project 6 grant writing tips isi engl317
TRANSCRIPT
grant writing
©Karen L. Thompson● Department of English● University of Idaho
1. What funding agencies want your proposal to answer.
2. Preliminary work: why you need to do it before writing.
3. IRB Warning
4. Typical Pages and Sections of a Grant Proposal.
2
Funding Agencieswill need your grant proposal to answer these questions.
How much money do you want?
Why should we give it to you?
What will you do with it?
3
2
1
3
Grant WritingTIPS
The first and most important
thing to do is to read the
advice and instructions in the
Request for Proposals offered
by the funding agency.
The second most important
thing is to construct an
argument by making a case
for why you should receive
funding to do your research
or implement your project.
Next, do the preliminary work
necessary to show you do, in
fact, have good idea.
Your preliminary work will be part of the case you make. It is the evidence your idea is worth funding.
You won’t get funding unless you can make this case.
It is no good saying "give me the money and I will start thinking about how to test this hypothesis, answer this question, solve this problem, or meet this need.“
You need an idea.
It needs to be an idea that worth funding.
It needs to be an idea that you can do.
4
Preliminary Research is Necessary.
Conduct Preliminary Research
The most common reason
students earn low grades on
this project is not conducting
preliminary research or not
doing enough of it.
Use the preliminary research
handout to identify what
type of preliminary research
you need to conduct based
on your grant idea.
Getting a grant idea is just a start.
Conducting preliminary research
will help you determine how
feasible it is for you to propose
and will help you refine and focus
your idea.
5
Types of Preliminary Work
Not all of this work will be needed.
It depends on the focus of your research or project.
If your idea changes as you do the preliminary work, that’s fine.
• situate your idea.
If you are proposing to
conduct research to
advance your own
knowledge and abilities, you
won’t be situating your idea
within the context of others.
But, you will need to explain
why funding your research
project will be of benefit to
you. And the benefit must
be in terms of how the work
will prepare you for future
work in your field of study.
If you are proposing to
conduct field, bench, or
investigative research, you
need to situate your work
within the context of others.
Be realistic. You can situate
your work within the context
of other undergraduate
work.
If you are proposing a
creative or other hands-on
project, identify similar
projects. Finding a similar
model will help you address
any questions about
feasibility the funding
agency might have.
6
Types of Preliminary Work
Not all of this work will be needed.
It depends on the focus of your research or project.
If your idea changes as you do the preliminary work, that’s fine.
• identify subject matter experts
and/or stakeholders.
Take notes to help you
synthesize responses in
ways that will help you
situate your proposed work.
This work involves critically
thinking about those who
have an economic, political,
social, cultural, or other
interest in the research or
project focus of your
proposal.
Set up one or more
interviews and prepare for
these by writing down the
questions you want to ask.
7
Types of Preliminary Work
Not all of this work will be needed.
It depends on the focus of your research or project.
If your idea changes as you do the preliminary work, that’s fine.
• Find a framework.
What principles or theories
can you apply as a
framework to support
qualitative and/or
quantitative methods you
intend to propose such as
tests, experiences, field
studies, surveys etc.?
• Identify facilities.
Will you need access to a
lab and equipment to
conduct a test or
experiment? Find out who
has the authority to grant
permission for use of these
facilities.
Determine any costs you
will need to budget for in
order to use the facilities.
If you will be granted free
access, it still is necessary
to identify who is
contributing this access to
your project.
• Determine costs of
materials.
What materials will you need
to do the research or project?
8
Types of Preliminary Work
Not all of this work will be needed.
It depends on the focus of your research or project.
If your idea changes as you do the preliminary work, that’s fine.
• Identify a partnership
need and determine
feasibility of the
partnership..
What principles or theories
can you apply as a
framework to support
qualitative and/or
quantitative methods you
intend to propose such as
tests, experiences, field
studies, surveys etc.?
• Identify facilities.
Will you need access to a
lab and equipment to
conduct a test or
experiment? Find out who
has the authority to grant
permission for use of these
facilities.
Determine any costs you
will need to budget for in
order to use the facilities.
If you will be granted free
access, it still is necessary
to identify who is
contributing this access to
your project.
9
If you are proposing to use humans or animals in your research:
WARNING
By law, you must obtain
approval from an
Institutional Review Board.
The IRB is responsible to formulate
and implement procedures to assure
compliance with federal, state and
institutional regulations for the
safeguarding of the welfare and well-
being (physical, mental, social, legal,
etc.) of human and animal subjects
involved in research projects.
10
For this project, you will not need approval from an IRB.
Warning continued
Most of the time, this is
just plain common sense.
You will, however, need to
demonstrate you that your proposal
would be in compliance with the
ethical guidelines for working with
humans and animal subjects in
research.
