CAREER: Planning and Writing a Competitive NSF CAREER Proposal

1. CAREER: Planning and Writing a Competitive NSF CAREER Proposal Kenneth J. Loh Associate Professor Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering Nano-Engineering and Smart Structures Technologies (NESST) Laboratory NSF/CMMI CAREER Proposal Writing Workshop University of Maryland, College Park April 8, 2014

2. Disclaimer There is no secret formula… I am just like you… I will do my best to share with you my experiences and the important steps along the way

3. Why the NSF CAREER Proposal? • It’s not that good of a deal… • In my time, $400K over five years or $80K per year (less than an unsolicited grant) • Takes considerable more effort to plan and write • Possibilities offered by an NSF CAREER award: • Steady stream of funding for five years • Supplement awards eligibility • Institutionalize new education and outreach programs • Other benefits: • More visibility • Tenure • Recognition • Investment for the future • PECASE eligibility

4. Multi-dimensional Approach TOP-DOWN 6. Start the conversation 7. Find the right program 8. Plan the big stuff 9. Go make some friends 10. Communicate your vision 11. Ask for help NSF CAREER Proposal RESEARCH EDUCATION 5. Why you? 4. What’s missing? 3. What’s your long-term goals? 2. What’s your passion? 1. Who are you? BOTTOM-UP

5. BOTTOM-UP APPROACH Questions that you should be asking yourself

6. Bottom-up: 1. My Personal Roadmap Birth :: Urbana, IL GK-12 :: Taipei, Taiwan • Chi-Chi Earthquake (Sept. 21, 1999) Johns Hopkins University :: Baltimore, MD B.S. in Civil Engineering (2004) • Urban damage detection using the synthetic aperture radar • Bridge monitoring using wireless MEMS sensors (UC Irvine REU) University of Michigan :: Ann Arbor, MI M.S. in Civil Engineering (2005) & M.S. in Materials Science & Engineering (2008) Ph.D. in Civil Engineering (2008) • Carbon nanotube-based thin films for structural health monitoring University of California :: Davis, CA Assistant Professor (2009 – 2014) Associate Professor (2014 – present) • Nano-Engineering & Smart Structures Technologies (NESST) Laboratory • Multifunctional materials and structural health monitoring research

7. Bottom-up: 1. My CAREER Roadmap • 2009, January: Assistant Professor at UC Davis • 2009, April: Decided to submit CAREER proposal (one of my first proposals) • 2009, July: Proposal submitted • 2009, December: Proposal rejected • Sadness followed… • 2010, January: Prepared and applied for NSF CAREER Proposal Workshop • 2010, February: Rewrote and resubmitted CAREER as unsolicited proposal • 2010, March: Attended workshop • 2010, June: Unsolicited proposal awarded • Hope followed… • 2011, July: Began proposal preparation and getting new preliminary results • 2012, July: New CAREER proposal submitted • 2012, December: Proposal awarded

8. Bottom-up: 2. My Passion • Ask yourself these questions: • What’s more important than sleep? • What makes you want to skip a meal? • What drives you to work those extra hours during the weekend? • What fundamental research areas or problems are you passionate about? Solve large-scale problems that mattered to the world Structural Engineering Materials Science Materials are everywhere, and it’s how we interact with the world Controls the inner-workings of the world Biochemistry

9. Bottom-up: 2. Discovering My Passion Citywide damage assessment via satellite imaging UG Foundation for future research and education Wireless sensors for structural health monitoring UG/MS Densely distributed passive wireless sensors MS/PHD Carbon nanotube thin films for spatial damage detection PHD

10. Bottom-up: 3. Long-term Goals • What are your long-term goals? • Think 10 to 15 years ahead • Consider research and education – are they integrated too? • Write strategic plan for your career (and then change it later) • NSF CAREER award should be a major enabling mechanism that will help you attain your research and educational goals

11. Bottom-up: 4. Knowledge Gaps • Identify scientific advancements needed or knowledge gaps • Necessary for transitioning from current state-of-art to your long-term goal • What is the need for research and students (education)? • Identify the progression of science or future trends/needs

12. Bottom-up: 5. Why You? • Present compelling argument why you are uniquely positioned for solving that particular scientific problem • Use space in your project description • Relate your past and current research to your proposed project

13. TOP-DOWN APPROACH Reach out, ask questions, and write a responsive, integrated, research and education proposal

14. Top-down: 6. Start the Conversation • Interact with NSF through different opportunities: • NSF CAREER proposal writing workshop (check!) • Physically go there and visit different program managers • E-mail (maybe call) program managers • Volunteer to serve on review panels • Interact with program managers at conferences

