Big grants: strategy + data + model

In big, public grants and in tiny, private grants, one of the most fundamental questions is what purpose will your research (and by extension you) serve those who *might* be willing to fund you?

It’s a fair question in an economy based on capital — the assumption that if someone or something gives you money, they saddle you with a direct obligation to further their interests (or at least interest them).

One of the most popular ways to respond to this question is the strategy + data + model approach.

Strategy

Putting out a call for proposals implies that an organization has money and a strategy to achieve some sort of wider impact on what it perceives as the relevant public.

Maybe this impact is to “make the world a better place” in the mission statement, but behind those pretty words, there is probably a concrete series of actions taken and/or planned (or, more importantly, budgeted for) that describe what this “better world” will entail according to this particular source of cash…er, this well-meaning and benevolently generous institution offering potential research funding that interests you.

This collection of actions undertaken by the funder thus far, sometimes expressed as an itemized list of things purchased, is what is loosely called the organizational strategy — the steps that have been or will be taken by those in the organization with decision-making power to grow organizational wealth, power, and/or…