PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] - As the landscape of research funding continues to shift, the Brown Division of Research hosted its annual proposal development workshop to provide faculty with tools for leading successful teams and securing funding in the coming year. The intensive two-day series, “Adapting Research Funding and Leadership Strategies for 2026,” expanded on the success of last year’s virtual workshop, welcoming Drs. Peg AtKisson, Amanda Welch and Rachel Dresbeck of the AtKisson Training Group (ATG). 

Held March 11-12 at South Street Landing, the workshops were led by AtKisson, founder and president of ATG.  Bringing expertise from her diverse career in neuroscience, grant writing, and research development, AtKisson offered a unique perspective on the challenges of the 2026 funding landscape. Particularly, as federal sponsors and funding priorities evolve, many faculty members are aiming to diversify their funding sources and approaches.

The event featured two distinct sessions: “Cultivating and Funding Your Research: Adapting to the Changing Landscape,” and “Research Leadership and Management.” The workshops were designed for faculty across career stages and fields, and organized by the Research Strategy and Development team within Brown’s Division of Research. Co-sponsored by the Division of Biology and Medicine, Advance RI-CTR, the School of Public Health and the Providence/Boston Center for AIDS Research (CFAR), the event was attended by over 60 faculty members from departments across campus and within Brown’s affiliated health systems.

Cultivating and Funding Your Research: Adapting to the Changing Landscape

The first workshop, “Cultivating and Funding Your Research: Adapting to the Changing Landscape,” encouraged faculty to view their programs as an ecosystem and critically consider interactions between projects to best plan future work. ATG presenters offered a concrete framework to guide faculty through the process:

• Part 1: Cultivating Your Research
• Part 2: The Critical First Page of the Proposal
• Part 3: The Body of the Proposal
• Part 4: All the Finishing Touches

Blending lecture, visualization, and interactive activities, AtKisson, Welch and Dresbeck covered a range of funding targets. Throughout the full-day workshop, the team fielded questions about grant writing strategies, timelines and creative processes to produce clear research project plans digestible by reviewers within or outside of the investigators’ field of study.  

Faculty left the first session with actionable steps to implement in program visualization, decision-making, and proposal writing. 

Research Leadership and Management

The following half-day session, “Research Leadership and Management,” used an array of interactive exercises including self assessments and group role-playing scenarios to equip researchers with essential people-management and leadership skills.

ATG presenters emphasized that self-knowledge and accountability are key to managing a research group and creating an open and productive culture in their teams. 

In conclusion, this year’s proposal development series left faculty across Brown’s diverse scope of research with a unified framework to navigate the complexities of federal funding, preparing them to further enhance educational and empirical contributions to their fields.