Tapping international funding opportunities being one of the key drivers of leveraging R& D outputs within the country, it is vital to strengthen research community in order to come up with competitive research proposals beyond the boundaries enabling to secure international grants whist collaborate with untapped global talent pool for innovation driven socio economic development in the country. Addressing this need, the National Science Foundation (NSF) in collaboration with the International Relations Office (InRo), University of Peradeniya and the Sri Lankan Academy of Young Scientists (SLAYS) organized a webinar on ‘Writing winning proposals to secure international grants’ with a view to enlighten researchers particularly, young researchers to harness international funding opportunities enabling to strengthen global prominence of Sri Lanka’s STI landscape through international collaborations which was held on 10th August 2021 with the constructive participation of around 425 personal including academics, scientists and professionals .
There were eminent speakers from home and abroad who made a valuable contribution sharing potential, appropriate & needed approaches and lessons learnt & observations in writing winning proposals by an innovative way to reach the requirements of a grant call and its funding body. Reaching the same in an effective way, researcher shall be played a crucial role at the pipeline/formatting research proposal, aligning with the overall arena of a grant call. Dr Nanda Gunawardhana (Director, Research and International Relations ,Sri Lanka Technological Campus), Prof. Rahula Attalage (Dean, Faculty of Graduate Studies and Research, SLIIT),Prof. Janaka Ekanayake (Dept. of Electrical & Electronic, Engineering, University of Peradeniya),Prof. Tilak Gamage (Dept. of Limnology and Water Technology, University of Ruhuna) ,Prof. Ranil De Silva (Neuro-Molecular diagnostics and Neuro-BioBank, KDU-CARE, General Sir John Kotelawala Defence University), Dr Dharshan De Silva (Dept. of Paraclinical Sciences, General Sir John Kotelawala Defence University) ,Prof. Yuansong Wei (Chinese Academy of Sciences, China) and Prof. Stephen Schensual (University of Connecticut, USA) who were the eminent speakers at the webinar, highlighted the key points essential to be focused when pitch a research proposal to an international funding body effectively and sustainably.
The strategic way of formatting proposals, internationalization and the opportunities available at international funding bodies highlighted at the webinar will brainstorm young researchers to rethink how proposal writing shall be adjusted competitively to the real need of a particular funding body. Importance of the experience required in managing and negotiating with funding body effectively, when researcher seeks international grants was also highlighted. It is envisaged that the experience and best practices shared at this webinar will enable participants to pitch their next proposal to international funding organization/s effectively.
