GrantCore.ai — Team User Guide

Writing, reviewing, improving, and submitting your proposal — together

This guide walks your team through the whole process, start to finish: build the proposal, get an AI “practice review” with a predicted score, improve each section until the score rises, collaborate with your co‑investigators, and generate the final document to submit.

You don’t need to know where to start — the platform guides you step by step.

1. Sign in

1. Go to https://grantcore.ai/grants/login.html
2. Enter the email and password you were given (each team member has their own login).
3. You land on the Command Centre — your home base.

Tip: use Chrome or Edge. If something looks out of date after an update, press ⌘⇧R (Mac) or Ctrl‑F5 (Windows) to refresh.

2. Your home screen: “Do this next”

At the top of the Command Centre you’ll see a purple “Your next step” banner. It always tells you the single most useful thing to do next and gives you one button to do it. Below it are the 8 numbered steps of the journey, each showing a ✓ when it’s done:

1. Build your profile 2. Find funding 3. Add your documents
2. Write your proposal 5. Practice the review 6. Submit
3. Resubmit if needed 8. Manage your grant

You can always follow the banner, or jump to any step from the left sidebar.

3. Step 1 — Your profile & team

Open Your Profile (sidebar) and fill in your expertise, institution, and research areas. The more complete it is, the better the AI tailors everything.

For a collaborative bid, open Team & Organizations (sidebar): - Researchers — add every team member (PI, co‑investigators, collaborators). You can add people who don’t have a login as external collaborators. - Organizations — add each organization and mark it for‑profit or not‑for‑profit, and tick which one is the applicant (the organization officially submitting).

4. Steps 3–4 — Write your proposal (the Submission Companion)

This is where most of the work happens. Open the Submission Companion (from the application, or the sidebar). You’ll see every section the funder requires, each with its own editor.

For each section you can: - Type or paste your content, then click Save Draft. - AI Generate — let the AI write a first draft of that section for you. - ✨ Enhance with AI — the key feature (see below).

✨ Enhance with AI — improve a section against the funder’s rubric

1. Click ✨ Enhance with AI on any section that already has a draft.
2. A window opens showing your current text beside an enhanced version, plus a short list of what was improved.
3. The AI never invents facts. Where something is missing (a number, a date, a sample size), it inserts a clearly marked [ADD: …] placeholder for you to fill — it does not make data up.
4. You can edit the enhanced text right there, then click “Use this & load into editor.”
5. Review it, fill any [ADD: …] placeholders, and click Save Draft.

Golden rule: the AI assists; you stay in control. Nothing is saved until you review it and click Save Draft.

5. Step 5 — Practice the review & get your score

Open Practice Review & Score (sidebar) → scroll to the Reviewer Simulator.

1. Choose your application and a reviewer persona, then click Run Simulation (takes ~30–60 seconds).
2. You get a full mock review:
   • An overall score and funding probability.
   • A score per criterion (with the funder’s real weights), each with the key weakness and a quick fix.
   • Top rejection risks and prioritized improvement actions.
   • The full reviewer narrative.
3. Click 📄 Save Report to open a clean, printable report — use Print / Save as PDF to keep or share it.
4. Previous Runs lists every simulation you’ve done — click any one to reopen its full report at any time.

If it ever says it’s taking too long, just click Run Simulation again — it usually succeeds on a retry.

6. The improvement loop (do this until you’re happy)

This is the heart of the process — repeat until the score is where you want it:

Run Simulation  →  read the weak criteria + improvement actions
      ↓
Open the Submission Companion  →  ✨ Enhance with AI on the weak sections
      ↓
Fill any [ADD: …] placeholders  →  Save Draft
      ↓
Run Simulation again  →  watch the score rise

Each pass should lift the weakest criteria. Stop when the score and the reviewer narrative look strong.

7. Collaborating as a team

• Everyone works on the same application. Co‑investigators log in with their own accounts and edit sections in the Submission Companion.
• Every edit is tracked. The platform records who changed which section and what changed (a before/after diff), so the team always knows the current state and who did what. Admins can view this in the Activity / Audit Trail.
• Divide and conquer: assign sections to the people who own that expertise — methods to the methodologist, budget to the lead, etc. — and use Enhance with AI to polish each.
• External collaborators (no login) can still be listed on the team and appear on the generated proposal.

