Grants and Writing Proposals

Ken Crozier

Harvard SEAS Professional Development Seminar Series

April 6, 2009

The Micawber Principle

Mr Micawber, character

from “David Copperfield”

by Charles Dickens

Charles Dickens (1858)

The Micawber Principle

"Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure nineteen pounds nineteen and six, result happiness.

Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure twenty pounds ought and six, result misery."

-Mr Micawber, character from “David Copperfield” by Charles Dickens

Running a research group can be expensive !

Question:

How much does it cost a research group to buy $100 worth of supplies ?

Comments:

-Student and post-doc salaries, faculty summer salaries, supplies, equipment, travel to conferences, publication charges … all these (and more) must be paid for !

A new research group is like a start-up

Challenges:

PersonnelVisibilityWell-established competitorsFunding

Outline

-Discussion of funding sources:

• National Science Foundation (NSF)

• Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA)

• Companies

-Writing a proposal

-The review process

The National Science Foundation

-Government agency that supports fundamental research and education in all the non-medical fields of science and engineering

-Budget of $6B for 2008

Mission:

“To promote the progress of science; to advance the national health, prosperity, and welfare; to secure the national defense”

The National Science Foundation

NSF is organized into seven directorates:

1. Biological Sciences2. Computer and Information Science and Engineering3. Engineering 4. Geosciences 5. Mathematical and Physical Sciences6. Social, Behavioral and Economic Sciences 7. Education and Human Resources

The National Science Foundation

Funding opportunities listed (almost 1 yr in advance) on NSF’s website

The National Science Foundation

Abstracts and funding for successful proposals listed on NSF’s website

The National Science Foundation

Some features of NSF grants:

-Emphasis on graduate student research & providing opportunities for undergraduate participation

-Often discouraged to support postdoctoral fellows, or to buy expensive equipment (unless program is specifically established for this purpose)

-Principal investigator (PI) has a lot of freedom because there is little monitoring by the Program Manager at NSF

NSF: review process

•Reviews carried out by panels of scientists selected by NSF with particular attention to avoiding conflicts of interest.

•Proposing researcher gets to read reviews (but of course does not know the identities of the reviewers)

•Getting an NSF grant is very competitive !

e.g. success rate in my area (photonics) is only 10-15 %

Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency

-Agency of Department of Defense responsible for the development of new technology for use by the military

-Established in 1958 (in response to the Soviet launching of Sputnik in 1957) with the mission of keeping U.S. military technology ahead of the nation's enemies.

-Annual budget $3.2 billion

Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency

Has five program offices:

-Defense Sciences Office (DSO): develops technologies into important, radically new military capabilities

-Information Processing Techniques Office (IPTO): networking, computing & software vital to DoD military superiority

-Microsystems Technology Office (MTO) : microchip-scale integration of electronics, photonics, & MEMS

-Strategic Technology Office (STO) : "systems" office

-Tactical Technology Office (TTO) : "systems" approach to aeronautic/space/ land systems & embedded processors & control.

Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency

Funding opportunities listed (few months in advance) on DARPA website

Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency

-DARPA is comprised of Program Managers

-These individuals are often professors on leave from their universities

-Program managers conceive ideas for new programs that they feelwould make a revolutionary impact upon current technology

-In order to acquaint themselves with the issues facing an area ofscience or technology, Program Managers will frequently hold a workshop to which they will invite leading experts to speak

-In response to what is revealed by the workshop, the Program Manager may then decide to issue a call for proposals, know as aBroad Agency Announcement (BAA)

Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency

-BAA will usually outline a challenging and specific set of milestonesthat the successful teams would need to accomplish

-Programs are often broken up into phases (e.g. 1 phase per year), with a stringent set of performance requirements that must be achieved for continued funding

-Program Managers usually monitor developments in funded research projects closely

-Funded projects often have to make presentations to DARPA ontheir progress several times per year (e.g. quarterly)

-DARPA funding can usually be used for graduate student, postdoc,and faculty salaries, as well as capital equipment, et.c.

Industry Grants

-Usually need to have personal contact with the company

-Hard to do that if you don’t know the people!

-Most universities have a “technology transfer” office whose goal Is to facilitate the interaction of researchers & industry

e.g. Harvard’s Office of Technology Development

-This office may help with making industry contacts

-Companies interested in supporting research for different reasons:

•Want to hire students/postdocs•Need your expertise to help them•PR of being associated with school such as Harvard

Writing a Winning Proposal

1. A picture is worth a thousand words

2. Make very clear:

The problem you are trying to solve&How you will solve it

3. Strike a balance between describing past successes & future plans:

Golden rule: 1/3 published work, 1/3 work you have done & almost published, 1/3 work you will do

4. Quality of writing: it needs to be exciting and it needs to be clear

The Review Process

National Science Foundation:

-Review panel of “peers” (e.g. other professors)-Each proposal read & reviewed by 3 individuals and graded

“fair/good/very good/excellent”. Generally need most reviews to be “excellent” to stand a chance

-Proposals ranked & top ~10-15% funded-Proposer receives reviews verbatim

DARPA:

-Review panel: Program Manager, advisors, DoD personnel-Under previous DARPA Director, Program Manager’s decisions for

who funded had to be approved by Director-Successful proposer receives phone call/email/fax from Program

Manager