Getting Research Funding in Psychology & Law: 12 Things You Need to Address

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This is a summary of a presentation on grant writing in psychology and law (forensic psychology) given by Professor Ray Bull at the Student and Early Career portion at the annual EAPL conference. Professor Ray Bull teaches courses on forensic psychology and conducts research in the area at the University of Leicester, UK. As of June 27th, 2014, Professor Ray Bull is also the President of the European Association of Psychology and Law.

To have a chance of being successful a funding application should

(i)   propose research of very high quality

(ii)  be of value not only within the research community but also to potential users/beneficiaries in the ‘real world’

(iii)  demonstrate value for money (but not necessarily be ‘cheap’)

(iv)  convince the reviewers/readers of your (the team’s) ability to deliver

(v) mostly be written in plain English. [Your proposal is likely to be seen by many people, including some who will not be familiar with your particular specialisation. Detail and specification may necessitate the use of disciplinary terminology and this will be clear to the peer reviewers, but the ideas you wish to convey and your reasons for doing so should be easily apparent to a wide audience.]

To have any chance of achieving this you MUST ask lots of people to help you improve your (draft) proposal.

Top 12 things you need to know: Ask yourself the following questions.

1. Have I clearly formulated the problem, have I put it in context of contemporary scientific and theoretical debates, and demonstrated the way in which my work will build on existing research (e.g. by others) and make a contribution to the area? 

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