Selling Your Ideas Proposal Writing Workshop III

1. Selling Your Ideas Proposal Writing Workshop III October 26, 2009 Proposal Development Team Office of Research & Sponsored Projects (ORSP)

2. ORSP Proposal Development Team Introductions

3. Selling Your Proposal Idea

4. Characteristics

5. Characteristics of a Sellable Proposal • Transformative • Innovative • Novel

6. Time Limit: 5 minutes

7. Definitions • Transformative: Characterizing a range of endeavors that promise extraordinary outcomes, such as revolutionizing entire disciplines, creating entirely new fields, or disrupting accepted theories and perspectives (NSF definition) • Innovative: Characterized by the creation of new ideas or things; forward looking, ahead of current thinking • Novel: new and not resembling something formerly known or used; original or striking especially in conception of style Where do you think your research fits?

8. Relationship The National Science Board’s report on Enhancing Support for Transformative Research at NSF included the following: In practice, distinguishing between innovative and transformative research is difficult at best and, some would argue, only possible in hindsight. Indeed, the two forms of scientific progress do exist side-by-side and, often, proceed hand-in-hand and overlap each other. For example, Alfred Wegener’s theory of continental drift, which significantly transformed concepts of our world required decades of innovative research to prove its validity.

9. Essential Components

10. Essential Components:What a project must present to be competitive

11. Essential Components

12. First Steps

13. First Steps in Selling Your Idea

14. How to Find a Program Officer • If you’re responding to a solicitation, the contact person will be listed. • If you want to submit an unsolicited proposal, the process varies by agency. • NSF: Go to the main webpage (http://www.nsf.gov/index.jsp). On the left click on Program Areas and choose your area, e.g., Geosciences. On the area’s webpage, click on View (GEO) Staff Directory. • NIH: Go to the Institutes page http://www.nih.gov/icd/and find out which institute bets fits your idea. Navigate that site looking primarily at Funding Opportunities or Organizational Structure. • Other agencies, e.g., DoD: Look at their main Broad Agency Announcements (BAAs)

15. Time Limit: 10 minutes

16. What the PO Might Say and What You Should Do • I love your idea. Send me a proposal, and I’ll get it funded—Break out the champagne. • I love your idea. I’ll draft a solicitation that you can respond to—Celebrate, but remember that other people will be responding too, so your proposal has to be great. • I like your idea and here are some solicitations it might fit—Read the solicitations, choose the best fit, and write a proposal that meets all its requirements. • I like the idea but believe it fits better in “X” area – Research the area and call another Program Officer.

17. Critical Proposal Sections

18. The Importance of Good Writing Your readers are not likely to buy your idea unless the proposal is well written, at least as well written as a peer-reviewed journal article or even a good detective novel. Proposals should be: • Clear • Succinct • Well Organized • Grammatically Correct

19. Literature Review

20. Literature Review – Sets the Stage • Goals: • Put the proposal into a larger context • Provide evidence of knowledge of relevant published literature • Tie present state of knowledge explicitly to your research • Writing a literature review: • Present background to familiarize reviewer with the research area • Succinctly describe and cite seminal and related work • Summarize what is known and what needs to be addressed The literature review reinforces why your work is important

21. The reviewers noted that the ideas were not new and that the PI had not made the connection with prior results Of course, that idea (patterns) is not new either; we could start with van Dyke album of fluid motions, with EOF or POD techniques for which Nadine Aubry and others were pioneers; no reference is given to them, no bridge is done to these approaches; neither are quoted the people trying to identify patterns using wavelets (Marie Farge and others). I can think as well of early works by MacLaughlin and collaborators on the switching of between temporal and spatial complexity on one-dimensional equations, or of the study of patterns by Newell et al. in convection or optical turbulence, not to mention finance. I am also a little surprised that topology is not part of this game; I think it should; topology (e.g. the study of knots, including wild knots) has proven useful in the study of DNA. Excerpted here are only the critical parts of the NSF panel review of the proposal, in hope that they may be helpful to colleagues pursuing related research. Dated: 04/30/04 http://www.cns.gatech.edu/~predrag/papers/fullTurbwww03-review.html

22. Lit Review The reviewers noted that the ideas were not new and that the PI had not made the connection with prior results Of course, that idea (patterns) is not new either; we could start with van Dyke album of fluid motions, with EOF or POD techniques for which Nadine Aubry and others were pioneers; no reference is given to them, no bridge is done to these approaches; neither are quoted the people trying to identify patterns using wavelets (Marie Farge and others). I can think as well of early works by MacLaughlin and collaborators on the switching of between temporal and spatial complexity on one-dimensional equations, or of the study of patterns by Newell et al. in convection or optical turbulence, not to mention finance. I am also a little surprised that topology is not part of this game; I think it should; topology (e.g. the study of knots, including wild knots) has proven useful in the study of DNA. Excerpted here are only the critical parts of the NSF panel review of the proposal, in hope that they may be helpful to colleagues pursuing related research. Dated: 04/30/04 http://www.cns.gatech.edu/~predrag/papers/fullTurbwww03-review.html Reference Seminal work

