Notes on Writing and Getting Grants Louis Gross Departments of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology and Mathematics University of Tennessee, Knoxville gross@tiem.utk.edu Copyright 1997 University of Tennessee Modified January 2002 Remarks on specific questions posed by graduate students (the below emphasizes research grants - grants for travel, equipment and education all have somewhat different requirements from these) 1. What is the process from beginning to end? How long does this process take? (i) Have an idea that is supportable (ii) Find an appropriate agency and read the rfp (Request For Proposals) (iii) Write the proposal and submit it (iv) Wait (anywhere from 2 months to 2 years or longer) (v) If accepted, typically a revised budget and revised scope of work is needed (e.g. they cut the budget) - send this in and wait another couple of months (vi) If denied, read the reviews, decide if resubmission might be successful and if so, revise based upon the reviewers comments and resubmit. Otherwise submit to a different agency, or choose a different idea to submit, and go back to (iii) The above can take 6 months to 2 years for first proposal - NSF typically takes 6 to 9 months after submission to decide on a proposal 2. How do you decide which agencies to submit the proposal to? Where to submit depends on the idea, what the agency is currently funding, and how much funding you need. Aside from NSF and some competitive grants programs in other agencies, much Federal R&D funding is project driven or task-specific. You have to be doing something directly related to their project, or have an approach that can be made useful for their project, in order to be supported. 3. What language do you use to write the proposal? i.e., highly technical and very detailed or down-to-earth This depends on the agency - for NSF it is expected that writing will be technical, but understandable to a generally educated scientist who has some training in the general field you are submitting to. In my experience, flowery writing styles don't fare too well at NSF. Keep the writing concise, clearly elucidate why the problem you are proposing is important, set out the goals, make it clear that you are familiar with the background materials needed to carry out the work, put the proposed work in a context of previous work by yourself and others, explain why you are the person capable of carrying it out, and explain each budget item carefully in the budget justification section. If the proposal is to a Foundation that supports general research (e.g. Ford Foundation, Kellogg Foundation, etc.), it is likely that you will have to write the proposal in a much less technical manner. This also applies to proposals for internal submission at many institutions, since the reviewers will typically be chosen from a broad spectrum of faculty rather than ones in your particular field. 4. Do you include data, statistics, tables, mathematical formulas, and such to support your proposal? You certainly include whatever is necessary to make it clear to reviewers that you know the area, have a new idea that is worth pursuing, and have the background to do the work. This means you should include anything directly pertinent to the proposed work, but don't put things in just for filler - whatever figures or data you include should be directly related to the proposed work. 5. Are there certain "key phrases" for which agencies look? Most definitely - look at the language in the rfp. It will tell you what some of the keywords in your proposal should be. The proposal must be responsive to the rfp or it will not be funded. 6. How long does it take to write a proposal? (i.e, how many rough drafts?) This is very individual, as is all writing. Just don't expect to dash off a proposal the night before it is due and have it be successful. Having colleagues, friends, students, etc. look over the proposal before submission will help you determine places where you thought it was clear, but others were confused. Make sure you leave time for this type of feedback. 7. How much "paper work" is involved? Proposals to Federal agencies require lots of forms, many of which are now available on-line or can be submitted electronically. Many of these (e.g. drug policy, accounting policy, etc.) will be completed by the administrators at your institution. It is really your responsibility however to complete all the forms you can, be sure the proposal is correctly assembled, and is sent off by the appropriate date. In my experience, the more of the work you do, the faster and more efficient will be the submittal process. If you do most of the work yourself, the administrative staff will be much more likely to rush to help you when you really need it, than if you were constantly needing their assistance. 8. What criteria is used to evaluate the proposal? This is agency specific and will be stated in the rfp - read it and be sure you are writing the proposal to meet the review criteria. 9. If the proposal is granted, what happens next? What's the process for getting the "check"? What accountability, i.e, receipts, documentation, etc., is involved? This depends on the type of award you get. Some multi-year awards grant your institution the full amount up front - others require a yearly appraisal of progress. Other arrangements typical of some agencies are to require formal invoices to be sent every quarter. Typically, the Principal Investigator (P.I.) doesn't have to deal with any of this. BUT, it is your responsibility to be sure the funds are spent in the manner appropriate to do what the proposal included, that they are not misspent, and that any agency guidelines for budgeting are met. In particular, you must be sure that expenditures do not vary greatly from budgeted line items without explicit written permission from the agency. Of course, you also have to do the work you proposed to carry out! 10. If the proposal is rejected, what happens then? Is there an appeals process? Can you resubmit? Most agencies do have an appeal process, but it is very rare for an individual investigator to try to use it. Much more likely is resubmission, unless the reviewers were so negative that the whole idea is not really worth pursuing at that agency any more. There is no rule at