How to Submit a Proposal:
Timeline and Tips

Identify Funding Opps. // Prepare and Submit Proposal  // Post Award // Grantsmanship

Identify Funding Opportunities

• Develop a list of funding prospects and stay current:
  • 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)

Steps to Prepare and Submit a Proposal

• Step 1a: Notify the WCAS Grant Coordinator or your department research administrator (RA). They will help with quidelines, forms, and budgets, and will contact OSR of the pending application and deadline.

• Step 1b: Create "designate" access on eProposal for the Grant Coordinator and/or department RA so that they can fill out your OSR forms.

• Step 2: Read the solicitation/announcement for details of eligibility, timing, budget, personnel and other review criteria.

• Step 3: Assemble research team of coinvestigators and collaborators. Identify their department and school or other NU research unit. If the person is not part of NU, will a subcontract be necessary?

• Step 4a: Draft the "science" of the proposal--the project description, bibliographic references, and summary. (See Useful Guides for Writing and Submitting Proposals below.) Ask colleagues and mentors to review and comment on your project description.

• Step 4b: Develop a budget and budget justification with the help of the Grant Coordinator or the department RA. See NSF excel budget template.

• Step 5: Have your RA or grant coordinator prepare an OSR-1 form, and if applicable, an OSR-100 form for each investigator. Signed OSR forms, budget and research summary should be submitted to OSR for review 5 days before grant deadline. 

 

• Step 6: The Grants and Contracts Officer (GCO) at OSR will review the application and contact you about any corrections needed before NU can sign. Finally, the proposal is submitted by OSR to the sponsor.

• Note: Leave extra preparation time for:

• subcontracts, consultants, and collaborative research
• IRB or ACUC : human subjects or animal research
• cost sharing and other special arrangements
  • NU policy on cost shraing/matching funds
  • WCAS policy on cost-sharing/matching funds

Useful contacts

• Arwa Hunsucker, the Director of Post-Award Research Administration
• Program Officer at the Sponsoring Organization
• your OSR Grant and Contract Officer (GCO)
• Michael Green at OSR for access to eRA Commons, Fastlane or a Grants.gov Depot site
• Office of Foundation Relations for foundation grants
• Office of Corporate Relations for corporate grants
• Training Grant Coordinator's Office  for training grants
• Department Chair, first, and then Assoc. Dean Craig Bina for matching funds/cost sharing
• Department Chair and Assoc. Dean Monica Russel y Rodriguez for leaves of absence:
• Department Chair and Assoc. Dean Marv Lofquist for research faculty appointments

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If you are successful and get the award

• Inform your Department Chair and Arwa Hunsucker, the Director of Post-Award Research Administration. Contact Arwa for all post-award procedures including:
  • subcontracts (OSR-6)
  • pre-spending (OSR-2)
  • no-cost extensions (OSR-2)
  • effort reporting (effort reports are required of all research investigators with sponsored funding)
• Spend the funds wisely and within the guidelines.
• File interim and final reports to sponsor, as required in guidelines.

If you are unsuccessful and get turned down: Resubmit!

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 Write and Submit Proposals

• OSR, Office of Research, and Office of Research Development
  • 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
• ORD: grantsmanship training

 

• 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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