Developing Winning proposals and beyond ∞

1. Developing Winning proposals and beyond∞

2. Developing a fundable concept involves innovative, engaged and knowledgeable inquisitors as faculty. A support team in the Office of Sponsored Programs (OSP) with resources, experience and a critical eye. Institutional leadership that recognizes the unique opportunity an institution of higher education has to offer the body of knowledge and the future through student research.

3. Proposal Development & Pre-Award Research Development is defined by the National Organization of Research Development Professionals (NORDP) as “a set of strategic, proactive, catalytic, and capacity-building activities designed to facilitate individual faculty members, teams of researchers, and central research administrations in attracting extramural research funding, creating relationships, and developing and implementing strategies that increase institutional competitiveness.”

4. Research or Proposal Development It’s the new Pre-Pre-Award! Get to know faculty and their interests-really know their ideas and get the “key words” right Keep up to date on funding opportunities and trends Learn about the field and look for collaborators Help develop institutional research agenda

5. Core questions faculty need to ask themselves before taking on the work of drafting a proposal: Are you willing to dedicate your time to this effort...it is a lot of work and time! Are you passionate about the idea? Will anyone else be? Is there a need to answer your question? Who will benefit? Has someone done work on this idea before? Did they or you develop data supporting the importance of your idea? Why is your idea or approach different and innovative? What do you want to accomplish?

6. So, You’ve Decided to take the Leap! With the right funding source locator, the OSP can help faculty set up their own profile and receive email alerts using the key words and parameters that fit their research interests. RSS Feeds, newsletters from topic specific sponsors, professional organizations and other resources are available to find the right sponsor and keep you aware of trends. We find a sponsor! Now we have to be sure there is a meeting of the minds between the sponsor (what is it that they seek to fund) and the faculty member (what is it you seek to learn or do). Review some of their previously funded awards. The match is made and the work begins.

7. Here Comes Pre-Award The OSP will delve into sponsor Requests for Proposals (RFP), Program Announcements (PA), Broad Agency Announcements (BAA), or what ever format provided by the sponsor providing guidelines for proposals. OSP will remove any sections not relevant to faculty and highlight emphasized language, scoring criteria and the required elements of a complete proposal. ORGANIZATION is critical. The structure of your proposal needs to be built according to the sponsor.

8. A tried and true structure that can be modified to fit almost any sponsor: Problem Statement Purpose Research Methods Qualifications Evaluation Plan Budget Starting with an outline and keeping in close contact with the OSP, the vision of your research or sponsored activity will start to take form.

9. At this stage, OSP may encourage you to contact the Program Officer (PO)or contact them with you, if you wish. They are a gauge if you are on the right track and can answer any questions that you may have. One caveat is that PO’s don’t like to answer questions addressed in their announcements. OSP will make efforts to enlist faculty who have had success either in your field, with your sponsor or in general with winning external funding. We will elicit their assistance, hopefully with some sort of enticement other than collegiality, to be mentors or anonymous readers.

10. The research or program is the most important component of a proposal. The ability to communicate it in a clear and concise manner that will engage a peer reviewer or the sponsor’s agent is where many great ideas are lost. Asking academically trained research professionals to communicate their concept in layman's terms, using a little “jargon” as possible, and to keep the interest of the reviewer in the age of texting, “aps”, and Ipads is difficult but VERY important. I always try to have the proposal author imagine themselves a peer reviewer. They have been locked in a hotel room reading proposals with given criteria for evaluating them. Imagine now that your proposal is the 49th of 50 that the reviewer will read in that day. The reviewer’s interest can be lost at the Abstract.

11. DRAFTS ARE THE BUILDING BLOCKS TO A STRONG PROPOSAL – VERSION CONTROL IS SIMILAR TO QUALITY CONTROL OF THE CEMENT USED TO MAKE THE BLOCKS!!! OSP is here to help evaluate your proposal. We will look for required elements of the RFP and ask if they are not included. The preferred method is to work backwards to the Abstract. A logic model or assistance from a program evaluator can be extremely useful. Much like an IRB protocol submission, these tools and people will ask the tough questions that will strengthen your proposal. If they asked it, chances are the reviewer will have that question too.