11
Example: Blind Taste Test
Warning continued
If you have concerns about
the ethics of your proposal,
just ask me for help.
You cannot just propose to conduct a
blind taste test to compare how
participants respond to the taste of
cheese made from raw milk vs.
cheese made from pasteurized milk.
First, raw milk is illegal in some states.
Second, it is subject to licensing and
regulation, so your proposed research
would need to not only inform
participants about what they are
tasting but also demonstrate that you
are using a licensed product.
writing your
grant proposal
©Karen L. Thompson● Department of English● University of Idaho
The following slides cover typical pages and sections of Grant Proposals.
Use the advice, but you may need to adapt it given the RFP you choose.
13
Title or Cover Page
Proposal Title
Write a title that conveys
what the proposal is
about.
Be specific.
Example:
Overwintering of Blue
Spruce, a Proposal to
Improve Survival Rates
Using a New Type of
Container.
Other Elements of a Title or Cover Page
Name of proposer and date of submission.
If the funding agency provides a cover page form, it
may contain many other items such as a checklist
about the proposal’s compliance in any number of
areas, and signatures etc.
Typical Pages and Sections of Grant Proposals
14
You may envision your proposal as
being completed by you alone or with
team members. If the latter, fill out the
team member section.
Fill out the section about your
Academic Advisor. You may use me for
the Project Advisor or another faculty
member.
You will not need to sign the form. You
will not need signatures from an
academic advisor or a project advisor.
Example of a Cover Sheet
15
Active or Passive Voice?
Writing a Grant Proposal
Active Voice: often reviewers prefer
active voice to see what you will be taking
responsibility for, and what you will be
doing with the assistance of others, so
using active voice helps you do that.
Example:
• I will gather and analyze data using a
statistical model devised by a graduate
student in our research group.
Active voice shows reviewers the balance
between what you are doing
independently and what you are doing
that relies on the work of others.
Passive voice: often preferred when
the emphasis should be on what will be
done and not who will do it.
Example:
• DNA will be collected and subjected
to both STR and AMpFLP analysis.
• A pre-survey will be conducted to
measure participants understanding
of the role wildfire plays in the
ecosystem.
16
Abstract
Abstracts are:
Short summaries that
condense the proposal
into it’s most significant
elements.
Length or Word Count.
The RFP will usually specify the length. Most are
between 150 and 250 words.
How you write the abstract for this project is governed
by the level of research you are proposing.
Typical Pages and Sections of Grant Proposals
17
Abstract for a mid to high-level research proposal.
What to include:
Context of your work,
specific problem,
hypothesis, central
research question, or
need that your work
addresses, the objectives
of this work, and a brief
overview of how you will
do it (i.e. methods).
Situate Your Work in the Context of Others
Your abstract needs to situate your work within the
context of current research being done by others in
order to show how you plan to advance, challenge, or
fill an existing gap in this research.
If you do not provide this context, reviewers will reject
your proposal because it will look like you have no idea
what you are doing.
Typical Pages and Sections of Grant Proposals
18
Abstract to advance your knowledge.
What to include:
Specific central research
question your work
addresses, the objectives
of this work, and a brief
overview of how you will
do it (i.e. methods).
Make this purpose clear.
Be specific and direct. Not making the purpose clear
may put you in the position of being viewed as
proposing a mid to high-level research project.
Reviewers will then expect you to situate your work
within the context of others. But, if you are proposing
to do work to advance your own knowledge, you do not
need to situate your work in that way.
Typical Pages and Sections of Grant Proposals
19
Executive Summary
Not always requested.
Most common to
engineering RFPs issued
by federal, state, or city
agencies.
Written to Decision-Makers.
Summarizes the proposal’s content. Generally, no
more than 10% of the proposal’s length.
The decision-makers will likely NOT read the entire
proposal.
They may not be subject-matter experts, or if they are,
their knowledge is not at the level required to fully
understand the methodology sections (typically those
sections would be handed-off to subject-matter
experts who would report back to the decision-maker).
Typical Pages and Sections of Grant Proposals
20
Executive Summary
Example
This example is from the
guidelines for writing
Executive Summaries for
proposals (and reports) to
the Idaho Department of
Transportation.
From IDT Guidelines.
An Executive Summary should be written as a
standalone document and be understandable to a
general audience.
An Executive Summary should provide a brief
overview of the study purpose and objectives of the
project and the proposed implementation
activities.
Keep this in mind and make sure that it is written
in a manner that is easy for a busy person to skim
and absorb. The Executive Summary should be no
longer than five pages. Use appropriate headings
to clearly indicate how the material is organized.
Typical Pages and Sections of Grant Proposals
21
Introduction
Get to the point. Some grant writers suggest opening your
proposal with a clear one or two sentence
statement of your objective. If more than one
objective, consider a bulleted list.
