External Funding and Collaboration
NSF Teacher Enhancement
Summer Institute
University of Alabama in Huntsville
July 2001
What we’ll cover
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Terminology
Who should write collaborative proposals
Essential proposal elements
Success proposal generation
Successful proposal implementation
Terminology
• PI – principal investigator
• Co-PI – co-principal investigator
• Grant – usually involves research, no strict
deliverables
• Contract – usually are concrete, specific
deliverables
• Program officer – funding agency point of contact,
provider of information, review panel organizer
• Review panel – meeting of individuals selected to
represent different points of view who will
critique submitted proposals
Terminology (cont’d)
• Preproposal – draft proposal submission
that outlines the general proposal idea and
rough budget. Feedback should be provided
on the preproposal before submission of the
final proposal
• Full/Final proposal – final proposal
submission containing all required proposal
elements and a final (committed) budget
Terminology (cont’d)
• Proposal negotiation – discussion between
review panel decision and award to
determine if the proposal can be changed in
response to the review panel’s suggestions
and be within a target budget determined by
the program officer. To the proposers
advantage to finish this step FAST.
Terminology
• Cost sharing – amount of money/resources
required by funding agency to be provided
by the proposing institution
– Usually can be “in-kind”
– Usually is personnel time
– Rarely is cash
Who should organize
collaborative proposals
• Characteristics of good proposal leaders
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Energetic – Type A
Idea generator
Compromiser
Consensus builder
Writing skills
Organizational skills
Patience – Type B
What the proposal organizer
should bring to the table
• Institutional strengths
• Personal connections with peers and
organizations in the field
• Past experience and successful performance
on previous grants (track record)
• Personal credibility to funding agency
Becoming a proposal organizer
• Becoming a proposal organizer is a chicken and
egg problem
– Critical elements come from successful proposals
– First time prospective PIs don’t have a track record
• Solution – become attached to a mentor who has
been through this before
• Caution – there are a lot of people who have “been
through this before” and do it wrong
Levels of responsibility
• Key personnel
– PI
– Co-PI
– Senior scientist
• Unnamed contributor
– General expertise
Responsibilities
• Institution’s Office of Grants and Contracts (or
Office of Sponsored Programs or …)
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Institutional signatures
Proposal submission approval
Subcontract generation and approval
Changes to award
Requesting award funding from funding agency
Distributing award funding to appropriate institution
budget line
Responsibilities
• PI
– Technical contact for the funding agency
– Leader for management and implementation of award
– Approval for charges against the award including
subcontracts
– Responsible for cost sharing accounting
– Periodic reports to funding agency
– Management of award
– Answer questions from funding agency
Responsibility
• Co-PI
– Role defined by the PI and the proposal
– If at an institution different than the PI, will be
funded by subcontract from the PI’s institution
– Usually receives (at least partial) credit from
own institution for funding received
– At universities, at least, receive partial
remittance of overheads collected along with PI
Essential Proposal Elements
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Funding opportunity identification
Collaborators
Proposal generation
Proposal outline
Budget
Submission
Reviews returned
Debriefing for proposal
Opportunity Identification
• What are you interested in doing (interest
drives proposals not vice-versa)?
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Subject area
Possible partners
Outcomes
Ballpark funding required
Possible cost sharing available
Resources available
Exercise
• Create a MS Word document
• Make a list of the opportunity identification
elements on the previous slide for a
proposal you are interested in
Funding Opportunity
Identification
• Compile a list of funding sponsors
• Starting points
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Government agencies
State agencies
Industry
Foundations
Funding Opportunity
Identification
• Government agencies
– Know the politics
• http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/reports/no-child-leftbehind.html
– National Science Foundation www.nsf.gov
• http://www.nsf.gov/od/lpa/news/publicat/nsf013/ehr/esie.htm#s
ection2 (ESIE program website)
– Department of Education www.ed.gov
• http://web99.ed.gov/GTEP/Program2.nsf/vwNetLevel?OpenVi
ew&Start=1&Count=30&Expand=3#3 (K-12 programs)
– Department of Energy www.energy.gov
Funding Opportunity
Identification
• State agencies
– State department of public instruction
• Find your state at
http://www.ed.gov/Programs/bastmp/SEA.htm
• E.g. North Carolinahttp://www.dpi.state.nc.us/
• Use search function on keywords like “grants” or
“funding”
Funding Opportunity
Identification
• Industry
– Intel http://www.intel.com/education/grants/index.htm
• Intel in the Community
• Intel National and Community Grants
– http://www.intel.com/education/grants/k12/foundation_guideline
s.doc
• Matching Gifts/Volunteer Matching Grants Program
– Microsoft http://www.microsoft.com/giving/
– GlaxoSmithKline
http://www.glaxowellcome.com/gwfound/
Funding Opportunity
Identification
• Foundation
– Generally on the web
– Books of foundations
– Generally every large corporation has a
foundation
• Glaxo-Wellcome-SmithKline
• Intel
• Compaq
Funding Opportunity
Identification
• Foundations
– http://www.fdncenter.org/
• Search by keyword
• Search by state
Exercise
• Find one government and one foundation
funding source that might satisfy your
requirements
Opportunity Identification
• Narrowing the list of possibilities
– Determine return on investment (include
overhead time for grant administration)
– Make sure it is something you want to do
• Optimally the project is something you were going
to do anyway
• Minimally it should not be distracting
• Chasing money for the sake of funding is
counterproductive
Opportunity Identification
• Meet with the Program Officer (or
minimally arrange a telephone call)
– Take a one page white paper of what you think
will respond to the opportunity solicitation
– Take a folder of information about your
institution targeted to the opportunity
Opportunity Identification
• White paper sections
– Project Summary
– Project description
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Background
Needs
Project Partners
Goals
Outcomes
Project Design
Technology Plan
Work Plan
Evaluation Plan
Dissemination Plan
Opportunity Identification
• White paper sections (cont’d)
– Biographical Sketches
– Bibliography
• Example…..
