The Department of Geography, Universitas Negeri Malang (UM), hosted an online Guest Lecture and Academic Workshop titled “How to Win International Research Grants” on Friday, 28 November 2025. The session, held via Zoom Meeting, featured Hon Associate Professor Paul Dargusch from The University of Queensland, Australia one of UM’s strategic partners in advancing global research engagement.
Designed to strengthen UM’s trajectory toward becoming a world-class university, the workshop aimed to equip researchers with the skills to develop, write, and submit competitive international proposals. The session was intended for both early-career and senior researchers, and although grounded in geographical research, the principles presented applied broadly across disciplines.
The workshop covered key components of successful grant acquisition: an introduction to proposal foundations, mapping funding sources and understanding sponsor expectations, structuring a research proposal, effective academic writing style, and the submission, review, and revision cycle.
In his presentation, Dargusch highlighted that competitive proposals must articulate a clear, measurable contribution to global development agendas. He emphasized alignment with specific Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), including SDG 13.1 (strengthening resilience and adaptive capacity to climate-related hazards) and SDG 17.16 (enhancing global partnerships for sustainable development). He noted that major international funding bodies increasingly require explicit impact pathways that demonstrate how proposed research advances SDG targets.
UM’s Department of Geography stated that the event forms part of the university’s long-term strategy to enhance global research competitiveness and foster high-impact international collaborations, in line with SDG 17.9, which promotes research capacity-building in developing countries. The department plans to continue this workshop series to deepen proposal-writing skills and expand UM’s research partnerships with leading universities worldwide.
