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Grant Writing for Quantitative Economics, Social Sciences, and Public Health

Course Information

The course "Grant Writing for Quantitative Economics, Social Sciences, and Public Health" is designed to equip students with essential skills for writing competitive research proposals with quantitative methods in economics, sociology, political science, public health, and epidemiology.

• Date:
  • Tuesday, February 10, 2026, 9:15 AM till 4:30 PM
  • Wednesday, April 15, 2026, 9:15 AM till 5:15 PM
  • Thursday, May 21, 2026, 9:15 AM till 5:15 PM
• Registration Opens: January 21, 2026, 9:00 AM
• Registration Deadline: February 3, 2026, 12:00 PM
• Course Fees: This course is free of charge and is intended for doctoral candidates and postdocs of the University of Basel in a quantitative field broadly related to human behavior.
• Trainer: Prof. Dr. Armando N. Meier
• Credits: 3 ECTS
• Organized by: Graduate Center

Aims

The course aims to:

• Equip students with essential skills for writing competitive research proposals with quantitative methods
• Provide an interdisciplinary approach to grant writing, highlighting credible quantitative research designs
• Facilitate the generation and refinement of research ideas, ensuring they align with funding priorities and academic standards
• Improve students' skills in presenting and defending their research proposals through iterative feedback sessions
• Teach how to highlight the feasibility and significance of their research given data limitations and research design

Content

In this research proposals and grant writing course, students will get prepared to write research proposals and grants, including idea generation and compelling grant writing. The course focuses on research designs and helps in selecting and developing ideas into competitive proposals.

• The course is tailored for PhD students and Postdocs (as well as advanced Master students) focusing on quantitative research.
• The focus is on research proposals for PhD studies, as well as on applications for Ambizione and Postdoc.Mobility fellowships from the Swiss National Science foundation and grants from the Forschungsfonds at the University of Basel.
• Participants will gain an understanding of the intricacies of grant writing, including identifying funding opportunities, situating research questions, articulating risks, highlighting feasibility, and developing robust methodologies.

Methods

The course consists of:

• Lectures on funding possibilities, idea selection and development, as well as essentials of credible quantitative research designs
• Presentations of ideas and research designs, and outlines of full funding proposals
• Feedback sessions in the plenum

Target Group

The target group for this course includes:

• Postdoc or PhD student in a quantitative field broadly related to human behavior, such as economics, social sciences, psychology, humanities, public health, epidemiology, nursing sciences, sociology
• PhD students from other fields who do empirical research are welcome to attend, but may not benefit as much

Requirements

Admission requirements include:

• Postdoc or PhD student in a quantitative field broadly related to human behavior
• Advanced master student with the goal of doing a PhD in such fields

About the Trainer

Professor Armando Meier, PhD, is a Professor of Health Economics at the Faculty of Business and Economics. His interdisciplinary research in health economics touches on labor economics, health policy, and behavioral science using large data sets and experiments.

Workload

The course requires:

• Hours of preparatory work / post workshop work: >60 hours
• Hours of work in presence: 3 workshop days
• Course attendance: 28h
• Hours of preparatory work: 62h

Feature

Once registration is open, applications will be collected for 24 hours and course places allocated by lot. All registrations received after the initial 24h period will be put on a waiting list and assigned on a first come, first served basis. Full course attendance is mandatory.