Exercise
• Generate a draft white paper with the
preceding sections for your proposal
Opportunity Identification
• Agenda for Program Officer meeting
– Provide overview of your institution
– Request a solicitation overview
– Discuss the one page white paper and whether it
responds favorably to the solicitation
– Receive pointers from the Program Officer about white
paper changes
– Ask Program Officer about other proposals that have
been funded that are similar to the white paper
– Establish a relationship with the Program Officer that
will enable follow-up email and subsequent visits
– Take good notes!
Opportunity Identification
• Realistically assess chances of winning
– Raw probability
• Ask Program Officer how many proposals submitted last round
and number of winners
– Better estimate
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Experience
Budget
Meet expectations of solicitation
Competitors
Comparison to previous winning proposals
Opportunity Identification
• Revise white paper
• Send to Program Officer for comments or review
changes by telephone
• Use the white paper to solicit partners
• Send the white paper to your Grants Office to
keep them in the loop
– Receive feedback, if any
– Receive institutional experience about the funding
agency (success of others, pitfalls)
Exercise
• Go around the room and assess the
probability of success of a proposal for the
funding source identified
Collaboration
• Breakdown the solicitation into subject
areas
• Ensure there are collaborators with
credentials in each subject area
• Utilize “networking” to find potential
collaborators
• Ask Program Officer for potential
collaborators
Exercise
• Add a short phrase about what each
potential collaborator would add to the
proposal
Collaboration
• Establishing collaboration
– One approach is to have a meeting with all
potential collaborators identified
– Determine theme for proposal based on
solicitation
– Identify how each collaborator supports the
theme
– Identify role of each collaborator
– Identify benefits to each collaborator
Collaboration
• Pitfalls
– Identification of the PI, co-PIs, senior scientists
and unidentified collaborators
– Collaborators who are “too busy” to pay
attention to generating another proposal
– Not establishing a strong probability of success
for this proposal and the collaborators
– Budget
Proposal Generation
• Two primary jobs
– Content Leader (usually the PI)
• Responsible for content in the proposal
• Defining roles of collaborators, adding
collaborators, removing collaborators
• Deciding on budget
• Assigning writing assignments
• Establishing milestone dates
Proposal Generation
– Logistics Leader
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Forms
Creating proposal drafts from submitted text
Enforcing proposal generation timelines
Calling funding agency to resolve logistical
problems
• Calling collaborators
• Interfacing with Grants and Contracts
Proposal Generation
• Secondary roles
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Content section chairs
Individual contributors
Technical writer
Proof reader
Proposal Generation
• Steps (6 months to complete)
– White Paper
– White Paper revised
– Pre-proposal (short version of full proposal) and rough
budget
– 1st draft full proposal
– 2nd draft full proposal and 1st draft budget
– 3rd draft full proposal and 2nd draft budget
– Final full proposal and final budget
– Signed institutional commitments
Proposal Outline
• Cover sheet and forms
• Project summary
• Project description
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Background
Need
Project Partners and Roles
Goals and Objectives
Outcomes
Proposal Outline
• Project Description (cont’d)
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Project Design
Technology Plan
Work Plan
Project Management
Key Personnel
Advisory Committee
Evaluation Plan
Dissemination Plan
Institutionalization
Proposal Outline
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Institutional Resources Available
Bibliography
Biographical Sketches
Budget
– PI institution
– Subcontracts
• Current and Pending Support (NSF)
• Project Data Sheet (NSF)
• Letters of Support
Budget
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Every funding agency has its own form
Generates most of the disagreements after award
Can be fatal to the project if miscalculated
Has the potential to be audited during the project
and after project completion
• Cost sharing can be underestimated but better not
be overestimated
• Required cost sharing can range from 0% to 50%
Budget
• Proposal submission requires institutional
signature
• Engage Grants and Contracts early in the
budget process – they can be your best
friend or worst enemy
• Determine budget expectations of the
funding agency early
Budget
• Budget justification
– Shows how you arrived at the numbers you show
– Reviewers key in on certain aspects of the budget
• Amount of funding provided directly to teachers
• Amount of funding for subcontracts
• Amount of funding for “overhead” expenses
– Make sure anticipated expenditures are allowable
• Example….
