The Funding Proposal Secrets Initiative

Free webinar

Stop wasting precious time changing sentences that don’t make a difference on getting funding

Discover how to give your proposal a higher chance of getting funded than all the other proposals in the pile, without spending 120 hours trying to make evaluators like you

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With Dr. Paulius Yamin

Former evaluator for the ERC and the UK ESRC

Policy Fellow, Harvard Kennedy School of Government

Former Scientific Director at the Paris Institute for Advanced Study

Former Managing Director at the Center for Social Norms and Behavioral Dynamics, University of Pennsylvania

Author of the upcoming "Funding Proposal Secrets" book

As you can tell, this is not your usual (usually boring) grant writing workshop.

Not "reading the call better", no “writing better.”

This is the raw, honest truth about funding proposals. What I've learned through pain and tears during 15 years securing and reviewing research grants for leading academic and research institutions.

I don't like nice and shallow funding proposal talk.

I like to tell you the truth in an honest, direct manner, because that's what will really be useful to you.

The idea behind this webinar is that researchers often approach proposals primarily as a paper-writing exercise.

This is wrong.

Drawing on my behavioral science and funding evaluation experience, I will show you how funding decisions are ultimately made by people: evaluators and panel members working with limited time, specific criteria and competing proposals.

We’ll explore why strong research ideas still lose, what makes evaluators believe in a proposal, and how researchers can make their proposal easier to understand, trust, and ultimately fund.

Why am I doing this?

When I was about to get into my PhD, I realized getting admitted wasn't enough…

You also needed funding.

10 top US schools had just rejected me despite 6 months of preparation, and I was desperately trying to get into the London School of Economics.

Then the professor I intended to work with broke the news:

“Getting admitted is the easy part… the hard part is getting funded.”

“Only 1 in 20 people get funded for a PhD”

1 in 20?

“What's the point of all this work if I have less than a 5% chance of getting funding?”

Yeah, it’s almost a waste of time, the professor said.
But, you know what else is a waste of time?

Spending 120 hours editing like Orwell when an evaluator can spot why you’d not get funded in 5 mins.

So, why do people do it over and over again?

Because they feel they have to impress evaluators, just in case they’re liked enough to get approved.

It’s selfish.

They think funders care about their petty little project… so they write for hours, edit for hours, hoping not to get rejected.

If only they looked into the mirror and asked a simple question:

“What do Funders want?”

That’s what this webinar is about.

Finding out what Funders and evaluators want, and putting it together so you have a higher chance of being funded than everyone else.

Here's what you'll get in the webinar:

Secret 1:
THE EVALUATORS' DIRTY SECRET: What Evaluators and Funders Secretly Check That Disqualify 95% of Applicants, Wasting Their Precious Time, Energy, and Resources.

Secret 2:
THE MYTH OF SMART WRITING: Why Intelligence Is Not A Criteria For Winning Funding In Today’s World, And How To Write Proposals In Record Time, Even If You Have Never Written A Proposal Before.

Secret 3:
THE HIDEOUS METHOD TO GETTING LUCKY: How To Have A Higher Chance Of Getting Funded Than All The Other Proposals In The Pile, Without Spending 120 Hours Trying To Make Evaluators Like You.

But who the hell am I to promise you this?

My name is Paulius Yamin.

I chose to become an academic because I couldn’t fit.

I was bullied as a kid for not being fully white.

Rejected by my dad because he had strange standards for me.

On the verge of quitting because nobody would hire me after my degree.

It took an unpaid internship to learn the one skill that would take me around the world, generate millions of USD in funding for researchers and consultants, and finally give me a voice.

I became an evaluator for the European Research Council and the UK’s Economic and Social Research Council.

A Policy Fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government (who rejected my PhD application before).

The Managing Director of a top research center at the University of Pennsylvania (who, you guessed it, also rejected my PhD application before).

And reviewed over 500 funding proposals, securing $18M in funding.

I’ll be hosting the webinar:

How To Give Your Proposal A Higher Chance Of Getting Funded Than All The Other Proposals In The Pile, Without Spending 120 Hours Trying To Make Evaluators Like You

Secret 1:
THE EVALUATORS' DIRTY SECRET: What Evaluators and Funders Secretly Check That Disqualify 95% of Applicants, Wasting Their Precious Time, Energy, and Resources.

Secret 2:
THE MYTH OF SMART WRITING: Why Intelligence Is Not A Criteria For Winning Funding In Today’s World, And How To Write Proposals In Record Time, Even If You Have Never Written A Proposal Before.

Secret 3:
THE HIDEOUS METHOD TO GETTING LUCKY: How To Have A Higher Chance Of Getting Funded Than All The Other Proposals In The Pile, Without Spending 120 Hours Trying To Make Evaluators Like You.

Register now, so you don’t get to miss what evaluators will never tell you about why 97% of funding proposals get rejected.