Grant Editing Quote & Terms of Service

ARC Future Fellowship 2024 (FT24) - Full Edit

Many thanks for contacting Mind Your Way for a quote to edit and consult on your ARC Future Fellowship 2024 (FT24) application.

We would be delighted to assist. Please find below an outline, for a single submission, of our suggested service options, what they include, and the process involved.

Please read over this quote and our Site and Service Terms (available on our website) carefully. The terms in this quote and our Site and Service Terms are the conditions on which we provide you our services.

Text details

Text type: ARC Future Fellowship 2024 (FT24)

Focus on: We will edit sections C1 (Project Description), A4 (Summary), A5 (NIT Statement), B7 (ROPE - Career Highlights), B8 (ROPE - Details of the Future Fellowship candidate's career, evidence of research impact and contributions to the field), and B10 (ROPE - Research Output Context).

Timeline: A minimum of two weeks from draft arrival date, to ensure sufficient time for

Story Analysis, editing, and feedback loops. Once this quote is accepted, we may

need 4–5 working days for project set-up and editor allocation, too.

Proposed services overview

Story Analysis: Identify best strategy and investment of time to enhance the draft, including what essential story components are either present, missing, or underdeveloped.

First Edit: Interview with applicant to extract critical insights related to the proposed project, followed by the editor rewriting and commenting on relevant sections of the text to create a more engaging and impactful story.

Second Edit: Review of the amended draft in response to the First Edit, as well a check of the overall structure, pitch, flow of argument, reasoning, and expression. A thorough copy edit will also be completed.

Our editing services explained

Story Analysis

The search for a good story begins with one of our editors conducting an initial assessment of the strengths and primary needs of the draft. For example, some applicants might be good writers but fall short on providing sufficient depth in justifying the urgency of the research, while other applicants’ use of highly technical language can obstruct comprehension and narrative flow. This initial assessment helps the editor ascertain the best strategy and investment of time to enhance the draft. The editor will then identify what essential story components are either present, missing, or underdeveloped. To aid this process, the editor may utilise a range of analytic tools which we have curated and developed to capture explicitly and systematically what many grant reviewers only do intuitively (and thus selectively): the building blocks of a compelling project pitch. Outcomes from the Story Analysis will then inform a set of questions that the editor will ask the applicant before any editing or rewriting begins.

First Edit

The First Edit begins with a structured, editor-led interview with the applicant designed to extract critical insights related to the significance of the research problem, the benefits of conducting the work, and the expected impacts and outcomes of the applicant’s proposed project. It also allows the editor to clarify their understanding of content where needed. The editor will then rewrite relevant sections of the text (where required) to create a more engaging and impactful story, strengthening the applicant’s arguments and highlighting the significance of their research. Comments will be provided in the margins, and all changes and additions will be made visible using track changes. Outcomes from the First Edit will be emailed to the applicant for their consideration and response.

Second Edit

Once the applicant sends the draft back to us, the editor will review their amendments based on the First Edit and clarify any questions they might have. The editor will then conduct a final review of the relevant sections’ structure, pitch, flow of argument, reasoning, and expression. A thorough copy edit will also be completed to check for consistent spelling, grammar, punctuation, and style, providing comments in the margins where needed. A clean and track-changed version of the final draft will be emailed to the applicant. If questions arise from the Second Edit, the editor will be available to settle these via email within a few days following the delivery of the draft.

Peer Mentoring

Most projects we work on utilise the power of peer mentoring, where a second editor provides feedback on the main editor's work on your proposal. This may or may not be evident to you as our client, as not all mentoring comments make it into the amended draft you will receive for your input. The idea is that "four eyes see more than two", and peer mentoring often generates new insights and ideas for how we can best enhance your proposal.

Project administration

While project administration is often invisible to our clients, we sink substantial time into the set-up, processing, and managing of each project to ensure speedy briefing of editors, effective communication between our clients and team members, and timely completion of the work within the agreed timeline.

Combined cost of services:

Sub-total: $5,050.00

GST: $505.00

Total: $5,555.00

Add-on services

Should you require additional editing on sections not outlined in the “Text details” section of this quote, please reach out to let us know. We routinely provide add-on quotes, for example for editing of additional Investigator-related track-record, leadership, and impact sections.

Time zappers and your project

Time zapper #1: editing a grant too early

It is important to distinguish between editing and strategic advice. Editing a draft too early usually means your precious editing funds are put to inefficient use: our meticulous work is likely to be over-written by researchers’ further work, and errors are almost always (re)introduced as the document changes hands between team members.

Early strategic advice, however, is a different and separate service. While our grant editing service requires a complete draft application for our editors to work with, we also assist individuals or teams in the early stages of their project development journey. When ideas are still being explored for a project, our Project Consultation service offers early strategic feedback on the emerging project pitch. For more information about this service, please contact us.