most agencies against resubmission of a proposal that hasn't been funded, but usually this means rewriting it based upon reviewers comments (this is still no guarantee of success!) Tips on Writing and getting Grants 1. Know your audience - what the agency is requesting, what the review procedures will be, who will be the reviewers - Read the rfp carefully 2. Have an idea that is appropriate, carefully state the goals of the proposed work somewhere near the start of the proposal 3. Emphasize why you are the appropriate person to do the work 4. If appropriate, discuss the proposal with the agency's program manager before submitting it - be certain what you are proposing fits the guidelines for support. Ask if the proposal will be reviewed by more than one group (standard in some NSF programs) 5. Find out as much as you can about the review procedures - volunteer to review for the program if you have not reviewed for the agency to see what the procedures are 6. Feel free in the cover letter to suggest reviewers with whom you do not have a conflict of interest 7. Be flexible - if one of your ideas is not getting funding support, try something else 8. Don't get discouraged - keep trying - try different agencies, different ideas 9. Look at the list of successful previous proposals, read their abstracts, and modify your proposal accordingly to be sure it is in a similar vein 10. Have someone who has been successful getting grants from the agency look over your proposal before sending it in. 11. If you are not familiar with budgeting, have someone who is help you with the budget 12. Don't overcommit yourself. All grants will require some administrative work on your part - be sure the grant includes sufficient support (or you get agreement that, if funded, your institution will provide the support) to be able to actually do the work you propose. 13. Remember, most math faculty at most research universities never get any appreciable external grant support, while it is expected that most faculty in other areas of science and engineering will obtain support. So, if you are having difficulty getting support, try collaborating with someone who has been successful. Being a co-P.I. is fine to start and will give you a chance to learn without all the headaches of being a lead P.I. 14. If you ever get to the stage where you are highly successful, realize that running a research group is similar to running a small (or not so small) business. You will have to deal with personnel issues (hiring, reviews, firing), budgetary issues, and space and supplies. You also will have an obligation to continue to find support for the full-time staff you have, which means a constant search for more funding. Do not take on this level of obligation unless you are really committed to handling all of this, most of which a typical faculty member has no interest or training in dealing with. Producing a Short Research Proposal 1. Include the main scientific objective (hypothesis you wish to investigate) at the very beginning. 2. Include a few paragraphs of background explaining why the investigation you propose is important. 3. In a Methods section clearly state what you intend to do, when, and how. 4. Conclude with what some appropriate next steps would be. 5. Include references quoted in the proposal using one of the appropriate scientific styles (e.g., from Ecology or Science). 6. Include a brief budget with each expenditure listed Example: Porridge and American Black Bear Habitat Selection Objective: I propose to investigate the hypothesis that the temporal patterns of habitat use through lifetime by black bears (Ursus americanus) are affected by porridge availability. Background: Habitat selection and use by black bears is known to vary over lifespan, with young bears greatly attracted to small furniture and freshly-prepared porridge. Older, more habituated bears have more restricted (or refined) tastes, particularly with regard to porridge temperature, being intolerant of temperature extremes. There are definite gender differences in older bears as well, though little is known about gender differences in habitat selection by younger bears. Methods: I propose an spatio-temporal experimental design which features 4 levels of porridge availability (none, small bowl, medium bowl, large bowl) laid out in a 500 m by 500 m grid. I will use a randomized block design for the level of porridge and an additional sequential allocation of different porridge levels at different grid locations. The sequential allocation will include a randomized sequence of different levels, a constant fixed level of porridge, and a sequence of none to low to medium to high, repeated. As response variables, I propose utilizing video cameras to be spatially distributed across the 500 m by 500 m grid to determine time spent at the location by different bears. A standard meter stick will be placed by the porridge location to ascertain bear size. To determine sex, prior to the experiment, I and a field assistant will tag all bears in the area with an M or F on their forehead. We will use non-permanent markers. The experiment will be carried out over a two week time period in early July when bears are thought to be most affected by porridge (Pelton, 2002). We will analyze the data from the video tapes, carry out an analysis using spatial statistics (Manley, 1995), and compose a manuscript that we intend to submit to the journal Bear Nature. Extensions: I will not be controlling for temperature in this experiment nor will I be able to ascertain age effects except as age is correlated with size. Given the results of the proposed experiments though, I expect to be able to carry out additional studies to investigate these complications in the future. References: Manley, B. 1995. Spatial statistics for idiots. Cambridge University Press. Pelton, M. 2002. Seasonal use of porridge by bears. Ecology 2005:23-45. Budget: Porridge supplies $200 Bowls 100 Field assistant (40 hours @$6 perhour) 240 Video camera rentals including weather-proof stands(10 cameras @ $50) 500 Travel costs (500 km @$.20/km) 100 Total requested budget: $1140 Some on-line Guides are available at: http://www.unc.edu/courses/jomc050/resguid.html http://www.comp.glam.ac.uk/pages/staff/ajcblyth/Research/Proposal-Write.html