8. Generate the proposal document

When sections are in good shape, open the Application and click Regenerate Proposal. The platform assembles everyone’s latest section drafts and the team list into a Word document:

• For funders with an official form (e.g., JFRFP), it fills that official form.
• For online‑submission funders (CIHR/NSERC/SSHRC/NIH/NSF), it produces a clean compiled proposal for review and sign‑off.

Because it always pulls the latest content, you can regenerate as often as you like — every time a collaborator improves a section, regenerate to get a fresh document. Anything not yet provided shows as [confirm] or [TO COMPLETE] so nothing fake ever lands in the document.

9. Finalize & submit

1. Do a final Run Simulation — confirm the score and that there are no remaining rejection risks you can address.
2. Click Regenerate Proposal one last time and read the Word document end to end.
3. Confirm the submission details — applicant organization, start/end dates, mailing address, and the required declarations (public servant, lobbyist, other funding) — and replace any [confirm] / [ADD: …] markers with the real values.
4. Submit through the funder’s channel:
   • JFRFP — email the finalized Word application to the VAC Research Directorate by the deadline.
   • CIHR / NSERC / SSHRC / NIH / NSF — enter the content in the funder’s online portal (ResearchNet, Convergence, eRA Commons/ASSIST, Research.gov); use the compiled proposal as your master copy.

10. Quick reference

11. Finding calls and acting for your institution (new, September 2026)

Funding Inbox (left menu → Funding Inbox). Every open call from every agency on the platform, already read against your profile. Each card tells you why you qualify, what you are missing (with a link to fix it — usually your profile or CV) and what to confirm when you plan the project. Filters: Ready to apply, Needs action, Invited (calls an agency invited you to), Closing in 30 days, Saved. Start application creates the application and takes you to the workspace; the agents then confirm the full picture.

My Organization (left menu → My Organization). The institution’s view: every application filed by members of your organization at every agency, its awards, and the people who act for it (administrator, signatory, research office, viewer). The first administrator is either appointed by the funding agency or claimed by the first applicant whose email domain matches the organization’s website; administrators add the others.

Institutional sign-off. In the application workspace, Quick Actions shows the sign-off state for your organization (and for every participating organization on a multi-site project). Click Request sign-off; your organization’s administrators and signatories are notified and approve or decline from My Organization. Some competitions require sign-off before submission — the submit button tells you so.

Participating organizations. Also under Quick Actions: add co-applicant institutions, partners, sites or subcontractors by name (they are matched to the organization registry), with the site and the budget share. Each participating organization can be asked for its own sign-off.

12. Signing in with your institution, consent, and your language (new, 23 September 2026)

Sign in with your institution. When an agency has connected its identity provider, its login page shows a button such as Sign in with the Department. Use it instead of a password: you are sent to your institution’s sign-in, then straight back to GrantCore. The first time, your GrantCore account is created (or linked, if your institution asserts a verified email that matches an existing account). Nothing to remember, nothing to reset.

Consent before applying. Some agencies ask for your consent before you start an application with them. The Funding Inbox shows the agency’s privacy notice and the exact scopes it will receive (your identity, profile, organization, the application itself, your CV…). You consent once per notice; if the agency changes its notice you are asked again; you may withdraw at any time from Funding Inbox (withdrawal only stops new applications — what you already submitted stays with the agency).

Your language, everywhere. The menu, the Funding Inbox and the reasons it gives (why you qualify, what you are missing) now follow the language you pick at the top of any page — English, French, German, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese or Arabic (right-to-left).

Frequently asked

Will the AI make things up? No. It improves wording, structure, and rubric‑fit, but where real data is missing it leaves a [ADD: …] placeholder for you. Always review before saving.

Can two of us edit at once? Yes — you each work in your own login; edits are saved and tracked per person. Save Draft often.

The score didn’t move much. Focus your next Enhance pass on the lowest‑ scoring criterion and address its key weakness and rejection risks specifically, then re‑run.

Do I lose anything by regenerating again? No — it’s safe to regenerate as often as you want; it just rebuilds the document from your current drafts.

Questions or something not working? Contact your GrantCore administrator.