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Writing Proposals
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Title: Writing Proposals
1
Writing Proposals
- Whether you want access to telescope time
(radio,optical, X-ray, whatever), money to
travel, money to build instruments, money to run
conferences, resources to build instruments, in
fact in order to obtain most of the resources you
need to be an astronomer, you will have to write - PROPOSALS!
- Your proposals will almost always be evaluated
alongside other proposals, which means your
success as an astronomer will not depend on how
good those proposals are, but how much better
they are than your competitors.
2
Overview
- Telescope Time Allocation
- Although proposal writing skills are something
youll use over and over again, Ill concentrate
on the process of writing proposals to get
telescope time as a specific example - Remember, you are experimental scientists learn
from your eperience - How proposals are evalkuated
- How to Write your Proposal
- Formulate your experiment
- What you put in (dotting the is and crossing the
ts). - A suggested outline
- Hints
- How not to Write your Proposal
3
How Proposals are Evaluated
- Proposals are almost inevitably reviewed by a
committee - and that committee is composed of people
- committees make every effort to be unbiased,
objective, perceptive, intelligent and diligent
(the optimist assumption) - subject to all the same frailties as you and me
(the cynical assumption) - In practice, you should assume your proposals
will be read - By people who have no background in your research
- who dont care about your research
- who dont have enough time to read your proposal
properly - who are just looking for a reason to ignore it
- (this is probably the safe assumption)
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Telescope Time Allocation
- Time is competively sought after very
competitively. - In any one semester the applications for the use
of any large optical telescope will exceed the
available time by a factor of at least four
more for VLT, Gemini and HST. - Time is awarded by time assignment committees
(TACs), - They read all the proposals (usually between 50
and 200), and evaluate them for scientific merit,
feasibility and timeliness. - TACs are charged with maximising scientific
return (ie publications) for the observatory. - Proposals are graded relatively.
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Telescope Time Allocation
- In any one round of proposals
- a few will stand out as being clearly the best,
and a few will stand out as being clearly the
worst. - Most fight it out in the middle.
- Proposals are graded by several people, grades
are discussed, then combined, ranked and time is
allocated. - The final grade is an estimate, a measurement
of the worth of a proposal. - It therefore has uncertainty (eg. rms 0.3-0.5
/ 5 is common) - Proposal grading is an imperfect estimation
process. - Small differences in the proposal (as opposed to
the science) can make all the difference. - They can also make all the difference in whether
your brilliant science is understood.
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Astronomers are Scientists
- When writing a proposal, you should always keep
in mind that you are a scientist - ie you should make hypotheses, and then test them
- You are not (or should try to pretend that you
are not) just observers. - You shouldnt write proposals aiming to
discover things - Or work out whats going on after you have the
data. - You should be trying to establish whether
something is true or not. - You should not be trying to find the first
something. - Time Allocation Committees want to see proposals
which will cleanly show something to be true or
false in a finite amount of telescope time - Imagine youre buying something with your hard
earned money who do you hire?
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First, formulate your experiment
- Before you even put pen to paper (or finger to
key board), you need to develop a clear idea of
the problem you want to attack - What question am I trying to answer?
- Is it interesting?
- Is it timely?
- Then determine what finite set of observations
are need to answer that question. - If the question, or the set of observations,
becomes too big, then break it down into a series
of smaller problems, and attack each of those in
turn, with a separate project for each. - It is essential these things are clear to you, so
that you can clearly explain it to someone who
does not have your expert background in the field.
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Writing
- Clear Expression
- Use of language - keep it clear and simple.
- Layout - the reader must be clearly led through
the text. Remember this is one of a hundred
proposals the TAC member is reading - Length - minimise the length! Dont use all the
available space just because you can - Well Reasoned
- Your thought processes must be clearly expressed.
- Eg.
- Here is the scientific background, therefore we
have - A Question wed like to answer, which can be done
with - The Observations wed like to carry out, which
will give us - The following positive or negative results.
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Writing
- The project itself must be
- A well defined experiment with clear positive and
negative outcomes. Ideally the experiment will be
constructed such that either result is
interesting and worth publication. That way the
TAC gets a guaranteed publication. - Finite - TACs hate to see the same proposal again
and again. If your proposal will take time in
more than one period, then estimate how much and
say so, and why. TACs will avoid starting
projects which look like they might turn into
continuous applications for time. - Use Figures
- They save words, and can be much, much clearer.
- Make sure your figures are well annotated.
- Notations on the figure are better than in the
caption. Eg. use xfig, Word, Powerpoint to add
notes, arrows etc to GIF or Postscript file.
10
The Proposal Itself
- Form Section
- Names, institution, address etc of proposers
- Abstract - spend time on this after youve
written the Science Case. - Technical stuff
- Instruments, dates, positions, fluxes etc (Dont
make mistakes here) - Results from previous allocations, related
publications, etc - This is your chance to show that you are
productive. - Text Section
- Scientific Justification - this is where you make
the pitch for your project - Technical Justification - this is where you prove
your observations are feasible.
