currently at a travel 4 or 5 level warning by the State Department, it is unlikely to pass our travel health and safety review.
Even scoping trips need a bit of preplanning.
We do not expect applicants for scoping grants to have everything figured out – that’s the point of the trip! But stronger applications will have done some initial leg work and have a clear sense of an itinerary, ideas to test out, specific potential partners to meet, etc. We expect more than just a topic and a location.
Make a strong case for why you are the person to lead this trip.
The most impactful and durable faculty-led-programs are by faculty with deep connections to the place(s) they lead students. Your application will be stronger the more you are able to articulate how your expertise and experience will assist your ability to help students adapt, educate them about their surroundings, and help students make the most of their time abroad.
Understand what sustainability means in the context of study abroad.
We want to fund scoping trips for programs that will run several times. There are a variety of factors that contribute to sustainability, from student demand to faculty commitment (which of course can be shared among multiple faculty) to curricular needs the program addresses. Here is where we want you to make the case for why we can expect your future program to run for many years to come.