A Practical Path for Proposal Planning

P4 Recommended Timeframe

• Begin 7-10 months before proposal submission

P4 Recommendations

• Develop a Feedback Group that can include Program Officer (PO), Colleague, and Generalist (RSI) to become a sounding board for your idea.
• Contact Value Creation Initiative (VCI) for help in honing the value proposition of your idea
• Draft a Project Summary based on NSF Requirements (1 page, 11pt font, subheadings: Overview, Intellectual Merit, Broader Impacts) directed towards reviewers not in your discipline
• Ask (yourself/others) if your ideas are laying a strong proposal foundation

Additional Resources

• Internal SharePoint P4 site 

   

P4 Recommended Timeframe

• Begin 5-8 months before proposal submission

P4 Recommendations

• Contact Gordon Library to set up Pivot Account
• Contact RSI to help curate funding opportunities based on your Generated Idea
• Submit your drafted Project Summary to NSF Program Suitability & Proposal Concept Tool to determine suitability of a project idea prior to submission of proposal
• Search for funding using grants.gov and/or research.gov
• Read curated solicitations carefully for eligibility
• Adjust your Generated Idea as needed to fit solicitation
• Communicate with Feedback Group as needed
• Build the appropriate team based on solicitation
• Consider team members contribution to the diversity in science (underrepresented groups according to NIH’s Interest in Diversity) and National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics)
• Contact collaborators (unfunded and/or funded) to include them in the planning stage
• Consider the roles of your team members on your project
• Ask if you need to include Education & Outreach activities
• Communicate with Facilities directors if solicitation requires acquisition or development of new instrumentation

NSF Recommendations: What to look for in a Program Solicitation?

• Goal of Program (does your Generated Idea fit the Goal)
• Eligibility (are you/the Institution eligible to apply?)
• Special proposal preparation and/or award requirements (what will you need to prepare?)

Additional Resources

• Internal SharePoint P4 site

P4 Recommended Timeframe

• Begin 4-7 months before proposal submission

P4 Recommendations

• Submit NOI to begin working with OSP, Pre-Award (Authorized Organization Representative) in budget development and solicitation compliance
• Select desired RSI services (Planning, Review, Graphics)
• Request access to RSI Content Library for content related to supplemental documents (Facilities, Equipment, etc)
• Hold Planning session with project team, collaborators to develop Project Description outline and approach
• Draft budget with Pre-Award to inform proposal development. Is your budget realistic, reasonable, and justifiable? Does it include activities related to Education & Outreach if required? If so required, are these tasks innovative? 
• Draft Skim to Score graphics designed to aid reviewers to visually identify project overview, intellectual merit, and broader impacts
• Consider if your Broader Impacts are creative and connected to different stakeholders
• Register for research.gov and SciENcv if not previously done
• Finalize supplemental documents: Facilities, DMP, C&P, Biosketch, and COAs for all senior personnel

P4 Tip & Trick: To dedicate time writing your Project Summary & Description:

• Create or Update your account on research.gov
• Create your proposal submission record in research.gov and grant AOR (under Proposal Actions, click “Share Proposal with SPO/AOR”
• Create or Update your SciENcv account to Draft or Update your Administrative Documents
• Draft or Finalize your Administrative Documents:
  • NSF Biosketch
  • NSF Collaborators and Other Affiliates (COA)
  • NSF C&P
• Draft or Finalize your Supplemental Documents
  • NSF Facilities and Other Resources
  • NSF Data Management Plan
• Draft or Finalize your Budget
  • Using WPI Internal Budget Template
  • NSF Budget Justification

NSF Recommendations

• “Ask Early, Ask Often!”
• Review Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
• Project Summary: Get reviewers excited
• Project Description: Maintain that excitement
• “Make sure you're exciting the reviewers and not just yourself”
• Get a friend; are they excited about your work? Do they understand what you're doing? Is it readable by “smart, non experts?”
• Budget: “Ask for money for your Broader Impacts…Do you have everything you need for this project? Do you understand what you're doing? …It's a good place to demonstrate you're a good Project Manager” 

Additional Resources 

• Internal SharePoint P4 site

For Responsiveness to Evaluation Criteria & Compliance with Solicitation: 

P4 Recommended Timeframe

Begin 1-2 months before proposal submission date

P4 Recommendations

Provide enough time to send your documents to the feedback group to provide valuable feedback (and time to incorporate edits), as well as proofread and review for responsiveness and compliance

Additional Resources 

• Internal SharePoint P4 site

P4 Recommended Timeframe

Begin uploading all finalized documents 2-5 days before proposal submission

P4 Recommendations

• Work closely with Pre-Award to communicate document upload and last compliance checks.
• Communicate with Post-Award on any questions related to budget changes post-submission
• Hold a debrief session to discuss what worked/didn't work through the proposal development process to note for future proposal development

Additional Resources 

• Internal SharePoint P4 site

Purpose of templates: To build a foundation of your project idea based on key evaluation criteria of your proposed project. Templates are guides in proposal planning and not meant to be prescriptive; templates can also be used as a visual supplement to your project narrative. Your project narrative should seamlessly weave Broader Impacts (BI) and Intellectual Merit throughout 

Additional Resources

• Internal SharePoint P4 site