Following the positive outcomes of last year's GrantReady initiative, The College of Education Research Office (COERO) invites applications to participate in a shorter, online version called GrantReady Essentials. GrantReady Essentials is a 4-part, hands-on sequential workshop series, offered through Zoom, Fall 2026 through Spring 2027, designed to build grant funding knowledge and skills. The culminating element of GrantReady Essentials is the submission of an external grant proposal by each participating faculty member.
***Applications due noon Wednesday September 16! (all info is below - for any questions, please contact Associate Dean Eric Paulson, at eric.paulson@txstate.edu)***
Description: Participants will take part in a series of synchronous, online interactive workshops featuring presentations, writing exercises, and structured homework assignments, all designed to help them develop a complete, ready-to-submit research grant at the end of the program in spring semester. Each session is 90 minutes in length. The sessions will cover key components commonly found in grant applications. As a core resource, we will use The Grant Writing Guide: A Road Map for Scholars by Betty S. Lai. Each participant will receive a paperback copy of the book before the first session.
Goals: This iterative series is designed to strengthen the grant-writing knowledge and skills of new faculty, and/or faculty new to funded research. While new tenure-track faculty and faculty who are new to grant seeking are prioritized, GrantReady Essentials is open to all full-time, tenure track or non-tenure track, faculty in the COE who didn't participate in last year's GrantReady.
Incentive: For the GrantReady Essentials iteration, faculty who complete all four workshop sessions and submit an external grant proposal to an approved funding agency, will receive a $1,000 incentive. The incentive will be distributed in two rounds: half at completion of the workshop series and half after submission of the grant proposal.
Learning outcomes include:
- Introduction to the grant funding landscape and university resources
- Developing and structuring your research idea
- Writing narratives and supporting documents
- Working with program officers
- Preparing a full proposal package
Workshop Schedule & Format:
This initiative is designed to develop and strengthen grant-writing skills through a series of sequential workshops, with each session building on the last. Regular attendance and active participation are expected to ensure participants get the most from the series.
The four sessions are scheduled as follows:
- Friday, October 30, 10:00-11:30
- Friday, November 20, 10:00-11:30
- Friday, January 29, 10:00-11:30
- Friday, February 26, 10:00-11:30
Please note that the day/time of those sessions may need to be adjusted. And, recognizing the difficulty of scheduling days/times when everyone can attend, we will offer a makeup session if you miss one of the regular sessions.
In addition, the instructional team will offer office hours every week. These optional sessions are available for participants to ask questions, seek feedback, or address any concerns.
Beyond the four 90-minute workshop sessions, participants should plan to spend approximately 20 hours over the course of the workshop series on the preparation of grant materials. These activities are designed to reinforce key concepts and contribute to the development of a full proposal by the end of the program.
Preparation Prior to First Workshop Session:
Prior to the first scheduled workshop session, participants will need to identify a funder and a grant opportunity to work towards during the workshop series. We will communicate with participants about support for this aspect.
Planned Sessions:
- Workshop 1: Strategy, RFPs & Concept Alignment
- Understanding and critically reading RFPs/Solicitations
- Aligning with funder mission & Program Officer interactions
- Developing grant ideas into one pagers (brief Abstract / Concept White Paper)
- Workshop 2: Drafting the Core Narrative
- Grant writing style & creating compelling problem statements
- Developing research plans, approach, and rationale
- Writing Intellectual Merit & Broader/Societal Impacts
- Workshop 3: Budgets & Supplementary Documents
- Constructing a budget and writing compelling Budget Justifications
- Data Management Plans & Facilities/Resources
- Mentoring Plans, Letters of Support, & non-narrative attachments
- Workshop 4: Polishing, Submission & Post-Award
- Importance of PI documents (CVs, Biosketches, ORCiD)
- RED review process & final submission workflow
- Post-award overview and handling resubmissions
At the end of the workshop series, participants will have prepared all the critical components needed to submit a grant application to a funding agency.
- While specific proposal components will be determined by the grant opportunity selected by the faculty member, many grant proposals include some combination of the following:
- Proposal Narrative
- Brief abstract
- Research focus
- Rationale for approach or investigation
- Brief literature review
- Proposed approach to conducting research
- Rationale for approach
- Budget Justification
- Mentoring Plan
- Data management plan
- Facilities and Resources
Eligibility Requirements for GrantReady Essentials
Eligibility for this program includes all full-time faculty in the College of Education (who did not participate in last year's GrantReady initiative). Priority is given to tenure-track faculty who are new to the university or with limited experience with grant funding. Eligibility includes:
- Early-career or new tenure-track faculty members
- Tenure/tenure track faculty members with limited grant-writing experience (e.g., have not been involved in grant submissions, or have been on a grant project but not yet as the PI)
- Non-tenure track faculty members with limited grant-writing experience
- As space allows, experienced grant faculty interested in further building and honing grant-writing skills
Application and Due Date
Interested faculty should complete the following form and submit it by noon Wednesday September 16. Applicants will be notified of admission decisions by the end of September. For any questions, please contact Associate Dean Eric Paulson, at eric.paulson@txstate.edu
