Research Project Canvas: a secret tool for winning grant proposals

Research project funding allows you to pursue new ideas, hire help, buy equipment, and receive a salary. In a way, a research grant allows us to experience the academic freedom that most scientists crave. I want to offer you a secret weapon that I have used for many years to write winning research grant proposals. I call it the Research Project Canvas.

Before I show you what exactly Research Project Canvas is and how it helps to write better research grant proposals, I will tell you what is the exact problem it helps to solve.

Why do scientists need the Research Project Canvas?

Considering the importance of research proposal writing, it is shocking how little training scientists get to learn grant writing skills. Let me tell you how I used to feel when faced with the task of writing a research proposal:

I stare at the blinking cursor on a computer screen, thinking of the profound magnitude of the task ahead of me – I need to write a research project proposal. I freeze.

Not only do I have to come up with a research project idea with the potential to have a lasting impact in my field; I also need to develop scientific methodology, ensure the necessary resources and expertise are available, negotiate with prospective research partners, all while keeping the requirements of the research funder in mind.

Then I had to explain the whole thing in a way that will convince the grant reviewers that my idea is better than any of the other great research proposals that they will read. 

Have you experienced something similar? In fact, I can guarantee that almost every scientist on the planet seeking research grant funding has felt this way.

What usually happens after this worrisome lull is that the looming deadline leaves us with no choice but to dive into the writing the research proposal. The chaos that follows involves scrambling for ideas, guessing at the costs, dumping some figures into a wall of text; then rewriting everything once we find that the co-authors don’t like it.

This misery usually ends with an all-nighter and a submission five minutes before the deadline. It is a formidable accomplishment if the correct file gets uploaded.

In an infomercial, a tired-looking scientist would say:

Project proposal writing is actually great

If you know how to do it, project proposal writing is actually an exciting thing to do. Just think about it. When preparing a grant application, you have the freedom to plan your own research, dream of the accomplishments that lie ahead, and imagine how they will change the world. So why is the reality of proposal writing so different from one’s aspirations?

The problem is that there is too wide of a gap between our research ideas and the full research proposal. It’s intimidating and unproductive to start writing with a blank page in front of you. You can solve this by using the Research Project Canvas.

What is the Research Project Canvas?

The Research Project Canvas is a one-page template that serves as the missing intermediate step that allows research grant seekers to efficiently turn their research ideas into a finished proposal.

The idea is that you would first fill the Research Project Canvas and only then you would turn to writing the full research proposal. Now, instead of staring into a blank screen, you have guideposts for writing the proposal.

With a prefilled Research Project Canvas in hand, the task of writing the proposal will not seem quite so intimidating since you will know exactly what to write within each section of your funding proposal.

You can use the Research Project Canvas to generate ideas, rate their potential, collaborate with partners, present, develop a storyline for your proposal and do many other things. You can learn all about writing a great research proposal in my book “Write a Winning Research Proposal“

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10 Building Blocks of the Research Project Canvas

The one-page Research Project Canvas template consists of ten building blocks that make up the key elements of any research project proposal. Each block provides questions that will help you to fill in the template.

Problem

The knowledge gap that should be filled

What real-world research problem are we solving?

Why should the problem be solved?

What is the specific knowledge gap that we will fill?

Objectives

The research objectives that will help solve the identified problem

What main objective will move us toward solving the identified problem?

What are the specific sub-objectives of the research project?

Methodology

The approach that leads to reaching the research objectives

What methodology will allow us to reach our objective? 

What is the research hypothesis?

How should we divide the work into smaller units (work packages, tasks)?

What methods should we employ and what data should we collect?

How are the different parts interconnected?

Resources

The resources needed to accomplish the research objectives

What key resources does the research methodology require?

How do we access the required resources?

Participants

The research team’s qualification for implementing the research methodology and their complementary value

Which key participants will allow us to reach the research objective?

What are the strengths of each project participant?

What is each project partner going to do?

How will project partners complement each other?

Results and Impact

The new knowledge that will be created and what is its real-world impact

What new knowledge will be generated?

How will the research project impact your field and beyond?

Who benefits from the research project and in what way ?

Dissemination

The proper target audience and how you will reach them

Who is the target audience? 

How do we reach them?

Who and how will exploit the research results?