Budget
• Cost Sharing
– Pre-award costs incurred usually don’t count
• NSF has a 90 day rule for costs incurred prior to
award
– In-kind as well as cash allowed (fair value)
– Personnel costs are popular
– Cash is unpopular
Budget
• If budget is not competitive, try:
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Negotiate with your institution on indirect costs
Increase cost sharing
Decrease scope of work and decrease cost
Increase core work to increase economies of
scale
– Leverage previous work
– Decrease level (and cost) of personnel involved
Submission
• Requirements
– Cover letter – official transmittal
– Proposal – usually several copies required
• Font size
• Margin requirements
• Section lengths
– Signatures – gathering PI/co-PI signatures
tricky for multi-institutional proposals
– On-time delivery – crucial!!!
Submission
• Plan ahead
– Know what must be done the last week
– Make emergency plans
• Editing
• Photocopying
• Delivery
– Parallelize tasks as much as feasible
NSF Helpful Hints
• Register your school district NOW with
FastLane
• Register as a PI or co-PI NOW – you never
know when you’ll need it
Exercise
• See if your organization is registered with
NSF’s FastLane
Review Panel/Evaluation
• Review Panel
– Diverse set of content experts to review the proposal
according to the solicitation guidelines
– Proposal must address critical items in solicitation
– Proposal must be “cost effective”
– Written review(s) done by panel and provided to PI
– Recommends funding or no funding
– Program Officer is the point for the final decision
– Budget and scope negotiation after review
Reviews
• Provided to PI
• Contains strengths, weaknesses and
recommendation
• Blueprint for resubmission if proposal declined for
funding
– However a different panel will most likely review a
subsequent proposal
– There are no guarantees in life
• Panel dynamics can affect the proposal evaluation
Debriefing
• Debriefing strongly recommended whether the
proposal is funded or not
• Will help to establish better relationship with
Program Officer
• Will provide insight into program requirements
• Program Officer can describe the “ambience” in
the room and not just the conclusions
• A face-to-face meeting with the Program Officer
will yield the best information
Proposal Implementation
• Get a fast start – even before formal award
• Subcontract generation is usually the
biggest problem
– Work should start even before subcontracts are
completed
– Tight subcontracts are needed in case of trouble
– Most institutions have standard language for
this
Proposal Implementation
• Set up meeting dates a year at a time
• Establish a web presence and reserve URLs
• Visit the Program Officer as soon as
possible after award for formal debriefing
and to show start-up progress
Proposal Implementation
• Communicate with Program Officer on a
quarterly basis
– Quality quarterly reports will set you out from
the other winning proposals – quarterly visits
will really set you apart
– Submit all required reports on time
• Affects subsequent proposals
– Communicate program changes to Program
Officer and keep a written record of notification
Bias
• Hiring proposal writers isn’t helpful unless
expertise transfer occurs
– Need expertise in own organization
– Writing is only part of the game
– Success is strongly influenced by the content
• Proposal writing can’t be an “as time
allows” activity
General Helpful hints
• Never start a proposal with less than 3 months to
the preproposal or full proposal submission
deadline
– My personal limit is 6 months
• Scale the effort required to the expected reward
– Small award amounts should take small amount of time
• For new solicitations, the proposal organizer
should know the solicitation is going to be
released before it is released
• Give calls from funding agencies highest priority
Summary
• Flowchart (ahhh, a programming term) of
how to create and submit successful
proposals
• There is no one “right” way to do this
• Proposal writing is a stressful experience
• Success (or “hit”) ratio is important
• Reward vs. effort is important
Reference
• Proposal Planning & Writing, Lynn E.
Miner and Jerry Griffith, Oryx Press, 1993.