Understanding the minds of those who judge your grant applications can be difficult. Science Atlantic was therefore pleased to host Dr. Christian Lacroix and Dr. William Whelan for our first Science Atlantic Sessions for All (SASA) of the school year, entitled, The Adjudication of your Discovery Grant Application, on September 15.
The session garnered a waitlist and a full (virtual) house. Bill and Christian, former adjudicators on multiple grant review panels, spoke for the first twenty minutes, with the rest of the session taken up by questions from attendees.
Topics included leading your reviewers through your application, identifying short- and long-term objectives, the importance of explaining how you will involve highly qualified personnel (HQP) in your research, and including practical actions to ensure equity, diversity, and inclusion are considered in your research.
We have condensed Bill and Christian’s advice into an infographic, “Top Tips for Your Discovery Grant Application”. And, though this session was tailored to Discovery Grants, the advice is also useful and applicable when writing other grant applications.
Thank you to Christian and Bill for a very helpful session, rated 5/5 across the board by attendees.
We look forward to more Sessions for All discussions in the future. Science Atlantic Sessions for All discussions are hosted by faculty for faculty. They provide a safe space for academics to collaborate with, and learn from, one another. We look forward to continuing Science Atlantic Sessions for All throughout the year.
If you or someone you know has an idea for a future session, please let us know! We welcome faculty to share your ideas so these valuable and engaging discussions can continue.
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Dr. Christian Lacroix is the current chair of Biology at the University of Prince Edward Island. He has served on grant review panels for NSERC and Fonds de recherche du Québec – Nature et technologies (FRQNT).
Dr. William Whelan is a Tier 2 Canadian Research Chair in Biomedical Optics at the University of Prince Edward Island, and is also President of the Canadian Association of Physicists (CAP). He has served on grant review panels for NSERC, the Canadian Cancer Society Research Institute, and CIHR.
Discovery Grants, funded through the National Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC), support the development of a diverse base of researchers in Canadian universities by providing funding for five years to researchers whose projects help to create and maintain a pool of ‘highly-qualified personnel’–often postdoctoral fellows, graduate and undergraduate students, and technicians.
