A 10-year examination of a one-on-one grant writing partnership for nursing pre- and post-doctoral trainees

Background: The training and mentoring of pre- and post-doctoral trainees in nursing research is essential to feed the pipeline of nurses prepared to launch an independent program of research.

Purpose: The purpose of this report is to describe a one-on-one grant writing Partnership developed in a school of nursing targeting pre- and post-doctoral trainees and quantify its impact on funding rates.

Methods: The Partnership includes four key elements: regular meetings, setting a timeline with milestones, writing and editing support, and attention to administrative documents. Forty grant applications by pre- and post-doctoral trainees were developed and submitted from 2011 to 2020.

Findings: Among Partnership participants, 81.0% (17/21) received funding as compared with 42.1% (8/19) who did not participate, p = .02.

Discussion: Schools of nursing and other disciplines should consider investing in a Partnership to provide grant writing support their pre- and post-doctoral trainees and increase their overall research capacity.