It was the best of programs, it was the worst of programs, it was the age of wise panelists, it was the age of foolish panelists, it was the epoch of belief, it

was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Abundant

Funding, it was the season of the Sequester, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had

30 pages of text before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Tenure, we were all going

direct the other way.

A Tale of Two CAREER Proposals

ResourcesMy guide (google "how to write an nsf proposal")

http://web.engr.oregonstate.edu/~grimmc/NSF/nsf.html

Several essays on how to write CAREERS:http://www.clarku.edu/offices/research/pdfs/nsfproposalwritingtips.pdf

What makes a successful proposal?

• A really solid, detailed, novel research idea and plano Without this, all the rest doesn't matter

• Dotting the i's and crossing the t'so Don't give them procedural reasons to reject your

proposal Don't annoy the reviewers: check your spelling

and grammar, and stick to 12pt texto Don't have them miss the strong points

What does not make a good research plan?• A straightforward extension of your PhD work (too

narrow)

• Going into a completely new area without doing some preliminary work to demonstrate the feasibility

• A proposal crammed full of technical explanations and equations

• Not fully understanding/researching the new area(s) you're writing in

• Claiming to solve all the long-standing problems in your area without providing details (too broad)

What makes a good research plan?• Talk it through

o Advisor, senior people in your field o People in related fields

Make sure it comes across to a general audience

• Think sideways - ask experts in other areaso Could there be an interaction component? o Novel problem/design framework?

EG Industrial design + molecular constructiono Optimization? Machine learning? Statistics?o Merging two aspects that aren't usually combined?

EG, geometry of the heart w/electrical potentialo Novel data sets?

• Do your homeworko Know your panelists, and what they know

What makes a good research topic?

• Focused topic in your area tackling a long standing problemo You'd better be THE BEST person in your areao Focused, detailed solutions and why they'll work

• Novel combination of approacheso More than what any bright person would come up

with after thinking about it for 5 minutes Demonstrate knowledgeable in all areas

o Compelling argument about why combining approaches will yield better results

• Novel problem statemento Can be gold - but hard to state compellingly

Writing it up (know your audience)• Experts: Have to convince them you know what you're

talking about. Doubly important if you're branching out to a new areao Page or two of stuff in research plan that no one else

would understand...

• Non-experts: o Why is your problem important?o Why is it hard?o Why is your solution/approach good?o Summary/intro

Position your problem in the grand scheme of things Be specific about what you're tackling Don't make claims you can't back up

• Anything you claim has to have supporting evidence in research plan

Writing it up• Make it legible

o reviewers will have read 10 proposals before getting to yours

o 12 pt font, no formatting shennaniganso spelling and grammaro Label all graphs, figures, tables, captions so they

can be read/understood w/o looking at the text Big text in figures

• Do not eliminate white space to gain half a page (indents, line spacing)o Bulleted lists are a good thingo Bold the start of subsections

• Label sections clearly so they're easy to find

Concrete actions you should take (planning):• Identify 3-4 people and schedule a 1 hour

discussion with themo One senior person in your area (will your idea fly in

your area?) Go outside your institution if you have to

o One senior person in a related area (make sure your idea isn't too narrow)

o One or more people in areas that would strengthen your proposal/be a novel direction to go in eg, optimization, materials, visualization, studies,

application areasThese people don't all have to be in your department, or even at your university! Next time you're going to a conference, see if you can snag someone you trust and like to have lunch/dinner/drinks and pitch your idea

More concrete actions (writing)

• Line up at least 3 people willing to read/comment on your abstract/outlineo At most twice, probably - then contamination sets in

• Line up at least one senior person and one outside person to read the full proposalo Again, at most twice

Obviously, don't do this 1 week before the deadline... it's ok if everything isn't perfect. It's very difficult to scrap a fully written proposal... and don't be afraid to bail if it's not coming together.

Warnings• Expect to re-write from scratch. Probably more than

once.

• Expect to fail at least once. o But hopefully with good reviews. o And because they just don't have enough money

• 15 pages is SHORT. Write long, then cut ruthlessly. What doesn't contribute to your story? Cut out all generic statements

• Drop your ego and listen to critiques.o You can't argue with the reviewerso Ask for (and accept) brutal advice

• They may not read past page 2o Make sure you've hit all your major points early

everything after page 1 is confirmation bias

o Good stuff up front

Proposal anatomy• Summary page

o 1/2 page describing the problem, proposed solutiono 1/4 page describing the intellectual merito 1/4 page describing the broader impacts

• Body of proposal (15 pages)• References

o Put in EVERYTHING you've read/touched, even if it's not specifically mentioned in the proposal \nocite{} Worse thing you can have is a reviewer who's research you didn't cite...

• Data management plano How will you share your data? Developed methods?

• Letters of support (1 page max)o Someone's promised to actually do something for you

Use to backup collaborative/application area statements

Proposal anatomy, cont• Budget/justification (start early) $400K-$500K

o Sponsored research office gets cranky if they get rushedo SRO is VERY picky about budget justifications

Copy justification/facility statements

• Departmental letter of support (2 page max)o Make sure you talk to your chair and have their letter

have specific references to your proposal Double check that anything you say the

department will do is in the chair letter.

• Suggested reviewerso Put them in

• Reviewer conflicts (use with care)o Chat w/program officer

Proposal anatomy, cont

• Hide stuff outside of the 15 pages to save spaceo descriptions of equipment you're going to buy can go

in the budget justificationo details of the lab set-up can go in the facilities

statement

Summary page (specific, concise)• Project description

o Convince them the problem is worthwhile Place the problem in context, but be specific

o Convince them that it's hard, but solvable ... and you have the skills/techniques to solve it

• Intellectual merit/contributionso Cull out the concrete technical contributions and

state them concisely Each one of these should be clearly findable in the body of your research

plan (subsection headers, timeline elements) Usually 3-5 (you don't need ALL the details) This section is for the experts in your field

• Broader impactso Move from small to big (your community to broader)o What will people be able to do that they can't now?

Proposal body (15 pages, 1-4)

• Introduction (1-2 pages)o Expand on problem statement and solution

approach

• Background (1-2 page)o Convince them you've done your homework

know your panelistso Give some context for non-expert readers

Be very clear what's yours and what isn't

Proposal body (15 pages, 5-10)

• Research plan (3-5 pages)o Pages 1-2: Concrete, specific things you know you

can do in the next year or twoo Pages 2-3: More open-ended, challenging problems

that you think you can do in 3-5 yearso Pages 3-5: 5-10 year research plan.

Convince them that you will have plenty to do... Convince them that you have a vision and a

passion... Convince them that you're thinking long-term

• Might be better to put this in the opposite order if you can do it and have it still make sense (they will get sleepy by page 6)

Proposal body (15 pages, 10-15)• Education and mentoring plan (1-2 pages)

o How can you tie your research to teaching/mentoring? Be realistic.

• Outreach/broader impacts (1-2 pages)o How does your research benefit folks outside your area? o How will you disseminate your work?o How will you engage with people outside your discipline?o Don't talk about under-represented groups unless you have a specific

plan (and letters from the places you'll work with to implement it)

• Timeline (1/2 page)o Usually done as a table/gantt chart - summarize here the 5 pages of

your research plan Can be specific about what each grad student will do

Proposal body (15 pages, 15)• Results from prior NSF funding (1/2 page)

o Summarized as broader impacts/intellectual merito Rules on this have recently changed. Now up to 5

pages (!) and more emphasis on prior performance If you don't have this your proposal will be

returned without review.

Overall content (how a career differs from a regular proposal)

• You are selling yourself as a researcher/educatoro Funding you will lead to years of productive research

and mentorshipo Explain why you are the best person to tackle this

research areao Explain how funding you will help you achieve your

goals/advance your career

• Other possible items to focus on:o Professional development (put it in the budget)o Collaborations

Integrated research and education• Make it solid, but don't spend all of your time

on ito I've never heard someone say "let's fund this

because of the awesome education plan"o I have heard someone say:

"yeah, and they also don't have a good education plan" (trying to kill the proposal)

"they're education plan is by the numbers, but it's ok" (they like the proposal)

o Make sure you are not JUST boilerplateo Also make sure it's integrated

• Anything unique, put it up front and visibleo but be realistic (no completely new graduate

programs)

Integrated plan, how to write• Read several plans from other folks

o We collected some here Classes you will develop Entice undergrads (REUs, Honors college

students) Science center projects

• Analyze what you have and see if there's any part that could be taught to pre-college studentso Talk to any outreach people you have

• Best to have budget support for anything substantial

• Start now

Concrete education plans• Find one unique thing you can do

o Make an appointment now with outreach peopleo Start now - demonstrate initial progress (web site,

tutorials, class materials, etc)

• Put that unique thing up front, and make it as specific as possible

• Start with boilerplate for other outreach/educationo Adapt it to your research areao Put it in the budgeto This should evolve with your research (ie, have a 5

year plan)

Broader impacts/outreach• If your research has an end application,

establish a relationship with someone in that area NOWo "I will use their data" is good, but not greato Better if there's an integrated back and forth

Demonstrate your approach with real data Put code/techniques up on a web-site now

o If you can, share code/techniques Have something in the budget to support this Tutorials/workshops at conferences

• Boilerplate: Publishing papers, putting data on the web

• Read a few Science News articles.