Describing your track record and role in the project

Funders want to know whether you have the capacity and experience to successfully undertake the project, and they need to know you’re the best ones for this project. One of the best ways to show this is to clearly articulate: (i) your track record; and (ii) the specific role you'll play in the proposed project (if you're part of a research team).

The format and amount of information you include will depend on the funder’s requirements and word limits, so check their guidelines carefully.

Funders might ask for any combination of the following:

• Qualifications
• Expertise and experience in discipline area
• Publication track record of books and/or journal articles
• Grant funding track record
• Any significant contributions to the field
• Any other skills, awards etc.

The amount of information you include will depend on the funder’s requirements and word limits in the grant applications. Some suggested wording might include:

• "Professor Smith is an expert in ... and in this project they will ..."
• "CI Smith @ 0.25 FTE will lead the project / conduct the statistical analysis / co-supervise the two research assistants ..."
• "CI Jones will complete Tasks 1 and 3, and co-supervise ..."
• "Dr Jones (Project Administrator @ 0.2 FTE) has a PhD in [topic] and 21 years of [project management] experience. He will be responsible for ..."
• "CI Jones will contribute research input into Tasks 2 and 4 regarding [their specific area of expertise related to the project] and will coordinate the ethics application with CI Smith."
• "Professor Jones has been in a combined research, teaching and administrative role since 2014 and has published three books, 17 articles in highly ranked international journals, and has secured approximately $3.5 million in research funding in the field of [area of expertise related to project]."
• "CI Jones has established collaborations with ... which has resulted in ... [impact related to the project/project's topic]."

You can mix and match these sentence starters to demonstrate your experience, qualifications, track record of publications and grants, and any other awards. You can also articulate exactly what you'll be doing in the project.

By the time you've described each member's expertise, experience and track record, every aspect of skills and expertise required in the proposed project should be covered. There should be a strong connection between key personnel (track record and role in the project) and the activities listed in the project timeline/milestones.

Everyone’s role needs to be clearly described and justified in the grant application. Essentially, you want to build a team that’s appropriate for the project.