This grant writing exercise is designed to guide students through the steps involved in seeking endowment for a disciplinary project in a realistic context. In DRAM3102 students imagine they are seeking funding from the Australia Council Theatre Fund for the commissioning of a play with a hypothetical theatre company. Students are provided a full copy of the grant application guidelines with which they familiarise themselves. They then answer a number of questions based directly on this document with a view towards generating an original and comprehensive or partial grant application. In cases of an abridged application students might produce a document containing (1) A project description and outline; (2) itemisation of the dollar value sought; (3) action plan and timeline for realistic completion and; (4) potential deliverable outcomes and project implications. Given the focus on research output across HASS disciplines, as well as faculty initiatives encouraging students to pursue higher degree research and/or research careers, this technique is readily transferable between HASS disciplines. For example, Social and Political Sciences students might develop applications to The Australian Research Council (peak funding body) as part of a programmatic approach to assessment that equips students with disciplinary skills required for Early Career Research.
Details
- CLASS SIZE
- 10-20
- CLASS LEVEL
- Third year
- ASSESSMENT SECURITY
- Low security
- TIME REQUIREMENTS
- Low time
- GRADUATE ATTRIBUTES
- In-depth knowledge in the field(s) studied, Effective communication skills, Independence and creativity
- CONDITIONS
- Work-related
- FEATURES
- Authentic
Advantages
Enhances potential employability by providing students with a piece of work to feature in a professional portfolio, or that can be readily adapted to a thesis proposal or finished grant application. Encourages key skill building (particularly in written communication) and early engagement with disciplinary conventions for seeking research funds. A readily transferable task to any discipline in which seeking research funding is practised.
Challenges
Some students may struggle with envisioning the product for which they are writing a grant proposal. Providing exemplars or sample grant applications (for in-class viewing) helps to provide additional context here.
Tips for implementation
This technique is greatly facilitated by the guidance of staff who are successful in writing grant applications for the specific bodies of interest, and who can offer tips for best practice.
How it supports academic integrity
A personalised approach to grant writing (in which students develop their own contemporary and context specific topic/initiative) minimises the opportunity for plagiarism in this technique. This is further supported by the practice of most finding bodies not to publish full grant applications (only project summaries) to the public, making this type of work difficult to outsource to mills/banks that operate on the basis of sourcing online information.
Authentic learning characteristics
engagement, authenticity and student ownership
Associate Professor Stephen Carleton
s.carleton@uq.edu.au
Stephen is a Brisbane-based playwright and academic. His plays have been produced across Australia and won awards including the Griffin Theatre Award (2015) for The Turquoise Elephant, the Matilda Award for Best New Australian Play (2017) for Bastard Territory, and the Patrick White Playwrights’ Award (2005) and New Dramatists’ Award (2006) for Constance Drinkwater and the Final Days of Somerset. Those plays and others including musical Joh for PM (2017, with Paul Hodge), and The Narcissist (2007), have been shortlisted for a range of awards including the Patrick White Playwrights’ Award, the Queensland Premier’s Drama Award, Queensland Literary Awards (Drama), and two AWGIEs.
His main areas of theatre research at present are in c21st Australian playwriting, and the intersections between Gothic drama and Eco-criticism, where he has written the first two of a propsed trilogy of 'cli fi' plays. He has published on the Australian Gothic, and extended this area of interest into Ireland, the UK, the USA, Canada, South Africa and New Zealand. He has a background in Postcolonial drama, Australian Drama (from c19th melodramas to c21st playwriting), Spatial Inquiry (focussing on the Australian North), and Cultural Geography. He is also co-creator of the Cultural Atlas of Australia with his colleagues Prof. Jane Stadler and A/Prof. Peta Mitchell. Find out more