< Events | Friday, October 10, 2025

Academic Practice Lab: Strategic Insights and Institutional Support for Effective Grant Writing

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The Black Research Network’s Academic Practice Lab helps researchers build practical skills, access key funding insights and explore success in diverse academic pathways. 

This workshop is open to Indigenous and Black-identified faculty and post-doctoral fellows.

Topic: Strategic Insights and Institutional Support for Effective Grant Writing

What makes a research proposal stand out? Where can you find the right support at the University of Toronto?

The first instalment of the BRN’s Academic Practice Lab offers practical guidance on how to prepare and structure strong applications and proposals at the University of Toronto. Participants will gain insight into available support resources, including tri-campus development officer contacts that faculty can connect with. 

With a new application cycle for the BRN IGNITE Grant opening soon, attendees will also learn from Anna Thomas (Cycle 3.0 recipient) on her successful application journey.

The conversation will be followed by a Q&A session.   

This event will take place virtually. Please register to attend. 

Note: Presentations from this workshop will be recorded and available on our BRN Resources page. 

About the speakers:

Golnaz Farhat is a Research Development Officer at the Research Services Office where she develops and coordinates grant-writing supports for faculty at U of T, including proposal development tip sheets, peer review and workshops. With almost 10 years of experience in research development, she has edited close to 200 research funding proposals. Golnaz holds a PhD in Medical Biophysics from U of T (2016). 

Jeremy Knight is the Director, Research Development at the Research Services Office, where he leads a team that delivers grant proposal supports (e.g. editorial and peer reviews) and administers international (e.g. Horizon Europe, NIH), internal (e.g. Connaught Fund, Research Support Fund) and select institutional (e.g. CFREF) research programs. He enjoys working with colleagues across the wide and diverse U of T research community to help them do their best research and maximize the impact of their discoveries.

Anna Thomas is an Assistant Professor of English at the University of Toronto. She is completing her first book, Moved But Not Destroyed: Forms of Rearrangement in African American and Caribbean Literature, which examines comparative racialization, ethics, and form. Her writing has appeared in InterventionsPrac CritASAP/Journal and Cultural Critique.

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