Workshops on Proposal Writing

Christine Root and David Wiley facilitated a series of three workshops on proposal writing by the South Africa Cultural Heritage Training Project. These workshops took place in Durban Cape Town and Pretoria, at the end of July 2002.

The purpose of the workshops were to provide practical suggestions on how to identify research funders, the various purposes serves by a proposal, techniques for writing successful proposals, and perspectives about how reviewers evaluate proposals. There were three main themes stressed throughout the workshops, these being:

1)      Have a fresh creative idea to present and use “hooks” to catch the readers attention

2)      Learn the funder’s interests and communicate about your mutual interests

3)      Follow the funder’s directions about how to write the proposal.

Beverley Damonse of the National Research Foundation (NRF) joined the workshop in Pretoria and presented a closing section on how her agency’s grant-making procedures operate. The addition was extremely effective because she was able to present in specific terms the basic, general messages we had conveyed earlier. From the positive feedback and thanks from participants from all three workshops, the workshops could be judged to be a success.