Grant Proposal Writing:

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• Grant Proposal Writing
• A Collaborative Effort

Presentation at the University of Oklahoma
May 17, 2006
Jim Wicksted Professor Head Department of
Physics Oklahoma State University Associate
Director Oklahoma EPSCoR
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WHAT IS EPSCoR? EPSCoR (Experimental Program to
Stimulate Competitive Research) is a merit based
science and technology (ST) initiative to
improve the research capacity capability and
competitiveness in states that historically have
not received significant federal research and
development (RD) funding.
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You have an idea! Now, what do you do with
it? How can you draft this into a proposal?
Should you?
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What makes a good proposal?"

• A good proposal stems from a good concept. The
  best
• proposals are those to which the reviewers
  respond,
• Why didnt I think of that!
• The proposal must be written in sufficient detail
  so reviewers
• understand
• What the project hopes to accomplish
• Do project personnel have the necessary expertise
  to
• accomplish the goals and objectives
• The national impact and cost effectiveness of the
  project
• Evaluation and dissemination plans.

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For a specific NSF program, carefully read the
Program Announcement

• The Program Announcement gives the most current
  information available for the program including
• a rationale
• an overview
• detailed program information
• facts about preparation and submission of both
  preliminary and formal proposals
• review criteria
• special forms that should be submitted
• The Guide to Programs pubs_at_nsf.gov

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NSF Review Criteria

• What is the intellectual merit of the proposed
  activity?
• How important is the proposed activity to
  advancing knowledge and understanding within its
  own field or across different fields?
• How well qualified is the proposer (individual or
  team) to conduct the project?
• To what extent does the proposed activity suggest
  and explore creative and original concepts?
• How well conceived and organized is the proposed
  activity?
• Is there sufficient access to resources?

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NSF Review Criteria

• What are the broader impacts of the proposed
  activity?
• How well does the activity advance discovery and
  understanding while promoting teaching, training,
  and learning?
• How well does the proposed activity broaden the
  participation of underrepresented groups (e.g.,
  gender, ethnicity, disability, geographic, etc.)?
• To what extent will it enhance the infrastructure
  for research and education, such as facilities,
  instrumentation, networks, and partnerships?
• Will the results be disseminated broadly to
  enhance scientific and technological
  understanding?
• What may be the benefits of the proposed activity
  to society?

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YOU ARE NOT ALONE! There are many
Collaborators who can help.

• Mentors, senior faculty, EPSCoR office
• Department Heads, Research Directors, VPs for
• Research
• Program Officers people to work with when
• writing a proposal
• Research office, budget office
• Get to know these ALL these people!

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Thesis, Postdoctoral Mentors

• Chances are, you are still interested in a field
  similar
• to that of your doctoral thesis advisor or
  postdoctoral
• Advisor.
• He/she knows the field
• Has experience in writing proposals in your
  area(s)
• of interest
• May be willing to look over your proposal
• Can suggest others to review your proposal,
• both formally and informally

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Your Department Head

• He/she can provide funds for
• Travel to a granting agency
• Travel to professional meetings for
• (i) Keeping up on your field
• (ii) Talking to potential research collaborators
• Some proposals require letters of support
• concerning space, equipment, funds, etc.

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Research Directors, Vice
Presidents for Research

• He/she can provide funds for similar types of
  travel plus
• Support for students, summer salary, for
  conducting
• specific research (obtaining preliminary
  data)
• Equipment needs and repairs
• Cost share for proposals (if needed)

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Program Officers

• These are important people to contact, and you
  should
• do so in person if possible
• Can help steer your proposal to the proper
  program
• within their agency
• Can further indicate needs of their program that
• may go beyond the Agencys RFP, BAA
• He/she gets to know you and can associate a face
• with a proposal
• May see you as a possible reviewer for future
• proposals and panels

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Office of Sponsored Research

• Can help with proposal guidelines
• Can help fill out other documentation
  (biographical sketches, current and pending
  support, facilities, etc.)
• Routing the proposal (obtaining needed
  signatures)
• Works with Business Office in developing Budget
• Submitting proposal via Fastlane, Grants.gov

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A proposal is required to convince people that
you can perform the necessary work to
successfully complete a project. You need to
convince ALL of these individuals of
this. Remember, YOUR SUCCESS IS THEIR SUCCESS!
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• Getting Started
• NSF grants provide funds based on merit.
  
• Choose an important, testable, focused plan
• Start with a clear idea of the goals and
  objectives of the project
• It should be based on both previous and current
  research.
• Important Do you have an adequate foundation
  of preliminary data to launch a grant
  application?
• It is helpful to reviewers to see that you have
  devised a time frame. This will show that you
  have done adequate planning and are realistic
  about the programs implementation.
• A good proposal must be innovative within its
  context!

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Getting Started (cont)

• Envision what improvements your project will make
  and what activities must be developed
• What instruments are needed?
• Should collaborations be formed to make the
  desired
• improvements?
• What resources are necessary?
• People
• Time
• Equipment

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NSF Proposal Format Project Summary must
describe intellectual merit, broader impacts, and
be understandable to a scientifically or
technically literate lay person (not more than
one page) Table of contents automatically
generated by FastLane Pagination FastLane will
not automatically paginate a proposal Margins and
Spacing 2.5 cm margins at the top, bottom and
each side Height of letters not smaller than
10 point Type density no more than 15
characters per 2.5 cm Readability is of
paramount importance Other No internet
addresses NSF funding in the past 5 years with
comment on the quality of the prior work Group
proposals may have up to 5 pages each for each
PI Reference information is required - no page
limitation Biographical sketch is required for
each senior project personnel
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NSF Proposal Format Project Description Clear
statement of work ObjectivesExpected
significanceRelation to longer-term
goalsRelation to the present state of knowledge
in the fieldDescription of experimental methods
and procedures for documentation and data
sharing Broader impact is a significant part of
the narrativeMay not exceed 15 pages
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Background Information
Look for previously awarded NSF projects or work
supported in other ways that are similar. The
relationship of the proposed project to work of
others should be described. Search the relevant
databases (http//www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/index.
jsp)
KNOW ABOUT YOUR INTERESTS AND STUDY ALL THE
LITERATURE

