Ten Tips for Eye Research Grant Applicants

Before you begin, please see our eligibility requirements, which are specific to each grant round. You can find these on our website by clicking on the funding scheme you’re applying for on our current funding opportunities page. Please also ensure that the funding amount you request is a realistic and sensible amount within the funding envelope (for example, applications requesting a very small amount of funding as a token amount will be deemed ineligible).

We’re moving to use ORCID IDs, to streamline the grant application process. Please ensure your CV, publications and previous grant awards are up to date on ORCID. This will save the reviewers time and effort, so will cast your application in a good light!

The NIHR provides great guidance for applicants on working with people and communities. At Fight for Sight, we strongly believe in including diverse people and communities in all types of research, to improve relevance, reach and impact. Our expectations of applicants are to meaningfully involve people with lived experience in their research. Within our application form, we ask that applicants include a plain language summary and detail how PPIE has been included, so this is essential to think about prior to applying. We have also incorporated lived experience reviewers, so remember this when writing your application.  

An important point to think about within your grant application is accessibility and also readability. Lay summaries can sometimes contain unexplained jargon, which can exclude some of our lived experience reviewers. Don’t worry! There are lots of good resources that can help you to write non-jargon explanations of your work and will also offer tips such as keeping sentences short. Some people find this NIHR guidance on writing a plain English summary really helpful. 

While it’s not mandatory, why not make your application as strong as possible by adding supporting evidence? Keen to include images? Great! Just remember to make sure they’re high res and don’t exceed two sides of A4. There have been some cases where people have uploaded images in A3, which sadly doesn’t work!

Detailing a clear understanding of the anticipated activities following the completion of the grant will stand you in good stead in your application. Plan for impact by considering what follow-on funding might look like, what the plans for IP are (if applicable), and how your research would lead to patient benefit.  

Feasibility of a project is something that is carefully considered within our RGAP meetings. Ethics approval timelines can often be underestimated or overlooked so consider including a Gantt chart or similar in your application, to demonstrate realistic timelines.

It’s also important to show that you’ve considered the risks and potential delays within the proposal; including a risk mitigation plan will strengthen your application and reassures reviewers that your project is achievable within the proposed timeframe. 

You will need an authorised signatory within your organisation to approve your application within 72 hours of you submitting it. The signatory could be within your finance or research office, so it’s essential you take some time to find out who is the right person to approve your application. There have been some nightmare situations for applicants who have found their authorised signatory is out-of-office, or simply too busy with other applications, when their application needed approval. This is an important one, your application cannot be processed if it isn’t approved!

Since there’s a lot to consider, it can be easy to forget to complete a section or upload a document, so make sure to double check your application before submission. Also don’t underestimate the importance of good formatting, spelling and grammar, it all helps to make a positive impression on our RGAP panel.

Remember to reach out to anyone you think could be helpful for guidance on completing your application. Colleagues, mentors, university research office; their experience could add real depth to your application. We are also here to support you through your application so please reach out to us if any part of the application process leaves you stumped!