A significant part of my role as the CALL Action Officer is writing applications for funding. The idea is to increase the capacity of CALL by bringing in funding that will help us ACT across all the themes of the organisation and ENGAGE with the people in our locality (and beyond). I’m writing another funding application connected with water quality in our catchment (and beyond) at the moment. This one will bring great opportunities to our locality. I won’t say exactly what it is while I’m preparing it- I’ll write all about it if we get the funding!

I’ve written a lot of funding bids over the years. When I was working in the university system in the UK it felt like I had to apply for funding to justify my existence. I rather did, even though I was on permanent contracts. That’s partly because one aspect of my research expertise is in historical and cultural studies and the universities I worked for were under a lot of pressure to hit targets and fund STEM subjects with diminishing income. Maybe my historical research was non essential but if you want to understand stuff about society today and in the future, a good way to proceed is to learn about how people lived in the past. Anyway enough on that. It’s very rewarding working for CALL and applying for funding for climate action which is, and is currently deemed, important -crucial even.

What I decided to write about today (before that little reflection on the past) is the process of writing a funding application. They are all head wreckers, however knowledgeable you are about the subject, however ready your organisation or you and your collaborators are to take on the challenges of the project. Check the eligibility criteria, have a first intrepid look at the application form- how many boxes are there to fill out, can you download it, how many times will it jump around and all my work disappear, how many “bla de bla”s do I need to write in before I can countenance doing it properly.

I like to read the eligibility criteria and the guidelines, look at the form and then mull it over a bit, ruminate, visit my own herd of ruminants (goats) while I’m thinking, go for a walk with the dog- he always helps-, let it percolate around until the angle emerges. This is my USP, these are my aims, objectives. This is my background research. That’s how I’ll address that tricky question which is slightly outside of my knowledge. This is where I’m really strong and have so much to put in I bust the word count. Where else can I fit that great bit of information? This is where I quote your own words back to you, funder. Look! Look what a great fit we are for this funding, this role, this project…..

Then a hard day facing the blank boxes or deleting the “bla de blas” to put in the actual text, for the first time (there will be many drafts). This is where your brain aches. Don’t keep checking back at the criteria, know them, rehearse them in your mind make it part of how you think, and then spill out those phrases which echo but don’t copy what’s requested. Next, the total self doubt, usually late on the night of that first day of drafting. Eyes hurting, brain wrecked, all this is nonsense and that’s a silly idea (but at the back of your mind, actually, d’you know what, that is actually, actually, brilliant…..).

Eventually, everyone’s happy, letters of support finally arrived and are uploaded. Hit submit. Now the long long wait. Put it out of your mind. Do something different. Why not go for a walk. Take the dog, watch him run the length of the beach, splash through the waves, revel in life itself and the feel of the autumn sun. Don’t think about it, don’t look for signs.