The grant writing sector is ready for disruption

How AI, domain expertise, and smarter workflows are reshaping the future of grant development — Matthijs Loning Commercial Director, Grantific 31st of March 2026

Across Europe, the demand for public funding is growing rapidly. More organisations are applying, more proposals are being developed, and competition is increasing across every major programme. At the same time, success rates are declining. This shift is putting pressure on how grant applications are created and exposing the limitations of the current process.

A complex process behind every proposal

Grant writing is not just about drafting a document. It is a highly coordinated effort involving multiple stakeholders, strict requirements, and detailed evaluation criteria. Teams work across organisations and borders, combining input from researchers, founders, project managers, and partners. Proposals evolve through multiple iterations, with content moving back and forth between contributors.

Along the way, teams must ensure alignment between narrative sections, work packages, and budgets, while working within the structure of each specific funding call. This process requires significant time, coordination, and effort to manage effectively.

A new wave of tools, but the same core challenge

With the rise of generic AI tools, organizations are able to produce proposals faster and application volumes continue to grow. However, a strong proposal requires more than well-written text. It depends on how clearly objectives, methodology, work packages, and impact are connected and whether the entire proposal aligns with evaluation criteria.

This is where generic tools fall short. They generate language, but they do not recognise how sections depend on each other, how work packages should be structured, or how budgets and activities need to align. They also lack the domain-specific context required for EU and international funding programmes, where structure, hierarchy, and consistency are critical. As a result, while content is produced faster, the challenge of building a coherent, evaluator-ready proposal remains.

Grantific: Purpose-built intelligence for grant writing

Grantific is built on a simple premise: grant writing is not just about generating text, it is about understanding structure, context, and logic.

Powered by years of domain expertise and advanced AI capabilities from Brainial, including computer vision and data processing, combined with over 20 years of grant expertise from Catalyze, Grantific can analyse and contextualise a wide range of input documents. This includes call texts, but also research materials, scientific papers, previous proposals, business plans, slide decks, and other supporting content.

Instead of treating these documents as static text, the platform interprets their meaning, structure, and relevance, turning them into actionable input for the proposal.

This allows Grantific to go beyond generic tools.

It adds context to every part of the proposal, understands how objectives, methodology, work packages, and impact connect, and supports users in keeping these elements aligned. The models are informed by years of practical experience, incorporating lessons learned on how successful proposals, and their individual sections, should be structured.

Through a built-in AI research assistant, the platform continuously guides the process, identifying missing input and source information, highlighting gaps, and providing context-aware suggestions tailored to the specific call and proposal.

The result is a more structured, coherent, and complete way of developing grant applications, designed specifically for the complexity of modern funding processes.

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