A System for Every Stage of Every Grant
International grant programmes — from government scholarships to university-funded exchanges — require careful coordination across multiple stages: awareness, application, selection, placement, and completion. At PCU, this information has been fragmented across emails, shared drives, and spreadsheets. I'm building a system that centralises all of it.
The system has two interdependent layers: a digital dashboard that tracks every active grant, applicant, and deadline in real time — and a physical operational workflow that ensures students are properly informed and supported throughout the application and placement process.
The goal is a single source of truth for PCU's international grants — one that faculty, staff, and students can consult without chasing status updates across email chains.
Digital + Physical Integration
The dashboard is the digital backbone — but the physical workflow (briefing sessions, printed guides, in-person advising) ensures students are properly equipped to apply and succeed.
Realtime Grant Status
Every grant, every applicant, every stage — updated live via Supabase Realtime subscriptions. No polling. No refresh required. Staff see changes the moment they happen.
Deadline-First Calendar
A dedicated calendar view surfaces every grant deadline across active programmes, sorted by urgency — so no submission window is ever missed by a student or staff member.
Stage-Based Applicant Pipeline
A Kanban-style pipeline tracks every applicant's current stage across concurrent grant cycles — making it immediately visible where bottlenecks are and who needs follow-up.
International Grants Dashboard
The digital centrepiece of this system — a self-built web application that centralises international grant tracking from opportunity discovery through to placement outcome. Built with Supabase (database, realtime, auth, storage, RLS) and Chart.js for analytics.
Grant Discovery & Matching
A matching engine cross-references a student's faculty and programme against grant eligibility criteria — surfacing the most relevant opportunities automatically without manual searching.
Local & Synced Bookmarks
Public users can bookmark grants locally; authenticated users get bookmarks synced across devices via Supabase — so students never lose track of opportunities they're considering.
Admin Document Attachments
Staff can upload supporting documents (PDFs, forms) directly to Supabase Storage from the grant form — drag-and-drop or file picker, with a full audit trail in the activity log.
Outcome Analytics
Acceptance rates, total funding secured, and placement outcomes are calculated automatically from live data — charts are ready for leadership reporting without manual aggregation.
Row Level Security
Every table is protected by Supabase RLS — public read, admin write. The anon key is safely exposed in the client; the service_role key never touches frontend code.
Realtime Updates
Supabase Realtime subscriptions push INSERT / UPDATE / DELETE events from the grants table to every connected client instantly — no polling, no page refresh required.
Beyond the Dashboard — The Physical Workflow
A dashboard alone does not move a student from interest to application. The physical layer of this system ensures students at PCU are actively informed, supported, and guided through each grant cycle — not just pointed to a website.
Informing Students
Grant briefing sessions, printed opportunity guides, and targeted outreach to eligible faculties — ensuring students at PCU know what is available before deadlines pass.
Maintaining Records
A physical archive of grant documentation, applicant records, and outcome reports — maintained in coordination with the digital dashboard to create a redundant, complete institutional record.
Guiding Applications
In-person advising sessions, document checklist walkthroughs, and application review support — making sure students submit complete, competitive applications rather than navigating the process alone.
Executing Placements
Post-selection coordination with partner institutions and funding bodies — ensuring accepted students are placed, onboarded, and supported through the start of their grant period.