How to Submit a Proposal
Timeline and Tips

Identify Funding Opps. // Timeline & Checklist // Post Award // Guides for Writing Proposals

Identify Funding Opportunities

Make it a routine...

• Develop a list of funding prospects and stay current; it is as important as keeping abreast of academic literature in your field:
  • familiarize yourself with grants and fellowship databases and sign up for search alerts... know the funding climate and opportunities in your field.
  • use search engines to explore widely. Put every possible keyword into your search profiles
  • colleagues and networks can tell you about sponsors, fellowships, and professional society awards and prizes; add them to your list to track
    • Social Sciences and Humanities: browse past WCAS awards and fellowships

 

• Judge a funding opportunity by its "RFP" (Miner and Assoc., 2006):
  • relevance... Do we want to do what the sponsor funds?
  • feasibility... Can we actually do the proposal and the project?
  • probability... Will we be competitive to get the grant?

 

• Read grant guidelines for:

• eligibility (PIs and institution) and proposal types allowed
• deadlines, formats, and submitting procedures
• typical award amounts, allowable costs, cost-sharing requirements
• technical aspects and "hot button" priorities of the sponsor
• review criteria and who reviews the proposal

 

Draft a Research Plan

Start months ahead... who, what, where, how, and when??

• Topic, research question, and methodology

• Start date and project period

• Budget: scope and essential items

• Personnel: Co-investigators, subcontractors and others

• Funding Timeline: researching, writing and submitting proposal(s)

Write and submit the proposal

Avoid last minute SNAFUS...

• Download and prepare applications. See Useful Guides for Writing and Submitting Proposals below. See also OSR Proposal Procedures.

• Ask colleagues and mentors to review and comment on your project description

• Contact research administrators:

• Mike Green at OSR to signup for eRA Commons, Fastlane or a Grants.gov Depot site
• your OSR Grant and Contract Officer (GCO)
• WCAS Grant Coordinator
• Program Officer at the sponsor organization
• contact co-P and consultants

 

• In addition, contact these research administrators, for:

• foundation grants: Office of Foundation Relations
• corporate grants: Office of Corporate Relations
• training grants: Training Grant Coordinator's Office
• matching funds/cost sharing: your Department Chair and Assoc. Dean Craig Bina
• leaves of absence: your Department Chair and Assoc. Dean Steven Bates
• research faculty appointments: your Department Chair and Assoc. Dean Marv Lofquist

 

• Leave extra preparation time for:

• subcontracts, consultants, and collaborative research
• IRB or ACUC : human subjects or animal research
• cost sharing and other special arrangements
• new Grants.gov (see Grants.gov information at OSR)

 

• Submit the proposal to OSR for review 5 days before grant deadline:
  • first get signatures on your OSR-1 form from Chair and Dean and Northwestern collaborators (and their chairs and deans)
• on NSF and NIH grants, get OSR-100 form from all NU key personnel

 

• Your GCO at OSR will review the application and email you to tell you of any necessary corrections and additional information before final NU signing and then the proposal is submitted to the sponsor by OSR.

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If you are successful and get the award

Celebrate!

• Inform your Department Chair and the WCAS Grant Coordinator.

• Work with your Department and the GCO OSR to set up accounts.
• Set up subcontracts with OSR-6 form.
• For pre-spending on the award, consult with your GCO at OSR, and file the OSR-2 form. (For pre-spending you must supply an alternate guarantee account, usually your discretionary account, and not another research account).
• Spend the funds wisely and within the guidelines.
• Do effort reports required of all research investigators with sponsored funding.
• File interim and final reports to sponsor, as required in guidelines.
• To request a no-cost extension, consult with your GCO at OSR, and file OSR-2 form.

If you are unsuccessful and get turned down

Resubmit!

• It happens to everyone! Persistence and experience do pay off.
• Inform the WCAS Grant Coordinator and OSR so records can be updated

• Your chances improve when you resubmit. (NSF funds 14% of new PI's and 26% of prior PI's.)

• Read the review comments on your proposal and address them in your new research plan and application.

• Talk with the Sponsor's program officer about ways to improve your chances for funding in the next round.
• Consider alternate funding strategies to start your research, e.g. look for start up funding, such as smaller sized and exploratory funding (R21, R03) or start now with internal funding (discretionary funds, a URGC grant, or involve undergraduates who can get undergraduate research grants).

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Useful Guides to help you Write and Submit Proposals

• OSR and Office of Research
  • Office of Research: Grant Writing Resources eight good ones, see especially:
    • for formulating project and budgets: EPA's Tips on Writing a Grant Proposal
    • for biomedical investigators: NIAID Grant Tutorials
• OSR: Grants.gov guide: how to submit to Grants.gov through OSR
• OSR: Proposal Preparation: guidelines, terminology, and grant writing tutorials

 

• NCI/National Cancer Institute

• Quick Guide for Grant Applications

 

• NIH / Grants.gov

• Getting Started at NIH: Useful Links
• Grant Writing Tips Sheets
• NIH Resources for New Investigators
• eRA: Electronic Submission of Grant Applications
• NIH Forms and Applications

 

• NSF / Fastlane
  • A Guide for Proposal Writing
  • Fastlane Help System

 

• SSRC/ Social Science Research Council
  • The Art Of Writing Proposals in the Social Sciences and Humanities

 

• The Foundation Center

• Proposal Writing Short Course

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