that can be used to get started. In preparing the proposal, the author considers:
• Review NSF Award Abstracts (Fastlane)
• Talk to your NSF Program Director
• Talk to your colleagues; have experienced colleagues review a draft and comment
• Recruit and describe university infrastructure support for your proposed project
• Address the merit review criteria
• Compliance checks (GPG)
In addition, make sure that you have the following in mind before you begin:
- Original ideas
- Succinct, focused project plan
- Cost effective
- Knowledge and experience in the discipline
- Experience in essential methodology
- Realistic amount of work
- Sufficient detail
- Strong rationale or evidence of potential effectiveness
As far as the general NSF review, the author poses five questions each in two categories:
- What is the intellectual merit of the proposed activity?
- What are the broader impacts of the proposed activity?
For each of these, I would recommend answering the following questions in the construction of the first draft of the proposal.
The intellectual Merit:
1. How important is the proposed activity to advancing knowledge and understanding within its own field or across different fields?
2. How well qualified is the proposer to conduct the project?
3. To what extent does the proposed activity explore creative and original concepts?
4. How well conceived and organized is the proposed activity?
5. Is there sufficient access to necessary resources?
The Broader impact activities:
1. How well does the activity advance discovery and understanding while promoting teaching,
training and learning?
2. How well does the proposed activity broaden the participation of underrepresented groups?
3. To what extent will it enhance the infrastructure for research and education, such as
facilities,instrumentation, networks and partnerships?
4. Will the results be disseminated broadly to enhance scientific and technological understanding?
5. What may be the benefits of the proposed activity to society?
Finally, I like the author's 9 tips for writing the proposal. These are:
- Discuss size and scope of intellectual payoff
- Use plain, simple English
- Let no question fester
- Do not include extra stuff
- Put specifics in the Methods section
- Use tables, figures, and flow charts to save words
- Make it visually appealing (i.e. do not make reviewers curse you for making their job harder)
- Include sufficient budget justification
- Think of your proposal as the 40th in a stack
Using these guidelines in writing the proposal, more often than not you will receive high ratings for your proposal and increase the opportunity of getting funded.
