Effective Proposal Writing

Effective Proposal Writing An excellent proposal consists of: an exciting idea, well expressed with a clear indication of methods for testing the idea & a means to make the findings known to all who need to know them. The Key: Make your proposal be REWARDING to read so that it stands apart from the crowd Topics: Choose your topic  Know your Audience  Break the proposal down into sections  Analyze your reviews  Topic Selection Sit down, take a deep breath and ask yourself: What are you passionate about?  How are you the best in the world? What makes you unique?  Play your strengths  Don’t ever play the lottery  Turning on the light sharp enough to make the content of the research clear & what answer would be but not so narrow as to be un-interesting It can be “regional,” it can’t be “provincial” Your proposal should make a NONINCREMENTAL contribution to a BIG idea Getting off the ground Novel vs. Grounded  Only truly novel work can make the kind of contribution to humanity’s knowledge that merits the support of the people’s money (and, also, attention from your busy colleagues)  It must also be grounded enough for reviewers to have confidence that the project is feasible Feasible  Ooops: Superconducting Super Collider  Ocean Observatories Imitative (?)  NEON (?)  Proposals need to lie just at the threshold of feasibility. Fish or Fruit Avoid a “fishing expedition”  Do search for “low hanging fruit”  Don’t just collect data and hope for the best… have a question in mind… even though, of course, the question will evolve once you know more. Your question should create “I wish I thought of that!” in your audience Your Audience Know your community!  What are the BIG Questions?  Be a reviewer  Ask for informal reviews from your colleagues  PARTICIPATE in meetings  Discuss your ideas with your P.D.  Panel/ad hoc ?  ENTHUSIASM  Panelists fund proposals they remember They remember what they enjoy They enjoy learning something new    That’s easy: Be a teacher! Sections of the Proposal Statement of problem & its significance Background of knowledge Hypothesis Research Plan Expected Results Statement of the Problem & its significance In the first page or two, gain the interest & sympathy of your audience.  Balance optimism & confidence with modest understanding of its impact  Be able to describe in a few sentences why “we” should care  If you can’t convince the people in this room that it’s exciting, keep working! Background of Knowledge Show the reader that you can teach them (an expert!) something interesting  A complete discussion of some aspect of the problem  Relevant  Accessible  Interesting REWARD the REVIEWER so that they WANT MORE  Hypothesis       A Concise description of a possible solution to the problem you have posed & reviewed Craft this! Don’t be trivial! It’s possible to have an interesting/important question & several possible answers What if you’re developing a new technique? The same criteria apply GOALS ARE PLACED IN THE CONTEXT OF A CLEARLY DEFINED PROBLEM THAT WILL ADVANCE OUR KNOWLEDGE Research Plan  A sequence of steps that lead directly to your goal  This is often where reviewers find a fishing expedition. Avoid that!  Any item that shows up in the budget needs to be part of this plan  Everyone understands that the project may develop differently once more is learned… still provide evidence that you will know what to do when the time comes Expected Results A clear promise regarding “deliverables” are particularly important to funding agencies  It can, by necessity, be speculative, but it must contain a clear plan of dissemination of results & an indication of how society will benefit from this expenditure of “the people’s money”  After it’s written but before it’s submitted  Read the announcement again: What are the goals of the program?  What are the review criteria?  HIT THESE HARD It’s back…. Now what? Shelve it! (rant about the unfairness of it all, cry, secretly fear that you will never be able to do research again, curse the stupid reviewers, remember the colleague who walked passed you in the meeting without saying hi… decide that you’ll write a nasty review yourself back…)  WALK AWAY  Some time later… analyze your reviews… and ASK Was the review “SUBSTANTIVE?”  No, if vague and brief:     “well-qualified” “interesting” “experimental design wasn’t clear” “leader in the field because of work which demonstrated (new paradigm)” “ground-breaking” “will test fundamental question” “horizontal resolution is inadequate to resolve the eddies which drive the circulation which advect the sediments”  Yes, if detailed:    Crushing Truth  It’s easier to write a substantive negative review than a detailed positive review Many reviewers give “top scores” but don’t back up their sentiment with the words to support their rating  WORDS matter far more than the score  Fatal Flaws  Examples: Non-rotating Lab experiment  Existing dataset is inadequate to address the question (square peg/round hole)  The model/instrument is the tool you have rather than the right tool (Keep expanding your tool box!) Fatal Flaws are like cancer… they require major surgery & everyone recognizes the proposal is ill  Presentation Errors Unclear what data will be used  Unclear what the limitations of the instruments are  Extraneous experiments that are not germane to the “big question”  RESUBMIT (this is not a lottery)      Talk to your Program Director!!!! This is NOT the same as resubmitting a paper Your reputation matters and every proposal you submit is putting your name out in your community. Be proud of your work & stand by it => DON’T PLAY THE LOTTERY for “feedback” The majority of funded proposals are FIRST TIME submissions Beware of a “dog” Two Big Truths about research Research is an enjoyable privilege Most proposals fail not because of technical or discipline-specific issues but because they lack “sparkle” by which I mean:  Is the question significant? Are the results unambiguous? Are the techniques cutting-edge (or do they just happen to be what you know?) Relationships Matter  A funded proposal & a successful project depends on relationships between you & your community, including your program director. Be a colleague with something to offer! 