Increase Your Research Funding

Create insightful and compelling strategies that increase your chances of getting funded.

Are you tired of putting a ton of attention and resources on proposals to the wrong funding programs?

You waste your valuable time when you chase after every RFP or funding opportunity you see. Throwing spaghetti at the wall to see what sticks is not a funding strategy.

Spinning up proposal after proposal after proposal can lead to:

Lack of credibility. If you wonder why you’re doing it, other people are thinking the same thing.
No improvement over time. Doing the same awkward thing over and over isn’t how you get better.
Burnout. It is so hard to keep going without real results.

Most people learn how to read a solicitation – but never learn how to deeply understand what that solicitation is meant to accomplish. Understanding this can strengthen your response.

You’re doing it all. The hunt for funding is a real hunt.

A Program Analysis Can Get You There

The truth is, when you deeply understand a funding program (the implicit and explicit motivations), you can quickly figure out what programs are the best bet for funding a great idea.

Spend less time flailing and more time getting the award.

Introducing
Essentials of a Funding Program Analysis

At the end of this course, you will move from reactive proposal support to strategic decision making.

Every proposal will count.

Using a guided workbook and step-by-step instruction in program analysis development, you will learn how to evaluate funding opportunities, generate institution-specific insights, and strategically position a proposal — transforming proposal chaos into clarity while making a meaningful impact on the success of research at your institution. One program at a time.

The course provides video instruction followed by a templatized worksheet and workbook.

Our goal is to provide you with the foundational knowledge and accessible tools so that you can use them again and again to get strategic about your funding program choices.

Join the Waitlist

Praise for Funding Program Analysis

"There is a huge contingent of [our] community that isn’t sure exactly what competitive intelligence looks like or how to do it. We have needed fundamental classes like this for a long time."

– Jill Jividen, PhD, Associate Vice President of Research Development, University of Michigan

"I will encourage both our RD team members and our RD-adjacent personnel in departments to enroll in the course."

– Vice Chancellor of Research at a West Coast Research 1 University

What is Your Research Leadership?

Faye Farmer founded Your Research Leadership specifically to empower research support staff and research active faculty to achieve their full professional potential. Leadership in research is both strategic and tactical. These on-demand, skill-building courses blend the “how” with the “why” of research development. She teaches you processes honed from over 15 years of supporting hundreds of teams with millions of dollars of proposals. All to help you see immediate results. If you’re ready to move from doing all the things to driving meaningful change, this is your next step.

Who teaches this course?

Your Research Leadership has partnered with Karen Walker to design and deliver this course. Karen has been referred to as the mother of academic competitive intelligence. Early in her career, she recognized the deep desire among academic research staff, faculty, and leaders to gain the skills to increase funding for their institution. Transforming industry practices into academia’s unique context, she is now a guru of competitive intelligence (CI). Karen is certified by the Strategic Consortium of Intelligence Professionals (SCIP) and regularly gives talks on CI nationally. She has distilled her training and years of practical experience into this course.

What’s Inside Essentials of a Funding Program Analysis?

This course goes over the entire cycle of designing, executing, and delivering a program analysis for any audience (yourself included).

Through engaging short videos and a step-by-step worksheet, you will become a confident data gatherer who can deliver the necessary insights to strengthen that next proposal. The course includes:

Planning your analysis

We explore the questions and motivation behind the analysis to ensure relevant recommendations.

Data collection

We review how to identify what you need and where to find the information you need.

Interviewing people

Data always includes capturing the experience of others. Learn who to interview and how to get valuable information from them.

Data analysis

We teach you some fundamental analysis techniques and approaches to those who love data and those who hate it.

Recommendations

The real secret sauce is you. This lesson provides the key steps in creating useful and interesting interpretations of the data.

Plus, we add on an extra lesson that covers the ins and outs of refreshing your analysis on your timeline.

JOIN THE WAITLIST

At Your Research Leadership, we are passionate about delivering essential training for research staff, faculty, and leaders so that they can unlock their professional potential.

Join the waitlist before February 15, 2026 to claim the introductory price of $49 (a $159 value).

Here’s What’s Coming in Essentials of a Funding Program Analysis

In-depth video lessons that will give you the knowledge, skills, and abilities to complete a program analysis regardless of sponsor, including: