Culture Bridges: How To Improve Your Chances Of Getting A Grant?

Culture Bridges programme managers Anna Karnaukh and Iryna Prokofieva readily share 10 practical advice for potential applicants.

1. Read carefully all provided recommendations for applicants. You can find them on  Culture Bridges website in the description section for each of the grants.

2. Draft a separate checklist with key technical requirements and evaluation criteria. List all the deadlines, limitations, the language of the application, budget specifications, geographical aspects, etc. Do a regular check-in line with the list at each stage of filling-in your application.

3. Do a short course on proposal writing. It will help you to properly determine the project goals, objectives and expected outcomes, as well as enable you in finding potential project partners.

4. Work thoroughly and with foresight on your project idea and goals, its longterm impact on your professional life and the sector. Do remember, that experts see right through the signs of superficiality, trumped-up nature and automated approach in proposals – with these, you will be risking getting lower scores.

5. Decide on your strategy: is it wise to apply for the maximum grant? This was the approach most applicants of the 1st call for international cooperation proposals took, multiplying manifold the competition in their 50,000€ grant category. While 10,000 and 20,000€ grant applications were just a few.

6. Do not apply a day before and the day of the deadline. The influx of storming in applications can cause technical failures in the system.

7. Download the application form in .doc format and save all your ideas and their wording in this file, later you will be able to copy/paste them into the online form at the final application stage. This way you'll be safe and will not lose any information in case of Internet interruptions or any technical system glitches.

8. Having filled-in your online application, carefully study everything you will see on the final application page, rather then merely reading the automatically generated line "Thank you! Your application has been received". Take a screenshot of what there is on the screen. Unfortunately, so far the system doesn't do automated e-mail notifications about the received applications.

9. Subscribe to the Newsletter and follow Culture Bridges Facebook-pageto be in the loop about the key news on grant and educational opportunities the programme has on offer.

10. Reapply, even if your project did not win the previous calls for proposals. The application writing skill comes only with experience. You will master this specific skill perhaps not the first time you apply, but your second and third applications will be more successful. Meaning, you will improve your chances for winning.

Find more about Culture Bridges programme at http://culturebridges.eu/

The launch of the 3rd call (all types of grants): 14 May 2018

Read more:

CULTURE BRIDGES: HOW TO GET A GRANT TO FUND YOUR PROJECT? 
CULTURE BRIDGES: HOW PROJECT PROPOSALS ARE EVALUATED? 
CULTURE BRIDGES: 5 COMMON MISTAKES IN PROJECT APPLICATIONS
Other interesting stories: