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SOC Research Funding Guide: Initial & Full Proposal Tips

Understand the SOC funding process with insights on initial and full proposals. Learn how to enhance credibility and increase success rate. Key focus on clarity, purpose, and team strength.

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SOC Research Funding Guide: Initial & Full Proposal Tips

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  1. Marsden SOC process • There are ‘Standard’ and ‘Fast Start’ applications • Standards are generally for 3 years, typically for c $6-800k • Fast Starts are for 2 years, for those within 7 years of PhD completion; for c $160k • There are two rounds: preliminary and full proposals

  2. Initial proposal • Panel has about nine members, drawn from a range of SOC disciplines (education, business, sociology, social policy, human geography) • Proposals must therefore be written for an intelligent lay panel with a premium on clarity and purposiveness • About 25% make it through to the next stage. The reason is to save 75% the effort of full proposal preparation

  3. What needs to be in an initial proposal? • It’s short: so the argument must be clear • What is being done, why, what’s its significance (theoretical, empirical, national)? • Is there is an obvious aim, question? • Does the research matter? Will it grab a SOC panel?

  4. Full proposal • Something between 25 and 50% of full proposals will be successful • The credibility of the proposal is critical • So too is the credibility of the applicants • Even successful proposals may not be fully funded: to give over the odds to one proposal will mean the demise of another

  5. Credibility of the proposal • Research question, aim or objective (‘The aim of this proposal is..) Why are you doing this? What is its purpose? What is its significance? • Is it situated in a relevant literature; does it draw on, contribute to pertinent theory? • Has there been a pilot project: will it work?

  6. Credibility of the team • Does the team have a track record? • Is the strongest person/s leading it? • Is the topic one that sits with the track record of the team? • Is the team selling itself and its proposal on merit and the strength of its argument, or is it ‘bolding’ unnecessary claims to ‘originality’ or ‘innovation’?

  7. What if it fails? • Then persist! • To not succeed means that the proposal is not yet good enough • Work on it: develop the argument, workshop it, try again • Don’t give up for ever, or come back next time with something completely different

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