Applying for Kakenhi: A Narrative Approach

Beverley Curran (Professor, Media, Communication and Culture)

*This article was written in 2017

Scientific research grants (kakenhi) are awarded annually by the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science. According to The Handbook on the Grants-in-Aid for Scientific Research (Kakenhi) Program (AY2016), ‘scientific research’ encompasses “all intellectual work that aims to uncover truth hidden in human beings, society, and nature,” but it is also intensely personal because, whether working in groups or alone, it is motivated by the ideas of individual researchers. There are many materials online that provide guidance for writing a successful application for research funds, including a number devoted specifically to applying for kakenhi, and they all give sound advice for any proposal, which is to prepare well; have a meaningful topic; be clear about methods, evaluation and the circulation of outcomes; and be meticulous in terms in the completion of forms and presentation of requested budgets. These are all crucial to the success of a kakenhi application. This brief article attests to the importance of considering the rhetoric of your application, that is, approaching it as a story that engages and persuades the reader that your research is worthy of funding.

I believe the persuasive power of the application is telling the story of what grounds the research that is being funded. However, before you can persuade someone to agree that you need funding for a particular project you need to get their attention. For this reason, I think the first page of the application form is a vital one for drawing the interest of the evaluator/reader. This has been important to my grants because I am working in the field of translation studies, and using the term translation broadly to designate not only interlingual change, but also discursive and cultural shifts, and media adaptation. In other words, I approach the first page of the grant application as a chance to tell a compelling story.

The outline in Purpose of the Research section needs to be concise and as complete as possible. I want it to be clear what I am doing and easy to understand, but not simplistic. This opening statement of aim should clear but also interesting enough that the reader wants to hear more. Kakenhi funds “curiosity-driven research,” and the application should pique the curiosity of the persons evaluating your proposal. When your topic is the development of a notion of ‘contemporaneous translation,’ this can take some doing, but that is the challenge of the application process. A successful application convinces the evaluator that the research is committed and ethical, as well as creative, and that the research is doable and of value.

The Background for the Research section provides space to tell the story that led to your proposal. This story can convince the reader that you are knowledgeable about your research as well as the current scholarship in field, and assure him or her that your research will make an innovative and valuable contribution. Experience and engagement with the topic seems to be a vital component of a successful application for funding. It provides convincing evidence of the credibility and motivations of the researcher and that they have spent enough time on a topic to ensure that their work is neither naïve nor opportunistic. As far as my own research is concerned, I was able to explain that my proposed kakenhi project grew out of more than a decade of research and reading in the area of Translation Studies, but was primarily was grounded in the specific topic of the circulation, presence, and performance of translation around the Pacific Rim, which had been a kakenhi-funded project. A new research aim that builds on your own prior research shows not only sustained personal commitment to a project, but also its potential for further study by raising new questions to explore. This backstory of past engagement grounds the present proposal and the possibility of future ones.

The background to the research, along with the list of recent research activities, such as publications and presentations, help establish the credentials of the applicant. The scope and purpose section of the application is where the integrity of the contents of the proposed research project are assessed. The more thought you have given to your research question, the easier it should be to give a concise explanation of the scope of your project; and to elaborate in greater detail in your research plan and method. A lucid style makes explicit links between what you are doing and why you are doing it. In addition it can ignite the imagination of the reader and an appreciation of the originality of your research and the significance of its expected results.

Your kakenhi research is funded by taxes and other sources of public funds. Thinking of your reader as not only the evaluator but also the society and citizens who fund your research and should have access to your results foregrounds the ethics of the funding application, as well as that of the research itself. This recognition of this responsibility means that the story you are telling in your application is not an imaginative tour de force but one that is motivated by learning and sharing new knowledge. The kakenhi application form shows its attention to the protection of human rights and compliance with laws and regulations. It is also embedded in the justification of the research costs, and the clear explication of the specific uses of the grant. The credibility of the researcher, the clarity of description, and the integrity of content will go a long way to persuading a funding body to finance your research project. You can cultivate your awareness of the ethical dimension research by participating in an ethics workshop and reading the guidelines for kakenhi research. Attention to the ethical preparation of the application shows commitment to the ethics of use of kakenhi funds.

Your kakenhi research may be a collaborative and more complicated narrative, depending on your research subject. I worked with a new media artist based in the United States, which not only allowed the research results to circulate widely but also to move beyond academic circles. We seek readers of for our research results, but no matter how experienced we are as researchers or proposal writers, we also benefit from critical readers of our funding application prior to formal submission. The institutional support, too, can be very helpful editors of applications. Research support staff handles successful and failed applications every year, and they can give valuable advice about what separates winners from wieners. An application may be technically problem free but lack appeal; it may be full of great ideas but be unfocused or in need of clearer explanation; it may be incomplete. Ask for editorial advice during the application process. Read your own application aloud and see how clear and persuasive it sounds to you. Consider the economy of your narrative account and ask yourself if every sentence is of consequence.

A well-written and clearly documented research application does not guarantee funding so a researcher has to reflect on more than the contents of the application. The story is powerful rhetorical tool, but it is even more effective when it is delivered at the right time. A research project’s cultural capital can fluctuate depending on social circumstances, so sometimes it is not just the story you tell that makes an application appealing but when you tell it.