Office of Sponsored Programs hosts grant writing and research workshops

Oct. 10 | Office of Sponsored Programs |

The Office of Sponsored Programs hosted the Research Development Series Sept. 22-23. The event consisted of two workshops and was designed to teach faculty about effective grant writing and research methods.

“By having a grant writing workshop, we want to increase the hit rate on the grant proposals that we write,” said Dr. Brad Miller, director of sponsored programs and associate professor of engineering and physics.

The participants broke into small groups and discussed interests, questions and social realities in research during the workshop. Lisa Acuff, instructor and librarian of health sciences, said the format of the workshop was helpful and motivating and provided her with new ideas for research.

“The presenters shared a framework for qualitative study design that will be useful in the future,” Acuff said. “The workshop was interesting, and I look forward to future opportunities to discuss research with faculty and staff across campus.”

Dr. James Huff, assistant professor of engineering and physics, collaborated with the sponsored programs office to bring colleagues Dr. Joachim Walther and Dr. Nicola Sochacka from the University of Georgia to present at the event. Walther and Sochacka travel across the world to conduct workshops regarding their framework for qualitative research.

“The main reason we wanted to bring Dr. Walther and Sochacka to Harding was to increase our own internal development of writing grants and turning amazing ideas that are scattered across campus into amazing research,” Huff said.

The Office of Sponsored Programs was created in 2015 to administer all grants that are awarded to the University. Miller serves to guide and support those who are seeking grants to reinforce University and regulatory policies. After grants are awarded, Miller monitors their compliance with University, state and federal regulations.

According to the Office of Sponsored Programs, approximately 30-40 grant proposals are submitted each year from Harding faculty. Miller said he hoped the workshop was encouraging to faculty to conduct research and request more grants.

“If students get their hands on their area of study in a true, open-ended research environment for engineering or any other field — or get their hands dirty in some education experience outreach — they have significantly enhanced their educational experiences compared to somebody who doesn’t get that experience,” Miller said.