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A Suggested Science Case Outline
- The Scientific Background
- Why the objects you want to look at are
interesting and astronomically important. If they
are at all obscure, explain what they are. - Explain all acronyms, classes of objects,
symbols. - What has been done to date from which should
follow - The Oustanding Question(s) to be answered.
- That is, the questions you want to answer in this
work. - The Observations proposed
- How they will answer your questions. Make sure
you define your positive and negative results -
if both are significant your proposal will be
that much stronger - Conclusion/Summary
- recap for those skimming the proposal. Which
will be most readers! - Abstract - yes, write this LAST!
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A Suggested Technical Outline
- Technical Justification
- Why have you chosen the instrument you have? If
you can point out that the instrument is somehow
unique, then you strengthen the case
considerably. - You must justify the time you ask for
- How bright are your targets?
- How many of them are there?
- What S/N do you need to achieve your scientific
goals? How long do you need to expose (based on
the Observatorys sensitivity estimates, and/or
your experience with the set-up)? - Remember
- Use figures - especially schematics of any
complexities in your science case or
observations, as much as possible. - Keep it brief.
13
Useful stuff to be able to use
- That the observations can only be done with this
facility. - Useful to massage the ego of the Observatory.
- Observations which can be done elsewhere are easy
to reject. - Essential when applying to places you dont get
time as of right (ESO, HST, UK facilities). - Concise, but readable, Abstract and Conclusion.
- Clear divisions in your text
- Use sections, headings, emphasized text, etc to
make the thought processes flow through your
proposal. - Show youve completed and published previous work
in a timely fashion. - Clearly delineate your experiment with ve and
-ve results
14
Useful stuff to be able to use
- Check archives to ensure this data doesnt
already exist. - And insert a short note to this effect if you
have any reason to believe the TAC may believe
these observations already exist - Use on-line resources (NED,SIMBAD,etc)
- This is really just doing your homework, and
making sure you know all about your targets. But
it may allow you to shorten your program, or
provide essential information for your science
case - A really cool figure
- A well constructed figure can explain an entire
project in seconds to the reader. You should
think hard about whether you can make a
meaningful and useful figure. - Use notes on the figure
- Use schematic drawings
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After the TAC meets
- Lets assume for a moment that after all this,
youve still managed to write a proposal which
got rejected. - The next thing you must do is find out why!
- Many TACs (eg. ATAC and PATT) provide feedback on
the TACs evaluation. - If you didnt get time you need to revise your
proposal for next time taking these comments into
account - You can also contact TAC members to ask if they
have any comments on what you can do to improve
the proposal - Above all, dont get depressed and assume its all
a conspiracy to sink your project. Or get mad and
assume they are too lazy or stupid to read and
understand your project. The TACs are composed of
people. Usually if you ask for their comments
and/or help, theyll give it. - In any case, its your job to make the proposal
understandable, not the TACs job to understand
it.
18
The worst case TAC
- Someone will ask, why do they need 24 objects?
- Someone will think all research in your area is a
waste of time - Someone will only have read the abstract and
conclusions and looked at the pictures - Good reason to make your figures explain the
proposal. - Someone will ask cant they do this on another
(usually smaller) telescope?
19
What NOT to do
- These objects are really cool, and wed like to
learn more about them - Wed like to discover the first _______ .
(Insert brown dwarf, z8 galaxy, black hole, .. - Avoid a blizzard of questions
- it is better to concentrate on 1 or 2 things you
will answer than 4 or 5 things you might answer. - Nothing reflects as poorly as stupid mistakes
- Like appplying in the wrong semester, with the
wrong instrument, or a no longer current
detector. - Or leaving out essential information (like how
bright or how many are your targets).
20
What NOT to do
- Dont submit proposals which are badly written -
if English (or French or Spanish nor whatever) is
not nyour first language, get a colloborator who
can proffred/rewrite it for you. - Dont plow into an obscure discussion of a
peculiar class of objects, without placing them
in context. - Dont present dense blocks of undifferentiated
text - Avoid programs aiming to obtain data and to then
perform a postiori determinations of whats going
on - Make a hypothesis and test it.
- Dont say well work out whats going on once we
have the data. - This is one of the most common failings of lowly
ranked telescope proposals.
21
Conclusion
- Remember you are a scientist.
- Your proposals should reflect a clear hypothesis
and testing, with clearly defined positive and
negative results. - Make sure these are clear to you before you start
writing. - Remember TAC members are people.
- They read lots of proposals, and will not make
the effort to understand a poorly explained
concept, or a poorly written proposal. - Try to make the logic of your proposal as clear
and simple as possible. - Try it out on a friend who doesnt know the
field. If they cant follow it, neither can the
TAC. - If you dont get time, find out why, fix it, and
try again. - When writing a proposal you are marketing your
project. - So try to en sure your marketing is better than
your competitors!
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