Make a wise investment in your career

No. The program will prepare you for the entire funding process, from scouting programs through proposal submission and performance on the award. With this foundation and with the products you develop using our templates, you will be in a strong position to adapt your products and approaches to any funding opportunity. You’ll be able to generate new products easily and efficiently, without having to start from scratch. As part of working through your products with you, we will help you prepare the major components of a proposal package (e.g., summary/abstract, project description/narrative, biosketch, and budget justification) for a good-fit opportunity. Please let us know as soon as possible about any deadlines you may be facing. Your university will still perform all of their usual functions in preparing and submitting your proposal package.

Yes and no. The program leverages concepts that may be familiar to those outside academia and interprets them in the context of government funding programs. We walk clients through the application of these concepts in the development of products that are used to solicit funding. In theory a researcher could gather some of this information on their own but it would be difficult for anyone without extensive experience in funding to understand how to apply it. The process of information-gathering alone would also take a much greater amount of time than any university researcher has available.

Throughout her time at a funding organization, our founder searched for materials like these hoping she could point PIs to something that would serve them. She could not find anything remotely like this material, so she resigned in good standing from a ‘career’ (aka ‘permanent’) position within the federal civil service to develop this program. By offering a standalone program, every PI is empowered to make this investment in themselves regardless of the level of institutional support.

You can pay for the program by credit card or bank transfer. As this program is professional development, it is possible that full or partial support can be provided by your employer (university). Ask your department chair or administrators if they can pay for your participation in the program. We are available to answer any questions they have, by email or phone. Just let us know how we can help.

The program can be completed in 10 weeks, but it is a self-paced program designed to accommodate your schedule. We want participants to build momentum by completing weekly assignments, but we understand the nature of faculty schedules and allow up to 16 weeks of full live and email support. Beyond the 16 weeks, you will have continued access to the materials so you can revisit them at any time.  

Yes, the program is designed so that you will receive personal feedback on virtually all assignments and products created from our templates.

No, because funding decisions are out of our control, we cannot make any guarantees about funding. However, if you complete all the assignments, are receptive to feedback, follow all Wise Investigator best practices, and submit a sufficient number of proposals, if you still do not receive funding after one year, we will work with you to troubleshoot the situation.