As part of the effort to enhance faculty development and grant writing capabilities, the Office of Research hosted Chapman’s second annual Grant Writers’ Bootcamp on August 20 and 21. With this year’s given circumstance, the event was successfully hosted virtually. Participants were required to submit a proposal for seed funding and were selected based on their proposal’s potential. This year’s cohort was composed of a diverse group of 23 faculty from a variety of disciplines across campus. Their efforts were supported by faculty mentors with experience in funded awards, as well as guest speakers with a deep knowledge of proposal development and the proposal review process. Bootcamp participants attended workshops and were placed in a collaborative working groups, led by a faculty mentor and facilitated by Zoom breakouts. Groups were guided through a grant simulation process starting with proposal development and covering all phases of the grant life cycle. Post workshop, bootcamp participants will revise their original proposal and upon successful completion will receive a seed grant of $4,000 from the Office of Research.

The feedback from bootcamp participants was overwhelmingly positive ,identifying the two most valuable parts being the peer review sessions and the ability to find new collaborations. Comments included:

  • “The chance of getting honest feedback and comments from fellow faculty members is the best part of the Grant Writers’ Bootcamp.” Chapman University Faculty 
  • “I found the opportunity to review others’ proposals very valuable as a basis for comparison and for thinking about the factors that are common to good proposals.” -Chapman University Faculty
  • “I was a bit nervous for the peer panels, as some of the other focuses were a bit outside my own. But I found them incredibly rewarding and it was actually quite beneficial to have that mixed perspective from other fields.” – Chapman University Faculty
  • “As a post-doc, this was a great opportunity to get valuable grant writing experience as well as to meet more of my colleagues. The peer review process was especially helpful since we were organized by groups and had most of the necessary background knowledge.” -Chapman University Postdoc

On behalf of the Office of Research, we would like to thank all the participants including the faculty, guest speakers, and mentors who attended and supported the Chapman Virtual Grant Writers’ Bootcamp. This will likely be offered again next year with an announcement coming out in spring 2021.