Step 3: Write Your Proposal
Keep in mind. . .
The best written proposal will not win money for a weak idea. BUT鈥�
Many good ideas are often not funded because the proposal is poorly written.
Your Proposal Must STAND OUT from All the Others Being Reviewed by the Funding Agency
- Highlight your unique and innovative approaches to accomplishing your goals.
- Use technical terms judiciously, reviewers have different levels of expertise in subject matter.
- Review each section of your proposal. Make certain your methods, management, timelines, budget, and evaluation pieces are on target, are connected, and are realistic.
- Write clearly and concisely
- Style and format are as important as content.
- Follow instructions (RFP) on how to present information.
Proposal Guides
Follow the directions in the RPF and the agency鈥檚 proposal guide.
Suggestions for Writing Proposals
Data Management
On February 22, 2013, John P. Holdren, Director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, issued a memorandum directing federal research funding agencies with R&D budgets of $100 million or more to develop a plan within six months to support increased public access to the results of research funded by the federal government. The directive requires that the results of taxpayer-funded research, both publications and data in digital format, be made easily accessible to the general public. Following the issuance of this directive, federal agencies developed their own public access plans and have made compliance mandatory for all grant proposals.
Click to read more.
In general, a data management plan describes the data that will be authored and how the data will be managed and made accessible throughout its lifetime. In general, the contents of the data management plan should include:
- Types of data to be authored
- Standards that would be applied, for example format and metadata content
- Provisions for archiving and preservation
- Access policies and provisions
- Plans for eventual transition or termination of the data collection in the long-term future
The DMPTool is a collaborative effort between multiple institutions, to streamline the management planning process. Anyone can create a data management plan using the DMPTool. A login is required to access the 鈥渨izard鈥�, so you will want to set up an account by choosing a username and password. The DMPTool site offers a useful collection of agency-specific DMP requirements, as well as some sample plans and many public DMPs that may serve as models.
The DMPTool will help you:
- Create ready-to-use data management plans for specific funding agencies
- Meet funder requirements for data management plans
- Get step-by-step instructions and guidance for your data management plan as you build it
- Preview and export your plans, as well as share them publicly
Agency Data Management Plans: Each agency provides information and guides about public access of federally funded research, as well as tools to develop a compliant data management plan.
- National Science Foundation (NSF) Public Access policy requires NSF-funded investigators to deposit peer-reviewed, published journal articles and juried conference papers in the NSF Public Access Repository. NSF datasets can be found on Data.gov.
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- National Institutes of Health (NIH) requires that all investigators funded by the NIH submit or have submitted for them to the National Library of Medicine's PubMed Central an electronic version of their final, peer-reviewed manuscripts upon acceptance for publication, to be made publicly available no later than 12 months after the official date of publication. NIH Data Sharing Repositories are available at the U.S. National Library of Medicine.
- Department of Agriculture (USDA) public access policy for scholarly publications requires authors to submit all final peer-reviewed journal manuscripts once the manuscript is accepted for publication to USDA public access archive system PubAg. Ag Data Commons (currently in BETA form) is a data access system maintained by the USDA National Agricultural Library (NAL).
- Department of Energy (DOE) hosts a portal and a search interface tool, the Public Access Gateway for Energy and Science (PAGES), to enhance the discoverability of unclassified and otherwise unrestricted scholarly publications resulting from DOE funding.
Evaluation Resources
Contains list of evaluators you can contact to evaluate your program
Writing Your Proposal Budget
Sponsored Projects Administration must approve your budget before you can submit.
Work with Sponsored Projects Administration on finalizing your budget.
Work with Judy McShannon, Manager of Research Development if you have questions about creating your budget. judith.mcshannon@nmt.edu
Guidelines and rules we follow
- Federal
- Laws
- Regulations - 2 CFR 200
- Rules
- Agency Guidelines
- State
- Public Institution
- State laws
- NMT
- Policies
- Procedures
- Guidelines
- SOPs
Are costs allowable, allocable, reasonable?
- Sponsor guidelines
- 2 CFR 200
- NMT Policies
Are costs direct or F&A/indirect?
- Direct: costs identifiable to a specific project
- Indirect: costs incurred as part of overall operations
- Application/treatment of costs should be consistent
Open communication reduces:
- Excessive, inappropriate, or late cost transfers
- Manual adjustments
- Disallowances
- Revised invoices/financial reports
- Audit findings
- Loss of expanded authorities or letter of credit drawdown eligibility