The Office of the Vice President of Research is hosting a series of workshops Feb. 12 and 13 to help professors and graduate students learn about grantwriting. Robert Lowman will be speaking at the workshops. The names of the workshops are “Twelve Keys to Success in Grantwriting” and “Successful Collaborative Projects.”
“Twelve Keys” is scheduled to run from 8:30 a.m. until noon each day, and “Collaborative Projects” is set to run from 1 p.m. until 4:30 p.m. each day.
The workshops will be held in Coskrey Auditorium of Memorial Hall Feb. 12 and in rooms 301 and 302 in the Colvard Student Union Feb. 13. Reservations are required. The workshops are strictly limited to 50 participants per session.
As of Wednesday, both Feb. 12 sessions were full, and there was limited space left in the Feb. 13 sessions. Reservations must be completed by 5 p.m. on Feb. 6. Those wishing to make reservations may send their name, department information, and the name of the workshop to [email protected].
“Twelve Keys” is designed and presented around 12 elements that set winning proposals apart from the rest. It stresses the importance of planning over writing and emphasizes the necessity of building relationships with potential sponsors.
The workshop also explains how to present ideas with the greatest impact and prepare budgets to back up ideas, and it gives ways to use the merit review process as an advantage.
Marc McGee, a coordinator in the MSU office of research, said they selected “Twelve Keys” from the five workshops Lowman offers because it may help new faculty members learn the basics of grantwriting.
“These two workshops are geared really toward faculty, and the reason for that is we are trying to move up in our research, and the faculty usually writes those proposals,” McGee said.
“‘Twelve Steps’ is geared more toward the younger faculty that don’t have as much experience in this,” he added.
The second workshop, “Collaborative Projects” will highlight teambuilding, developing common goals, selecting the principal investigator, working out power relationships and planning and writing proposals by committee. The workshop also stresses that no matter how strong a team is, the basis of success always goes back to the quality of the idea.
McGee said this workshop was selected to help professors in different departments work together for interdepartmental grants.
The speaker, Dr. Robert “Bob” Lowman, holds several positions at The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, including associate vice chancellor for research, director of the Office of Research Services and adjunct associate professor of psychology.
Lowman has presented hundreds of grantwriting workshops at colleges and universities all over the country.
In fact, according to McGee, this is Lowman’s third time to speak at MSU.
“Dr. Lowman is very interactive and very personable in nature,” McGee said. “We’ve been very pleased with him. We always get very good reviews from those attending his workshops when he comes on campus.