12. OSP is not a subject expert but a research administration expert. We will ask questions some of which we will not have the answer. Turning to subject experts and allowing them to evaluate your research design and methods will provide you with a level of confidence that you are adequately testing your hypothesis. A Logic Model or visual representation of your research will demonstrate any gaps that may be in the research design or the flow to the ultimate outcome. It should appear like this... outcome rather than possible outcome

13. Proposal One Active Voice Your work “will” produce results. Your work should not “hope” to produce results. Even if the results are not the ones anticipated, they are results. OSP, in all of its reviews will be keeping this in mind and working with faculty to ensure the continuity of the language of the proposal.

14. Not just the NSF! Broader Impacts Intellectual Merit

15. The Budget The liaison portion of the responsibilities of a OSP are key to gaining correct, current and prospective numbers to include in a proposed budget. Offices like payroll and events are necessary resources. Asking questions about the proposal will guide budget development. Did you consider local mileage, have you thought of program income for sustainability, did you include the costs of creating a portal or website to share your work? These are questions among many that OSP should ask to help build a budget that captures all costs. Remember your reviewer!

17. Budget Compliance – Sponsor & Institutional Adhering to the rules of the Sponsor Adhering to the rules of the Institution Not adhering to either can eliminate your proposal!

18. TIME There is simply never enough! Structuring a OSP to be responsive to faculty, prospective in seeking out what resources are available can eliminate time sinkholes. Institutional Resources Community Resources National Resources

19. TIME In order for everyone involved in the development and submission of a proposal to add their expertise, the faculty must budget their time judiciously. Given time, we all have something to offer! Chairs, Deans and up the chain do not enjoy repeated last minute requests for approval.

20. Time for OSP to ensure all of the compliance areas have been addressed in the Pre-Award stage is just as important as it is in the Post-Award stage. If you get awarded but violated regulations, the Federal government does not accept responsibility for errors in awarded proposals. That rests with the Principal Investigator, OSP and the Institution. TIME A plea to faculty seeking external funding. Please give yourself adequate time to perform a final review of the proposal that you’ve invested so much to develop. The peace of mind gained by finding one last typo or a table that didn’t convert into PDF accurately is priceless.

21. Submitting a complete proposal often requires faculty input. Even if a Federal package has been downloaded, invariably questions will arise that should be answered by the faculty member. Actually seeing the submit button pushed and receiving verification from the sponsoring agency that your proposal has arrived is the culmination of a lot of work and to be celebrated.

22. The reality of sponsored programs is that it is a very competitive environment. The likelihood of being funded on your first time out can be discouraging. Having said that, you’ve written a proposal and OSP will do all that it can to get the reviewer comments. Shy of the actual award, these are incredibly valuable tools providing you a destination rather than an end point. If you integrate the comments, suggestions, answer the questions and clarify specified areas, you may now have the fundable proposal.

23. Other ways that a OSP can assist:Seek Congressional letters of support when appropriateSeek Gubernatorial letters of support and/or other signs of the state’s support of your workGuide new faculty to continue the research that helped to mint their PhD, and consider the work that goes into teaching, publishing and research as interrelated, not separate. Publication adds to your fundability-keep writingSeek opportunities to collaborate outside the University, State and Country

24. Other ways that you can improve your chances of winning: Remember to combine your efforts in research, publishing and teaching Find mentors Attend workshops and be active in professional organizations Collaborate Become a reviewer Become a mentor Publish Enjoy research and share it with your students

25. A Well Prepared OSP Should:

26. You should expect your OSP to have a sense of your research or Sponsored program interests. Faculty surveys are nice but meeting you and hearing from you is the best means to understanding. You should expect that OSP will keep a watchful eye for articles on activities similar to yours and send them to you. You should expect that OSP is reviewing potential funding opportunities that might meet your needs and sending them to you if they are a match. You should expect that your OSP is listening to other faculty who might be working with the same methods but for different outcomes... inter-disciplinary potential?

27. OSP should be maintaining professional affiliations with organizations that aid in flowing information from Sponsorto Universities. These can include the International Society of Research Administrators (SRA), the National Council of University Research Administrators (NCURA), the Government, University, Industry, Research Roundtable (GUIRR) and others. These organizations provide interpretations directly from Federal and private sponsors about what they seek to get from the “Broader Impacts” or “Specific Aims” portion of their proposal package. What is the best mechanism to sub-award a portion of the Scope of Work? What are allowable costs to a specific Sponsor? Etc.

28. Developing a listing of annual funding opportunities with the required dates of submission can be one of the best tools a OSP can provide when assisting faculty in budgeting their time.Many Federal and private sponsors offer funding opportunities annually.Having a tool like the Foundation Directory, where many foundations do not have due dates or they are set with the board meetings is very useful for proposal development planning.