Funding your dissertation: 5 Lessons I learned along the way

Happy fall, Division 20 students and emerging professionals!

My name is Shelbie Turner, and I am Division 20’s postdoctoral representative. As a doctoral student at Oregon State University, I received a dissertation grant from the National Institute on Aging (NIA) to conduct my dissertation. The process of writing the grant proposal and conducting the funded research was an unbelievable educational experience that helped propel me to my current postdoctoral position at Weill Cornell Medical College’s Division of Geriatrics and Palliative Medicine.

After successfully receiving my dissertation grant, I visited various graduate student groups to offer tips to students who may be interested in seeking their own dissertation funding. For this issue of Adult Development and Aging News, I have decided to share a condensed version of the talk in written form. I typically structure the talk by offering a series of lessons I learned along the way. Here, I’ll offer five lessons I learned while pursuing my own dissertation grant:

First, consider whether a dissertation grant is right for you. Ask yourself how a dissertation grant could help you. Do you need to offer participants gift cards as a thank you for participating? Do you need equipment to conduct your project? Would grant funding allow you to stay in your program full-time for extra year or two in order to complete your dissertation? Also, how will receiving grant funding help you meet your career goals? Do you hope to pursue a research position where experience writing and managing grants will be helpful? Make sure that receiving funding will support both your shorter term goal of finishing your dissertation and your longer term career goals.
Start early! It took me a while to prepare my grant application. But it also took a while for NIA to review my proposal and longer still for the funding to make its way to the university so that I could use it. The National Institutes of Health maintains review cycle timelinesopens in new window It is not unusual for 9-12 months to go by between the time you submit your proposal and, if funded, when you can start your project. How will you spend your time while waiting to hear back? Will it be worth it if you wait only to hear that the project was not funded? Do you have time/interest to resubmit? Maybe more importantly, you should consider the funding timeline alongside your degree completion timeline. Will the timelines perfectly sync, or will the grant require you to stay in your program longer than you originally anticipated? Relatedly, will your program be supportive of you staying longer as a student for the sake of receiving funding for your dissertation? Ask yourself (and your mentors!) these questions before you decide whether seeking dissertation funding is right for you.
Your application is just as much about you as it is about your research. Some advisors have even shared with me that dissertation grants, along with other career development grants, are less about your research and more about you! Often, organizations are committed to funding dissertations because they want to help cultivate the next generation of scholars in a specific area of research. In your proposal, in addition to making the case that the research you are proposing is important, you should also build the case that you are the perfect researcher to be doing that research. Moreover, convey to reviewers that your dissertation is not a one-off project for you. Show that you have been committed to a career in your area and the dissertation grant will help develop your expertise and launch you further into a career in your area of expertise. Also, what type of career development opportunities (conferences, trainings, workshops) will the grant allow you to have? Remember that these opportunities will not only help you conduct your dissertation, but will also develop you as an early career professional in your specific area of expertise.
Be aware that dissertation grants may not cover your tuition. My dissertation grant offered funding for my monthly stipend, equipment, participant gift cards, and conference travel. But, it did not pay for my tuition. I relied on my university supporting me through a fellowship that paid my tuition so that I could accept the dissertation award. If you learn that you would have to forego a graduate teaching or research assistantship that covers your tuition, a dissertation grant may not be right for you. First check with the funding mechanism so that you understand what they are and are not willing to fund. If the funder does not cover tuition, talk with your department head and other graduate school leadership to see whether there are fellowships that cover tuition for students who receive external funding for their dissertations.
Convene a committed mentorship team. Dissertation grants are mentored awards. Make sure your proposal reviewers are aware that you have a team that is committed to helping you get the project done from start to finish. My mentorship team included my entire dissertation committee, as well as additional faculty members across campus who had particular expertise in my study’s topics. Also, write in your proposal how your mentorship team has worked together in the past. Do you have publications with them? Do they have publications together? Have they worked together on previous grants? And, have they worked together to successfully advise other doctoral mentees. Explicitly include that information when describing your team. Doing so will show that your team is, in fact, a team.

I hope you and other students in your professional networks find these tips helpful. Feel free to get in contact with me to chat things through, and good luck with your dissertations whether you decide to pursue funding or not!

Dissertation funding opportunities I am currently aware of: