Acquire and implement the skills fundamental to developing a research proposal. Designed for faculty and permanent staff researchers at all stages of their career, activities range from gaining competitive intelligence to writing pieces of a proposal in real time. The topics below are continuously updated to reflect the current research funding landscape.
Register for upcoming sessions via the events sidebar, and visit the resource library for slides, handouts, and recordings from past events.
Find Funding and Support
Explore tools and campus resources to support your short and long-term research goals.
UT Research Funds and Services
A showcase of the UT units that provide internal research funds and services for external proposals. Learn about how UT support and services can propel your research agenda forward.
Find External Funding for Your Research
Learn about the different tools, platforms, and strategies you can use to find external sources of research funding.
Create Your Grant Submissions Calendar
Carve out time to plan out your grant deadlines and the milestones you need to reach in order to submit.
Funder-Specific Advice
OVPR offers competitive intelligence, best practices, and strategic peer advice on specific funding opportunities across disciplines. Check out upcoming events, or search the resource library for tips on NEH, NIH, NSF, DoD funding and more.
When: Ongoing, throughout the academic year
Demystifying F&A Costs
F&A, or indirect costs (IDC), help reimburse the less apparent, but very real operating costs of doing research. Learn about the what and the why of F&A costs at this annual event.
Pitch Your Research
Articulate your research for external audiences to appeal to various research funders.
The How and Why of Contacting a Program Officer
Program officers play a valuable role in connecting your research to the funders’ goals. Learn best practices and draft early communications with program officers in this workshop.
Talking Research Outside Your Comfort Zone
Have a meeting with a program officer coming up? Explaining your research vision to potential collaborators? Practice delivering your "elevator" pitch and receive real-time feedback from an interdisciplinary group of your peers.
Write Your Research One-Pager
How do you distill your complex research proposal into a page? Structure your overview or abstract according to our best tips and receive feedback from your peers in this workshop.
Collaborate and Expand Your Research Impact
Take your research to the next level through interdisciplinary collaborations. Expand the impact of your work through partnerships and outreach.
Center Grants 101
Research Impact Series and Tools
Check out our workshops, tools, and online resources designed to help you create a research impact plan, applicable to NSF Broader Impacts and other funders with similar requirements.
When: Ongoing, throughout the academic year
Research Impact Partnerships
Connect with on-campus and external experts who facilitate community engagement, educational outreach, industry relations, and other areas of research impact. Rotating topics spotlight the audiences most relevant to you and your research.
Write and Develop
Join OVPR for facilitated writing sessions and seminars to write and revise your proposals.
Grant Writing Workshop
Our annual, full-day seminar on grant writing tips with a focus on federal funding.
Tailoring Your Research Proposal to the Solicitation
Strategic tips on how to decipher solicitations and understand what funders are really looking for.
Research Impact Writing Retreat
If you’ve utilized our research impact resources and want to take the next step, join us for a halfl-day writing retreat. Participants will develop and write an effective impact plan.
Align Supplemental Documents with Your Research Vision
Supplemental documents like budgets, bios or biosketches, and data management plans are all a part of the story that your proposal tells. In this workshop, participants will assess whether their supplemental documents are aligned and convey the same message.
Shut Up and Write!
OVPR’s all-day grant writing retreat for PIs working on research grant proposals. Enjoy a full day of quiet writing time and attend optional breakout sessions with OVPR staff to discuss your questions about funding proposals.
Held at the end of the fall and spring semesters.
After Submission
Assessing Feedback on Your Grant Proposal
Distill reviewer feedback with a group of your peers and create an action plan for resubmission.
Office of Sponsored Projects and Post-Award Support
Congratulations on your award!
Check out resources from the Office of Sponsored Projects and the research administration directory for essential post-award support.
Access slides and other resources from our seven-part series on recent shifts in U.S. research funding, held in November 2025.
Questions?
Upcoming Events
Investigator Skill-Building
Investigator Skill-Building
Investigator Skill-Building
Investigator Skill-Building
Investigator Skill-Building
Investigator Skill-Building
OVPR's Investigator Skill-Building events are designed and reserved for campus faculty and research staff with PI status only. Non-PI staff and students, while ineligible to register, are welcome to view materials in OVPR's resource library.