• Use library, internet (a good job for a student)
• Conferences and meetings
• Review papers in your field (you get to know
• the literature this way)
• Reviewers may look at references in your
• proposal as well as your publications
  (demonstrated
• scholarship in your projects design)

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Planning
Look at the receipt dates for new applications.
Give yourself plenty of time to prepare your
application, probably three to six
months. Highlight importance points in proposal
guidelines, make a timeline for addressing these,
crossing off items that are completed.
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Start Writing

• Typically a final version of a proposal will
  have
• gone through several drafts and revisions.
• Dont plan on writing a final version in a first
  draft.
• Write the application in the Project Description
  sequence.
• But, if you get stuck, move on to another
  section.
• Write the Summary last, but not at the last
  minute.
• Its the one thing everyone
  reads!

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Project Description Your objective is to write
and organize your proposal so that it is
readable, well-organized, grammatically correct,
and understandable. During the discussion of
your application during peer review, the other
reviewers will ask the primary reviewers
questions about your application, and they'll
also skim it during that time (and possibly
before the meeting as well). Most likely, they
will read only your summary (abstract),
significance, and specific aims. But all
reviewers are important because each reviewer
gets one vote.
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Project Description Label all materials clearly.
Make it easy for reviewers to find
information. Keep it short and simple. Start with
basic ideas and move progressively to more
complex ones. This narrative must contain
specifics including details of experiments and/or
applications, both to show that planning has been
done and to help reviewers understand why the
particular application you propose is better than
other ideas. Careful writing should allow you to
describe, in the limited space available, enough
about your project to give the reviewers a clear
idea of exactly what you plan to do and why your
plan is a good one. Guide reviewers with
graphics. A picture is worth a thousand words,
probably more. Graphics can help reviewers grasp
a lot of information quickly and easily, and they
break up the monotony of hundreds of pages of
text each reviewer contends with. Edit and
proof. Your presentation can also make or break
your application. Though reviewers assess
science, they are also influenced by the writing
and appearance of your application. If there are
lots of typos and internal inconsistencies in the
document, your score can suffer.
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Budgets
The budget request should be realistic and
reflect the goals of the project. Budget
information should be complete and unambiguous
Prepare your budget after you have written your
research plan and have a good idea of what the
costs of your project will be. As a rule of thumb
for calculating your costs, figure salaries will
be 60 to 80 percent of the total request. As a
new investigator, you should request a relatively
modest budget, but dont make your budget so low
that you cannot do the work proposed if you are
funded.
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Evaluation and Dissemination Information

• A good evaluation plan appropriate to the scale
  of the project will determine how effectively
  the project has achieved its goals.
• Discuss how you plan to collect and analyze data
  on the projects impact.
• Explain in detail how you will disseminate
  information on the success and content of your
  project to other scientists.
• Consider the value that an outside evaluator may
  add to your project.

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Remember the Project Summary!

• It should be written clearly and concisely.
• It should outline the problem, the objectives
  and the expected outcomes and project
  activities.
• NSF Project directors tend to use the summary to
  choose reviewers for the proposal.

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Other Considerations
Before completing your proposal Make sure to
have a complete and accurate reference list to
support your work leave nothing out (a
reviewer might be a person whose work you
neglected to mention) Check your timeline.
Sometimes, a checklist is provided in the Program
Announcement. Use it to ensure that all needed
information, signatures, and/or administrative
details are included. Look again at the goals
and objectives and at your written plans and
procedures for achieving the goals. Check to see
that the goals are well-developed and realistic
and that your plans are innovative and
appropriate.
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Other Considerations (cont)
Have proposal reviewed by at least two objective
parties before submitting to agency, preferably
reviewers who have appeared on an NSF review
panels (advisors?), Consider their comments and
revise accordingly. Proof carefully. Have
proposal reviewed by tech writer mistakes,
even little ones, can count against you If time
permits, get on a panel review and/or Review NSF
proposals you get to see the process in
action! Finally, have the Office of Sponsored
Research submit your proposal.
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• If The Grant is Awarded
• Make the best possible use of the funds awarded.
  
• Disseminate your results through
  publications/presentations.
• Reference NSF as well as the sponsoring
  Division/Program in all presentations and
  publications.
• If Your Proposal is Not Funded
• Consider the reviews of the panel and the
  comments from NSF staff objectively.
• Consult the NSF staff. A revised proposal may or
  may not permit you respond to the previous
  critique. Follow the guidelines.
• Many awards made in the programs have been for
  proposals that were revised thoughtfully and
  resubmitted after having been declined
  initially. So, BE PERSISTENT!

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Proposal Development Guides
web site http//www.jmu.edu/sponsprog/writingtip
s.html Art of Writing Proposals Social Science
Research Council Basic Elements of Grant
Writing Corporation for Public
Broadcasting Proposal Writing Short CourseThe
Foundation Center The Toolkit Getting an NIH
R01 GrantAmerican Association for the
Advancement of Science
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Proposal Development Guides (cont)
NIAID How To Write A GrantNational Institute of
Allergy and Infectious Diseases Frequently Asked
Questions Format of Grant ApplicationsNational
Institutes of Health website on NIH grant
applicationsNSF Proposal Writing GuideNational
Science Foundation EPA Grant-Writing
TutorialEnvironmental Protection Agency and
Purdue University
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Good Luck!