15. Top-down: 7. Find the Right Program • One of the most important qualities about any proposal is responsiveness • NSF CMMI website: http://www.nsf.gov/div/index.jsp?div=CMMI • Read synopsis of each program and determine fit • Can always meet, e-mail, or call program manager to learn more

16. Top-down: 8. Plan the Big Stuff • Formulate your research question • If question were to be answered, it should bring you closer to your long-term goal • Hypothesis-driven and/or scientific research questions • Include research, education, and outreach objectives • Identify main tasks or milestones that need to be achieved to address goal • Present CLEAR objective for each task • Organize tasks in LOGICAL fashion • Do these tasks FIT within your proposed timeline of five years and budget? • JUSTIFY that you are able to perform these tasks

17. Top-down: 8. Feasibility • Eliminate reviewers’ skepticism by providing adequate preliminary results • Position yourself as: “high-risk, high-reward…but feasible” • Clearly identify assumptions and what you are ignoring • Getting preliminary results for your proposal means starting very early

18. Top-down: 9. Go Make Some Friends • Identify collaborators that are absolutely necessary for project success • Setting up meetings or calls to get letters of collaboration (takes a lot of time) • Department Chair letter • Meet with Associate Dean(s) • Support from Dean • Resource planning/budget • Leverage existing resources • Campus programs/groups

19. Top-down: 10. Read Before You Write • Before you start to write anything, read the CAREER solicitation (14-532) • PI eligibility (three tries) • Tenure-track assistant professor • No Co-PIs allowed • Deadlines for certain divisions • Project title: “CAREER: …” • Page limits • Broader impact and intellectual merit • Project summary • Project timeline • Previously $400,000 budget (exact) • Department letter • Letter of support (1 page maximum) • Data management plan (see GPG) • Post-doctoral scholar mentoring plan • Cost-sharing is prohibited • Etc…

20. Top-down: 10. Who is Your Audience? Review Panel Multi-disciplinary reviewers Believers versus non-believers Your competition Over-committed versus un-committed Junior, mid-career, and senior faculty

21. Top-down: 10. Write for Your Audience • Proposal needs to speak out to three levels of reviewers: • Quick read • Is proposal aligned to agency? • Quickly flip through • Will not read carefully 1. High-level • Reading a magazine article • Knowledgeable, but not expert • Logical and comprehensive? • Does your plan make sense? 2. Overall content • Detailed checking • Colleagues and competitors • Technical experts • Detail-oriented 3. Your ‘buddies’

22. Top-down: 10. Psychology of Reviewers: • Proposal reviewed based on ‘intellectual merit’ and ‘broader impact’ IM E Greatest likelihood of funding V G 1253564 F P BI G V F E P

23. Top-down: 10. Start Writing! • Important points to remember when writing: • State and explain your long-term goal, objectives, and hypotheses • Be clear and concise, not overly verbose • Explain your methods and assumptions • Answer the ‘what’, ‘why’, and ‘how’ • Make it visually appealing (think magazine)

24. Top-down: 11. Ask for Guidance • There’s a lot of value in having your colleagues and friends review your draft proposal (but grow a thick skin) • Friends, colleagues, or collaborators • Recent CAREER awardees (probably ones that you know well) • Department Chair • Other considerations: • Request successful and unsuccessful CAREER proposals • Serve on a CAREER panel (rare but possible)

25. Presentation Summary • Vision: The long-term career goal of the PI is to drive innovative research and and to train outstanding personnel for maintaining and escalating United States’ role as the global leader in both research and education • Conduct potentially transformative, high-risk, high-reward research • Prepare students for careers in a multidisciplinary, competitive, future job landscape • Develop and mentor outstanding young faculty • Objective: As a step towards this goal, the objective of this talk is two-fold… • To share my lessons learned during the PI’s CAREER proposal planning, writing, and reviewing stages • To test the hypothesis that workshop attendees will be more successful (statistically significant) at winning NSF CAREER awards in the next five years • Assessment: participant data will (hopefully) be tracked by NSF • Scope: • Present to you important elements in planning and writing an NSF CAREER proposal • Use the PI’s planning process and proposal for illustrating specific techniques

26. Acknowledgements The PI thanks the National Science Foundation for the support of his research and the opportunity to give this talk This presentation would not have been possible without the help from: Previous NSF CAREER Proposal Writing Workshop Attending other proposal writing workshops Mentors, role models, colleagues, and friends Program managers at NSF and other agencies Anyone who has given me advice or suggestions… 