Time zapper #2: too many feedback loops

Too much back and forth, sometimes with too many people, means precious time is lost to an inefficient feedback process. Every feedback loop between your researcher and our editor takes time at our end! We often need to re-read (and potentially re-edit) the entire grant; eliminate problems that were (re)introduced in a carefully edited document (ask us about an editor’s worst nightmare!); and take on board further conceptual changes that would ideally be solved earlier in the process.

This quote covers a maximum of two feedback loops and associated hours of liaison and editing time: namely, the Glamour and the Grammar Chat. These purpose-built windows in the editing process serve as targeted opportunities for the researcher to review the editor’s work on their draft, and to make any necessary changes that arise.

Should feedback loops required exceed the allocated time in this quote (for example, because the researcher decides to rewrite or re-conceptualise significant aspects of the text in response to insights gained from editing), we will contact you to discuss an add-on quote for extra feedback and liaison time required.

Time zapper #3: dealing with too many people (and drafts)

Dealing with too many people, or having to reconcile numerous versions of a master file, eats up unbelievable amounts of time that should be spent on editing a single master file instead. If your text involves an entire team, we expect to only deal with one dedicated liaison person, whose role will be to collate the team’s comments into one master file before we receive the draft for editing.

Should you require our help with collating the team’s comments and liaising with team members, we can certainly provide a separate quote for this add-on service.

Quote conditions

Our standard terms apply

Our standard terms of service, available on our website, apply when we deliver these Services to you. By accepting this quote, you also agree to the terms and conditions set out in our Site and Service Terms (which sets out key conditions of our services such as how you can use our content and important service disclaimers) and our Privacy Policy (which sets out how we manage your personal information).

Eligibility and compliance checking

All eligibility and compliance checks are the responsibility of the researcher(s) submitting the relevant grant application. If in doubt, applicants should please consult with their university’s research office. Mind Your Way does not consult or advise on individual compliance and scheme eligibility requirements, nor do we replace other checks or advice on “scheme fit” – such as ensuring that medical content submitted within ARC proposals fits with that funding body’s Medical Research Policy,

or the like.

> If in doubt, please consult with your organisation's research office for information.

Complete project details

After you accept this quote, you will need to provide us further details relating to your project via our online Welcome Survey we will send to you.

> You agree that we cannot start work on your project until you have completed this survey.

> You agree that if your responses indicate you would like additional or different services than set out in this quote, a project change may apply (see below).

Timing for your project

After we agree on timeframes for your project, we allocate time and resources to complete the agreed services. Please let us know immediately if you foresee any issues with meeting the agreed timelines, so that we can work with you in good faith to re-allocate time and resources for your project if possible. If you don’t provide the required project details and draft documents within agreed timeframes or adequately participate in the project:

> We cannot guarantee to have an editor available to work with you outside the agreed timeframes for your project.

> Project scope and timeframes may be adjusted.

Project changes

We understand that sometimes the focus of research can change, such as changing which grant you are applying for, and so you may need to make changes to the scope of your project with us. In addition, some common “Time Zappers” (see examples outlined in our detailed Time Zappers section above) might result in a project taking longer than originally estimated.

> If you decide to change your project or request additional services, we will work with you to action your requested changes.

> Time Zappers may mean a project change is required.

> We may provide a new quote for the project changes, which outlines any additional fees payable and the related services.

> If you do not agree to our project changes quote, we may not be able to change or update the scope of the project.

Invoicing and contracting

We require a 50% deposit payment to start the project. Once you sign and accept this quote, we will send you or your Sponsor the 50% deposit invoice. When work is completed, we will invoice you or your Sponsor for any remaining amounts payable.

> See our Site and Service Terms for more details on payments and invoicing.

Cancellation fees

When we book and schedule work with you for this grant editing project, we take various actions on the basis of that commitment.

We hope we won’t need to refer to these Cancellation fees, however they are in place to give you the flexibility you might need whilst also recognising that we shouldn’t be left out of pocket if we incur reasonably unavoidable administrative costs as well as loss we incur from blocking our calendar for a particular grant editing project, turning away other clients, etc.

> These Fees are a genuine estimate of the loss we would suffer if you were to end this agreement before we have delivered all of the quoted services.

If you end this agreement before we have delivered all of the quoted services, then we will charge you:

> Any and all hours worked toward project setup, liaison, and planning for projects that are aborted or do not proceed, plus:

> A cancellation fee equal to 20% of the contracted cost for the committed project fees if you notify us in writing that the grant edit will not proceed within 8 to 14 days of the booked project commencement date (the date by which you are scheduled to send us your draft for editing).

> A cancellation fee equal to 50% of the contracted cost for the outstanding committed project fees if you notify us in writing that the grant edit will not proceed within 7 days or less of the booked project commencement date (the date by which you are scheduled to send us your draft for editing).

Prepaid funds invoiced and received by MYW for any project fees that were not utilised by you will be deducted from these Cancellation fees.

Ending this project

After this quote is accepted, if the project is terminated by either of us (other than for our breach), you must pay all work completed up to the date of the termination as well as all Project Administration costs and any additional reasonable fees relating to the termination.

> See our Site and Service Terms for more details on ending or suspending this project.

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