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Whether you’re an early career researcher, university faculty member or a doctoral student, the 2025 Summer Grant Writing Workshop can provide the tools, strategies and expert insights needed to write competitive grant proposals.
“The art and architecture of grant writing is a hidden skill that is essential for academic researchers on a tenure track,” said Ross DuBose, assistant director of the USF Sarasota-Manatee Office of Research. “This program has been shown to improve success rates for early career scientists and scholars.”
Summer Grant Writing Workshop
Hosted by the USF Sarasota-Manatee Office of Research, the eight-week online certificate program starts June 2. Early-bird registration, which comes with a discounted rate, ends April 25.
A record of success
USF Sarasota-Manatee Assistant Professor Lindsay Persohn credits the workshop for helping her secure a $25,000 grant to develop a prototype virtual reality application that offers students an immersive learning environment to solve real-world problems.
Persohn, of the College of Education, was the first Sarasota-Manatee faculty member to win funding from the Florida High Tech Corridor Early-Stage Innovation Fund, which supports projects with strong commercial potential that have moved beyond the idea stage and have demonstrated some initial proof of concept or innovation.
“The Summer Grant Writing Workshop has helped me to better understand the landscape of grant writing and hone my skills for writing competitive grant proposals,” Persohn said. “The paced structure, the Training Activity Guidebook, excellent guest speakers and the expertise of USF Office of Research staff make the workshop interesting, relevant, tailored and extremely informative.”
Why is the workshop a good deal for researchers?
The course, which runs online for eight weeks, is open to both USF and non-USF researchers. More than 200 people participated in the workshop last year.
The cost is $500, with discounts available for participants from USF and those who register early.
New this year: Special group rates for institutions that register multiple participants. Since its inception in 2020, the workshop has drawn researchers from 170 institutions.
“We work hard to keep costs down for our participants so that the knowledge is broadly accessible,” DuBose said.
Participants can register up to the June 2 start date, but DuBose recommended they sign up by May 19 to ensure time for delivery of the Training Activity Guidebook that is part of the program.
What will researchers learn?
The workshop is a certificate program designed to help early career faculty and doctoral students craft funding proposals and win support from government agencies, philanthropic foundations and other sources.
Participants will hear from guest speakers on how to frame their research proposals so that they are clear and comprehensive and resonate with funders. Speakers will include Donn Forbes, a professional grant writer and consultant with experience in working with research teams to acquire grants; and Michelle Arnold, an associate professor in the Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders at USF Sarasota-Manatee, who will talk about her experiences with grants from the National Institutes of Health and the peer review process.
Others expected to speak include representatives from the NIH, the National Science Foundation and the National Endowment for the Humanities.
“Each week of the program aims to give researchers tips and insights they need to better compete for grants to power their work,” DuBose said. “This is their chance to hear from representatives from sponsor agencies and peer reviewers, as well as grant writers at the top of their game.”