A clearly written statement of objectives help
reviewers orient themselves, and prepares them
to read the rest of your proposal more
effectively.
You can also start with the problem, identified
need, hypothesis, or central research question.
Sometimes reviewers will need a brief
background first.
Typical Pages and Sections of Grant Proposals
22
Writing Objectives
Understand the difference
between a long-term goal and
a specific objective.
Long-term goal: Ending reliance on fossil fuel.
Specific objective: Proposal to develop a new wind-
turbine prototype.
Typical Pages and Sections of Grant Proposals
Often RFPs will use the word “goal(s)” interchangeably with the word
“objective(s).”
If the RFP does not explicitly request both, you may assume that the
word “goal(s)” means specific objective(s).
23
Methodology, Technical Approach, or Plan of Work
HOW will you DO what you are proposing?
• For research projects:
• How will data be collected?
• How the data will be analyzed?
• What is the expected outcome?
• For other types of projects:
• How will the project be done? Phases? Steps?
• How will these result in an outcome that meets the
objectives?
Typical Pages and Sections of Grant Proposals
24
Line Item-Budget
What is it
going to cost?
Student grants are intended to provide support for
research or other projects with financial resources
that would otherwise be unavailable.
An integral part of your grant application is a line-item
budget, indicating how much money your project
needs and how the money will be spent.
The following slides provide guidelines to create a line-
item budget:
Typical Pages and Sections of Grant Proposals
25
Line Item-Budget
Capitol OutlayAny item which will retain its usefulness beyond the
grant period is considered capital equipment and will
be retained by the university once the project is
completed.
For equipment expenses, indicate who will assume
responsibility for the equipment once the project has
been completed.
Typical Pages and Sections of Grant Proposals
26
Line-Item Budget
Expendable
Supplies and
Materials
Be specific in itemizing the supply money
for all activities in the project.
Include both expendable laboratory
supplies and expendable large-quantity
office supplies (e.g. stationery, duplicating
supplies, typing/computing supplies, and
software).
Typical Pages and Sections of Grant Proposals
27
Line-Item Budget
Personnel
Services
• Identify any undergraduate assistants,
digital services, clerical help, etc. who will
receive salaries. Salary amounts must be
justified to reflect standard market value
for similar personnel/services.
Typical Pages and Sections of Grant Proposals
28
Line-Item Budget
Personnel
Services
continued
• Requests for funds to pay the individual student
applying for a grant are often not allowed unless
the student is proposing a fulltime-summer
research project.
• In that case, the student may use any grant
amount not dedicated to other research expenses
to compensate for the inability to work over the
summer in question. Salary amounts for grant
applicants always must be justified based on salary
that would be earned in a summer job.
Typical Pages and Sections of Grant Proposals
29
Line-Item Budget
Travel Costs
Be specific.
• Refer to the university travel guidelines to
understand appropriate expenditures for travel.
• NOTE: you probably won’t be able to fund that trip
to Paris you’ve always wanted to take using your
grant money ), but you will likely be able to travel
within the state --- if travel is warranted.
Typical Pages and Sections of Grant Proposals
30
Line-Item Budget
Human
Subject
Payments or
Gifts
• List monies intended to compensate human
subjects for participation in a research project.
• These gifts must be justified to reflect standard
market value for payments of this type for other
similar projects.
Typical Pages and Sections of Grant Proposals
31
Line-Item Budget
Indirect Costs • The university will take a cut of your grant to pay for
takes indirect costs of research, such as office and
laboratory space, heat and lights, library services,
administrative assistance/staff, and other costs.
• For the UI: calculate the amount needed by totaling
your budgetary line items and multiplying by 8%.
That number must then be added to the total
budgetary line items for the total amount
requested from the SGP.
• NOTE: the calculation for indirect costs may change
from year to year, so you will always need to check
what percentage the university will take from your
grant if you plan to actually submit one.
Typical Pages and Sections of Grant Proposals
32
Schedule or Timeline
Connect tasks to
dates of completion.
• This section must connect the tasks to dates
predicting completion and the tasks must follow
logically from the to the technical approach,
methodology, or plan of work section.
• If there is a task listed in the timeline or schedule
that is not discussed in the technical approach,
methodology, or plan of work section, reviewers will
be confused as to what exactly you are doing.
Typical Pages and Sections of Grant Proposals
33
Faculty Support
Not necessary for
this project, but you
do need if submitting
a real proposal.
• Provides an account of the interaction between you
and your faculty mentor to date, and your plan for
continued interaction.
• Describe how your mentor’s area of expertise will
support your work. Your proposal and the mentor’s
letter of recommendation should make clear the
balance between independence and assistance
you can expect from your mentor.
• NOTE: you do not need to find a faculty member to
support your proposal if only submitting a proposal
for the purposes of the 317 assignment only.
Typical Pages and Sections of Grant Proposals