Best visual practices for funding applications

Is your funding proposal clear enough to clearly communicate the importance of your research to reviewers? Is it engaging, novel, and easy to understand?

The Materials Platform is piloting a visual consultancy service to support collaborative and individual grant applications and improve their quality.  

Visuals (graphs, photos, charts, visual abstracts) help to:

• Explain the potential impact of your research proposal and emphasize the important details.
• Increase the engagement of potential reviewers.
• Develop an easy-to-get and self-explanatory supportive framework for your proposal.
• Demonstrate the value you put into the strategic development of your scientific field.

Check if you're eligible for the service:

• Your funding proposal is focused on or involves materials research.
• The host institution for your research is Aalto University.
• You have some draft visuals to discuss at our meetings.
• You or your research team has someone who works on visuals and is able to improve them. Please note: we won't re-do or make a new visual for you, rather we advise and direct improvements and answer your questions.
• Please note that we can serve a limited number of applicants. 

How it works:

• Check if you're eligible for the service.
• Apply via the link. Answer all the questions.
• Make sure that you're applying well in advance of the deadline to get the most out of it. One month in advance of the grant deadline is a good start. Please note: if you're applying less than 2 weeks before your deadline, we might meet only once for the quick evaluation.
• We will examine your application and reply within 5-8 working days.
• Please prepare the material you'd like us to evaluate. A list of your questions we can go through at the meeting would be very handy as well.
• Depending on the case, we might need up to 3 sessions. One session might last from 1 to 1.5 hours.
• The ideal schedule is having a meeting once a week so you would have enough time to implement the changes that were discussed at the meeting.
   

Apply