Transcript Document

Lesley A. Brown
Director of Proposal Development
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Sponsors want to solve problems.
Sponsors want to make life better for groups
and communities.
Sponsors want to add to knowledge.
Your job is to match your project and
capabilities to what the sponsor wants to
achieve.
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Unsolicited proposals: open proposal
submission windows
Solicited proposals: agency requests
proposals on a specific topic
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Assess your field
Find out what’s being funded
Agency databases
Evaluate your position within the field
Evaluate sponsor’s needs
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Funding Opportunity Announcements
Program Announcement
Request for Proposals
Notice of Funds Available
Solicitation
Request for applications
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Grants.gov.
Agency and foundation websites.
Sign up for automatic emails from COS.
Susan Robinson in the Office of Proposal
Development can do a custom funding search
for you.
Susan’s contact info: [email protected] or
7-1869.
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Due date
Submission method
Page limits
Formatting instructions
Supporting documents
Budget restrictions
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What is the sponsor trying to achieve?
Who has the capacity to meet the sponsor’s
needs?
◦ People, institutions
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What resources are required?
What will it take to meet the review criteria?
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Determine what resources and support you
have
Determine what resources and support you
might need
Discuss your ideas with colleagues, mentors
and program officers
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What do you want to do?
How will you accomplish want you want to
do?
How much time will you need to do it?
How much money will it cost?
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Writing conventions are the generally
accepted standards for written English.
Examples include spelling, punctuation, verb
tense, grammar, capitalization, sentence
structure.
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Grant proposals have their own set of writing
conventions.
Most of these conventions are intended to
make the reviewer’s job easier.
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Reviewers are busy people who have
volunteered for a difficult task.
They will be asked to read many proposals.
It’s your job to write in a way that makes it
easy for the reviewer to find and remember
your most important ideas.
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Use short, direct sentences.
Use action verbs.
Avoid jargon.
Write to the review criteria.
Use section headings to help reviewers find
important ideas.
Use bolding and italics to emphasize
important ideas.
Use white space to break up text.
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Explain how you will contribute to
knowledge in your field
Provide up-to-date, comprehensive
bibliography/references
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Find out how your proposal will be reviewed
Most foundation proposals are read by the
board of directors
Most federal agencies use peer review
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Knowing who will review your proposal helps
you know how to write it
If you are writing for non-experts, you will
need to carefully explain all key concepts,
avoid jargon and define all discipline-specific
terminology
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Letter of Inquiry
Concept Papers (White Papers, Pre-Proposals)
Full Proposals
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Most foundations want you to begin with a
one- to two-page letter of inquiry
A letter of inquiry should cover the following
points:
◦ What you want to do
◦ Why the funding agency would be interested in your
proposal
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◦ Why the project is needed
◦ Who you are
◦ How you plan to reach your goal(s) and how long it
will take you to do so
◦ How much money is required for the entire project
and how much you are requesting from the agency
or foundation
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Purpose statement: a simple statement of the
purpose of your project that conveys the
essence of your idea in a few sentences
Preliminary outline (addresses 6 questions):
◦ What is the problem?
◦ Why is the project significant? (What difference will
it make?)
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Preliminary outline (addresses 6 questions)
◦ What exactly are you going to do to solve the
problem (methods and objectives)?
◦ Who are the key personnel?
◦ Why should your organization, rather than someone
else, do the project?
◦ What resources do you need (cost estimate)?
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The form of a full proposal will be dictated
by the funding agency, but most will
include the following sections:
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Abstract or executive summary
Statement of need/problem statement
Significance of the proposed work
Background of the problem and your work in
the area
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Feasibility of proposed research
Program objectives
Methodology
Budget
Key personnel/institutional information
Evaluation/dissemination plan
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Make a good first impression
Don’t use the first two paragraphs of
your narrative as the abstract
Write the abstract last
Make sure it presents a “snapshot” of
your proposal
If there are specific instructions about
what to put in the abstract, be sure to
follow them
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Tell the reviewers why the project is
necessary
Clearly explain the needs to be met, the
problem to be solved or what you want to
accomplish
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Clearly establish the significance, relevance,
timeliness, generalizability and benefits of
the project
Explain the importance of your work to your
discipline and to fields outside your discipline
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Literature review
This section may also describe the
preliminary data you have gathered
If you do not have preliminary data, some
agencies ask you to address your
background to establish your experience
and competence to carry out the work
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Show that you have valid, testable hypotheses
Discuss the qualifications of the investigators
Discuss available resources to carry out the
project
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Show that your methodology is feasible,
and appropriate
The project method outlines the tasks that
will be accomplished
A methodology is not just a list of research
tasks, but an argument for why these tasks
add up to the best approach to the
problem or issue
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Be aware of and discuss any limitations in
your methodology
Explain what difficulties you anticipate and
suggest alternate approaches you might use
Be specific about the activities you plan to
undertake to collect information and the
techniques you will use to analyze your data
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The budget is the financial description of
the project
Shows how funds will be spent
Budget lines must be justified in relation to
the project objectives
An unrealistic budget (either too high or
too low) will hurt your chances of getting
funded
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Personnel and institutional information
should be relevant to the goals of the
funding program and should:
◦ Establish your qualifications and credibility and
show that you are able to do the work
◦ Demonstrate that you have the support of your
institution
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Measures extent to which objectives have
been met
Formative (during the project)
Summative (after the project)
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A dissemination plan tells how the results
will be reported
Conferences, papers, websites
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Dr. Karen Kelsky’s website and blog have very
useful information for new faculty.
The Foolproof Research Proposal Template
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Yes! Careless editing can sink an otherwise
good proposal
You don’t want to leave the reviewers with
the impression that you do careless work
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Leave time carefully proofread and edit your
proposal
Use formatting to make your proposal easy
for reviewers to read
Use headings, bolding, underlining to
emphasize important points and to
distinguish the different sections of the
proposal
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Joy McAuley in OPD can help you edit and
format your proposal
Joy’s contact information:
[email protected] or 7-1878
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Write to the evaluation criteria
Be sure to address any special requirements
Convey a sense of enthusiasm for your work
Persuade the agency that the work needs to
be done and that you are the one to do it
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The writer proposed too much
The writing was poor
The proposal had insufficient information,
details or preliminary data
The significance of the problem was not
clearly stated
The research tasks were not shown to be
feasible
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The writer didn’t follow directions
The proposal did not present an original
idea
The rationale was weak
The writing was vague—the outcomes
were uncertain
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The investigator didn’t have relevant
experience
The proposal was unfocused
The literature and background reviews
were uncritical or not comprehensive
No pilot studies or preliminary data were
presented
The budget was unrealistic
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Conquer your fear of rejection
Revise and resubmit—4 in 5 proposals
are turned down for things that can be
fixed
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Your chances of success increase with each
revision and resubmission
◦ At the NIH, 19% of first-time submissions are
funded
◦ 29% of second-time submissions are funded
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Information for this presentation came
from:
Bob Lucas—The Institute for Scholarly
Productivity
Liane Reif-Lehrer —Tech-Write
Consultants
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“The Art of Writing Proposals” ―The
Social Science Research Council
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“The Art of Grantsmanship” by Jacob Kraicer.
“Guide for Proposal Writing” (NSF 98-91)—
National Science Foundation
The Psychologist’s Companion by Robert J.
Sternberg.
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“Proposal Writing Short Course” The
Foundation Center—
Office of Proposal Development Online
Resources:
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