Grant Development & Strategy
The Road You Should Travel: From Research Administrators to Grant Coaches and Advisors
Have you heard of life and style coaches who get paid fairly well to encourage and advise their clients on how to keep going, get in there, you can do it, you can achieve your goals in life? Can this same coaching be applied to the Research Administration field as you find funding, and prepare and submit grants with your faculty colleagues?
Research Administrators as Grant Coaches and Advisors
Research administrators (RAs) have transferable skills that apply well to the grant coaching and advising process. No matter your background and whether you are an “Accidental RA” (see related Catalyst article, Alcaine, 2024), you have skills that can help you be a grants coach to the faculty you work with. Are you good at writing and logic? Well then you can offer to read the grants your faculty are preparing for clarity, logic, and look. Then as a coach, make your suggestions to the star players (faculty) you work with who can use your suggestions (or not) to make their grant product better before it gets submitted for the score and possible funding.
Are you good at graphics, drawing, or figures? If so, offer your skills to advise or improve the logic models or figures included in grant proposals. If organization is your master skill, then advise your faculty with checklists, boilerplates, shared folder structures, and more, as you help organize and prepare the applications in a controlled and planned manner. How about numbers and spreadsheets? Then use your skills and advise in budget development, putting budgets and totals together, and matching scope to costs.
Are you good at marketing, social media, newsletters, making short videos or audio clips? Then use your skills to coach, advise, and help spread the word about the research your faculty colleagues are doing. Goodness knows the general public needs to know about groundbreaking and life-saving work happening at your institution!
Better yet, are you good at finding funding? Then use your sleuthing skills to advise junior faculty on internal funding, pilot funding, or career development grants. Work with more mid-career or advanced folks? Then share your funding-finding skills to advise on center grants, training grants, or international research grants.
Don’t Sell Yourself Short on Coaching and Advising Skills
Being a coach implies advanced knowledge in a field or skill, enough so that you can then impart or share pointers and information with others for the success of the team. Many RAs have years of experience in many facets and functions of the grant life cycle. Realize your ability and feel empowered to share your expertise, whatever that is. Even if you are new to the field, your skill set may prove enough to share your knowledge through your coaching and encouragement in the ethical use of technology. for example (notice I didn’t say AI, but it is implied here!), the latest and greatest source for people to find and share their research news.
Don’t sell yourself short on the skills you have and can share with others. You may be surprised as you go from RA to grant coach and advisor! Play ball!