23. The reviewers noted that the ideas were not new and that the PI had not made the connection with prior results Of course, that idea (patterns) is not new either; we could start with van Dyke album of fluid motions, with EOF or POD techniques for which Nadine Aubry and others were pioneers; no reference is given to them, no bridge is done to these approaches; neither are quoted the people trying to identify patterns using wavelets (Marie Farge and others). I can think as well of early works by MacLaughlin and collaborators on the switching of between temporal and spatial complexity on one-dimensional equations, or of the study of patterns by Newell et al. in convection or optical turbulence, not to mention finance. I am also a little surprised that topology is not part of this game; I think it should; topology (e.g. the study of knots, including wild knots) has proven useful in the study of DNA. Excerpted here are only the critical parts of the NSF panel review of the proposal, in hope that they may be helpful to colleagues pursuing related research. Dated: 04/30/04 http://www.cns.gatech.edu/~predrag/papers/fullTurbwww03-review.html Risk—framing your work

24. Motivation and Significance

26. Motivation and Significance

27. Time Limit: 10 minutes

28. Project Summary

29. Project Summary • Purpose: To provide agency administrators and reviewers with a quick and concise overview of the proposal THE place to sell your idea!

30. Project Summary • Purpose: To provide agency administrators and reviewers with a quick and concise overview of the proposal THE place to sell your idea! (Also sell your idea in the first paragraph of the project description)

31. Project Summary: Guidelines • Describe the goal (hypothesis) of the proposed project • Align with the goals of the RFP and funding agency • Present an overview • Motivate the need for the project and how effort will lead to solution or understanding of broader problem • Discuss conceptual framework • Describe approach or methods that will be used • Explain why the submitters are the right people • State the significance of the proposed work • Describe how it meets the principal evaluation criteria

32. Presentation by Agency-1 • NSF: Project Summary • Includes Intellectual Merit and Broader Impacts • NIH: Project Summary (Abstract) • Includes broad, long-term objectives and specific aims • Reference the health relatedness of the project • Provide a concise description of the research design and methods • Describe relevance of the proposed research to public health. 

33. Presentation by Agency-2 • SBIR/STTR: Project (Executive) Summary • Identify the potential innovation. • Describe anticipated results or outcomes. • Explain potential commercial application.

34. Intellectual Merit • How important is the proposed activity to advancing knowledge and understanding within its own field or across different fields? • How well qualified is the proposer (or team) to conduct the project (comment on quality of prior work)? • To what extent does the proposed activity suggest and explore creative and original concepts? • How well conceived and organized is the proposed activity? • Is there sufficient access to resources?

35. Broader Impacts • How well does the activity advance discovery and understanding while promoting teaching, training, and learning? • How well does the proposed activity broaden the participation of underrepresented groups (e.g., gender, ethnicity, disability, geographic)? • To what extent will it enhance the infrastructure for research and education, such as facilities, instrumentation, networks, and partnerships? • Will the results be disseminated broadly to enhance scientfiic and technological understanding? • What may be the benefits to society?

36. Group activity

37. Evaluate the Intellectual Merit and Broader Impacts of the project summaries. Time Limit: 30 minutes

38. Supporting Sections for selling your ideas

39. Facilities – Equipment – Other Support Convince the reviewers that you have the resources and support to perform the research. • Describe existing equipment to be used in the research • Describe available facilities • Assess the adequacy of the organizational resources available • Request funding for needed equipment not available • Include university infrastructure that supports research • Describe administrative support from the university • Align work with institution’s strategic plan

40. Budget – Some Considerations Selling your ideas requires having a realistic and well-justified budget. • Reinforce your credibility with a realistic budget • Estimate accurately • Pay attention to time and effort required and actualcostof this effort • Be as concrete and specific as possible in your justification • Sell the expertise of the team in the justification

41. ORSP Development Team Proposal Writing Remaining Workshops Fall 2009 Session IV - November 11th Project Management, Evaluation & Assessment 1:00-3:30pm • Location: Blumberg Auditorium (UTEP Library) Session V - December 2nd Budget Preparation 1:30-3:30pm • Location: Blumberg Auditorium (UTEP Library)

42. Resources

43. Proposal Development Team • Contact Information

44. Reflection