PEER Presentation PEER Presentation Writing winning grant proposals:Writing winning grant proposals:

Neal Stewartnealstewart@utk.edu

Posted on http://plantsciences.utk.edu/stewart_research_ethics.htm

Prediction is difficult—especially about the future

Yogi Berra

Outline

• Grant proposal 101• Timelines• Budgets• RFPs and program managers• Communication• Ethical considerations• Practical advice• Q&A

Why write proposals—especially full-sized federal proposals?

• Get paid, do research

• Discipline encapsulated– Thinking, planning, writing, and more planning– Forces organization– Forces scholars to design research– Process for creating rigor in research

• Badge of honor-increases a scholar’s “stock”

101 continued

• Most “regular” grant proposals get submitted through the institution’s research or grants office—typically by faculty

• The lead submitter is the principal investigator: PI. Others can be collaborators or co-PIs

• Institution gets a “cut” of the budget: indirect cost, F&A, or overhead (UTK = 45% or direct cost)-more on budgets later.

Those who fail to plan, plan to fail

Ancient proverb

Communication and Task TimelineRFP, RFA, FOA, BAATo compete or not to compete?

Day 0-5

G&C submits

Day 10

Budget and formssubmitted—all paperwork completedexcept for the narrative

Day 7

Submit narrative

Day 15

Sub-contractor paperwork completed and in to G&C

Day 60—LOI or preproposal accepted

Initial planning and teambuilding

Day 45

Negotiate sub and team budgetsIssue deadlines for textand paperwork

Day 30

Check in with sub and team on campus

Start writing proposalSend writing assignments

Day 20

Collect sub and team narratives

Alert G&Cyou’re submitting!

Everyone has a plan—until they get punched in the face.

Mike Tyson

Communication and Task TimelineRFP, RFA, FOA, BAATo compete or not to compete?

Day 0

G&C submits

Day 10

Budget and formssubmitted—all paperwork completedexcept for the narrative

Day 5

Check in w/G&C

Day 15

Sub-contractor paperwork completed and in to G&C

Day 60—LOI or preproposal accepted

Initial planning and teambuilding

Day 45

Negotiate sub and team budgetsIssue deadlines for textand paperwork

Day 30

Check in with sub and team on campus

Start writing proposalSend writing assignments

Final proposalto G&C

Day 20

Collect sub and team narratives

Alert G&Cyou’re submitting!

It always takes longer than you expect, even when you take into

account Hofstadter's Law

Hofstadter’s Law

by Douglas Hofstadter

Budget categories

• Personnel, e.g., grad students, postdocs, etc.– Salaries and wages– Fringe benefits

• Materials and supplies• Travel• Equipment• Other items• Indirect costs

Budget highlights

• Simpler the better• Smaller the better• Use real salaries and fringe rates of real

people if possible• If the budget does not correspond to the

two items below it won’t get funded:– Agency guidelines—in-range– Scope of work

• Matching costs requirements (sometimes)

Anything that can go wrong will go wrong.

Murphy’s Law

When to read the RFP, RFA, FOA BAA:

• When you first know it exists• Then read it again• CALL THE PROGRAM MANAGER!• Before you submit your LOI or pre-

proposal• After your pre-prop is accepted• Halfway through the proposal writing• Five days before submission day

How do you eat an elephant?

One bite at a time.

Roles

• G&C staff: grants.gov-ify your budget and help with matching costs, collect your documents and put them in grants.gov THEY KNOW THE RULES BETTER THAN YOU DO.

• You (me): communicate regularly with principals, prepare killer narrative, and also refs, biosketch, facilities and equipment, COI, C&P, summary, collaboration letters, etc. Send docs to G&C staff as soon as they are finalized.

Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear – not absence of

fear

Mark Twain

Ethical considerations

• It is bad manners to invite someone to join your proposal then un-invite.

• It is misconduct to include a collaborator’s preliminary data, text, ideas and then un-invite; e.g., if it didn’t get submitted in one competition and you submit it during another competition.

• It is also misconduct to use information in proposals (yours with collaborators) or others for purposes other than those intended—they are confidential documents.

Integrity is doing the right thing, even if nobody is watching.

Unknown

Chances are your proposal won’t be funded. It most definitely won’t be funded if not submitted. The reviewers’ main job is to find ways to eliminate

proposals The best proposals win. The best proposals enthral reviewers in the first few

pages. A proposal that has been thrown together in a few days

looks like it. There can’t be too much preliminary data. There is no substitute for good ideas. Pick the best collaborators. Less is more.

Proposal maxims

A wise man will make more opportunities than he finds

Francis Bacon

Comments on losing proposals*

• “A convincing case about____ has not been made.”• “It wasn’t clear how ____ experiments will be done.”• “Relatively little detail is provided on how the investigators plan to…” • “Crafting of the proposal is poor.  The arrangement is difficult to

follow.”• “It is also not clear that the materials they have selected for study

are optimal for this type of analysis.” • “Thus, the work is not particularly novel and the panel could not

envision…”• “Yet this part of the proposal was the most poorly developed and

explained and seemed like this research activity would be largely outsourced.”

• “Overambitious…I doubt they can get the work completed…”

*Please note that these are actual comments from my own proposals—just when I think I’ve made every mistake possible, I learn that I was mistaken.

I failed my way to success

Thomas Edison

Advice• Competition: go where they ain’t.

• Be a competitor.

• Be a good collaborator and co-PI.

• Above all, practice ethics.

• Diversify your portfolio.

• Use all the tools in your box.