"The successful application"
When drafting your application, you should always make sure that your project intends to solve a problem that the funding body cares about.
This may equally well be a practical and/or technological problem (“How to optimize treatment of X by inventing device Y?”) as a purely scientific, basic-research problem (“What are the causal mechanisms between X and Y?”)
Knowing what issues your funder cares about will allow you to frame your initial project idea to fit their specific concerns. If reusing material from previous applications, it is imperative to revise it so its responds to the priorities and criteria of the funding body. Never use an identical application for two different calls!
As a general rule, you should always write for your reader. Avoid presupposing specialist, theoretical insight, using technical jargon or introducing unexplained abbreviations! Please refer to “When You Apply”.
Typically, the review board will not be experts in your field but generalists reviewing a lot of different applications.
Write in an argumentative style aimed at convincing the review board that the solution to the problem you propose it both novel and feasible and that it responds to their specific concerns.
As far as possible, write in an active rather than passive voice (“Research shows that X is determined by Y rather than Z”, instead of “It has been shown by research that X is determined by Y rather than Z”). For more, see here.
In general, for an application to have a chance at success, it is crucial that it clearly demonstrates how you intend to solve a highly specific problem that has not yet been solved, how you are going to do it and what the perspectives are of doing so. There should be no doubt as to who is going to do what, how and why.
As concerns the “who” of the PI, please refer to our CV-guide. If your project includes partners, their role and qualifications for the intended tasks should be equally evident from the project description.
For our grant writing courses, please refer to our Funding Academy.