What knowledge can be shared?

What IP has to be protected?

Timeline

The time required for performing each part of the research project

When are specific activities planned to occur?

How long will the research project take? 

When will we reach important milestones?

Who contributes what and when?

When does travel take place?

Budget

The major cost items and the distribution of funding between participants

What are the major expenses of the research project?

How much will the needed resources cost?

What is the budget of each partner?

Funder’s Requirements

The rules that govern the project’s contents

What requirements are set by the funding body?

Expected budget? Which costs can be funded?

Key criteria for project evaluation?

The Research Project Canvas Template

Now that you know the ten building blocks of the Research Project Canvas, go ahead and download the template. You can fill it directly in the PowerPoint or print it out and fill by hand. For a group brainstorming session, show it on a screen and use sticky notes to describe your ideas.

Download the Research Project Canvas

Filling the Research Project Canvas

First, think about and then fill in each of the Research Project Canvas blocks. Once all of the blocks have the required information, ensure they are well interconnected. The Project Canvas blocks are organized so that the most related aspects of a research project are laid out across four main axes.

The exercise of filling in the Research Project Canvas will force you to define the problem clearly, specify who cares about it, and explore how it could be solved. You will also be forced to think about practical aspects, like having the required expertise, tools, time, and funding to execute the research project. This process will help you generate new ideas and refine the existing ones. 

Using the Research Project Canvas to verify ideas

The Research Project Canvas consists of two distinct parts. Filling these contrasting sides will ensure that your research project is needed and you have the resources to successfully execute it.

Importantly, the Research Project Canvas will reveal if something isn’t going to work so that you don’t waste your time on a research proposal destined for failure. For example, it might be that you simply do not have the resources needed to deliver the anticipated results. Or that the project duration set by the funding agency is not enough time to solve the problem.

Finding dead ends right at the start is exactly what you want! It is better to find the challenges before you have invested days or weeks writing a full research proposal.

Since the Research Project Canvas only requires one page, you can come up with multiple variations in a couple of hours to help you decide which approach you like the best.

Start writing the research proposal

Now that you have the Research Project Canvas and know how to fill it, go ahead and produce some ideas. Once you have selected the best idea and refined it, you are ready to start writing a full research proposal. Now this task will be much easier since you will already know what content should go into each part.

A Research Proposal Template with a Key Sentence Skeleton will be a further help for your writing process. You can read about it and download the template here. I even managed to set up ChatGPT that automatically converts the Research Project Canvas into a Proposal draft. See here how it works.

To get inspired by real-life winning research project examples, read this article.

The Research Project Canvas will help you to conceptualize research ideas and write a very good proposal. The problem is, there are a lot of “very good” grant proposals out there and to maximize your chances of being selected for funding, yours has to be more than very good. 

Your proposal has to stand out from other proposals that are equally worthy. Otherwise, you are at a risk of being one of the applicants that is given the most frustrating feedback of them all:

Your proposal received a high score but due to the unavailable funding, it can not be supported.

You can learn how to write a research proposal that stands out by reading my book “Write a Winning Research Proposal“. It will show you how to write the proposal in a way that excites and convinces any reviewer. You will learn how to come up with Key Sentences, then expand upon them using Story Structure. You will see how to create convincing figures, improve readability, prepare supplementary documents, and learn a formula for pitching your proposal.

Birth of the Research Project Canvas

I was inspired to create the Research Project Canvas technique after reading the Business Model Generation. As described in the book, the Business Model Canvas provides a way to swiftly explore different business ideas and decide which ones to follow through with. The Business Model Canvas also serves as a means for communicating with business advisors, and it helps with writing a full-fledged business plan. 

I felt that this concept was similar to scientists validating research ideas, negotiating with partners, and writing a research project proposal, so I developed a canvas that would apply to the scientific field.

Hey! My name is Martins Zaumanis and I am a materials scientist in Switzerland (Google Scholar). As the first person in my family with a PhD, I have first-hand experience of the challenges starting scientists face in academia. With this blog, I want to help young researchers succeed in academia. I call the blog “Peer Recognized”, because peer recognition is what lifts academic careers and pushes science forward.

Besides this blog, I have written the Peer Recognized book series and created the Peer Recognized Academy offering interactive online courses.

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