Is Proposal Writing THAT Important?
Hello Qualitative Mind,
Welcome to
June 2020!
If you are in the Northern Hemisphere, you likely know this is a much anticipated month as we welcome summer and many things that come with this season. This year summer feels different, though. In the academic world, many conferences and summer projects have been canceled, moved online, or postponed. Overall, we are feeling more unsure about our plans and what this season holds for us. Despite the uncertainty researchers are currently dealing with, summer is often a season for proposal and grant writing as those inside academia prepare for a new academic year and granting agencies’ funding cycles.
The Quali Q Blog posts for the month of June will cover topics related to writing successful qualitative research proposals. I will be sharing my experience as a former Vanier Graduate Scholar (awarded in 2015), and many strategies I used to become a well-funded PhD Student early in my graduate degree. The blog posts will also include some very interesting articles, including one published in a special issue of Qualitative Health Research on Qualitative Proposals (Volume 13, Number 6, July 2003) so, no matter where you are in your academic journey, I hope the posts inspire you to learn something new and write your qualitative research ideas with passion and confidence.
I want to start this series by covering some of the reasons why I believe in the importance of writing powerful qualitative research proposals.
#1- Qualitative research often, if not always, requires adequate funding. Qualitative research might not be as expensive as research projects that require onerous lab equipment and supplies. Yet, people represent one of its greatest investments, and people’s time costs money. We need funding to hire research assistant(s), to hire transcription services, to compensate participants and communities for their time and participation, and to invest in knowledge translation/mobilization through conferences, meetings, and workshops. Moreover, depending on the research approach and methods, it takes time to establish relationships with stakeholders and, once again, that commonly means spending money with travel, snacks, stakeholder engagement meetings, etc. As such, even though qualitative research might be “cheaper” in some ways, it can be more expensive in other ways, and funding is required to accomplish important milestones as part of a well-designed qualitative research project.
#2- As a graduate student, funding offers gives you freedom and can literally be life changing. In the course of my PhD, I talked to SO many people, especially women, who were interested in starting graduate school or learning more about how I secured funding. I tried to always be encouraging and transparent by sharing my own experience (and proposal, if they thought that would be helpful). I probably repeated WAY TOO MANY times how my Vanier Graduate Scholarship positively shaped my experience as a graduate student at the University of Alberta. After I received the award notification on March 31st, 2015, I did not have to worry about funding for the next four years (the scholarship is three years and I also took two six-month paid maternity leaves). This really meant I did not take extra work as a graduate research assistant or teaching assistant unless it aligned with my goals. I took on opportunities that enabled me to do more knowledge translation, and to learn more about qualitative methods. I enjoyed my research and program. Most importantly, I was able to become a mother with the safety net the scholarship provided me. I went on two fully paid maternity leaves (if you are wondering how that was possible, I was already pregnant when I received the scholarship but found out five days later), and could not be more grateful for that as my husband was laid off from his work during my first maternity leave in 2016.
I hope my experience is a testimony to how funding translates into freedom and incredible opportunities for graduate students.
#3- The more you write proposals, the better you get at it. This is a bit of a cliché because it is true for most things in life. However, I cannot leave it out. In January 2014, soon after I returned to graduate school for my PhD, I applied for a prestigious university award and did not get it. The worst part of that rejection had yet to come, as I asked the graduate program advisor to receive feedback on my application from one of the members of the Graduate Program Committee in the department. He was blunt, discouraging, and he tore my application apart from a quantitative paradigm rooted in the natural sciences. I cried after I left his office, and questioned my fitness for academia. I wasn’t someone who wanted to write a proposal in bullet points without telling a compelling story. I realized at some point later in my journey that I couldn’t expect valuable qualitative feedback from him because he didn’t have that to offer as an expert in bioengineering. However, he did teach me a lesson and that was; reviewers might be very UNFAMILIAR with qualitative methods, and I had to grab their attention and demonstrate the importance of my research project. With his harsh comments in mind, and many failed attempts along the way, I kept working on proposals, getting better at writing them and, eventually, winning more than ten awards during my PhD and approximately 200 thousand Canadian dollars in funding.
By the end of June 2020, I want you to feel inspired by the Quali Q Blog posts to write a qualitative research proposal that makes you smile with pride and joy. The feeling is real and, no matter what any reviewer says, you will know you have nailed it!
Talk soon,
Maira Quintanilha