External Funding and Collaboration

NSF Teacher Enhancement

Summer Institute

Champaign, IllinoisJuly 2002

What we’ll cover

• 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 pre-proposal 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– “In-kind” is common– Personnel time is common– Cash is rare

Who should organize collaborative proposals

• Characteristics of good proposal leaders– 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 …)– 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/funding scontact 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– Recipient of a percentage of the overhead collected– 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

• 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)?– 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– Government agencies– State agencies– Industry– Foundations– Your own institution

Funding Opportunity Identification

• Government agencies– Know the politics

• http://www.whitehouse.gov/infocus/education

• http://www.nochildleftbehind.gov/

– National Science Foundation www.nsf.gov• http://www.ehr.nsf.gov/ehr/esie/ (ESIE program website)

– Department of Education www.ed.gov• http://www.ed.gov/index.jsp (Grants)

– Department of Energy http://www.energy.gov

NSF Opportunities

• Instructional Materials Development (NSF 02-067)

• Centers for Learning and Teaching (NSF 02-038)

• Informal Education (NSF 0160)

Department of Education

• Go to Department of Education web site

• Click on “Grants and Contracts” tab

Funding Opportunity Identification

• State agencies– State department of public instruction

• E.g. North Carolina http://www.dpi.state.nc.us/

• Use search function on keywords like “grants” or “funding”

Funding Opportunity Identification

• Industry– Intel http://www97.intel.com/education/index.asp

• Intel National and Community Grants– http://www.intel.com/education/sections/corporate3/index

.htm

• Matching Gifts/Volunteer Matching Grants Program

– Microsoft http://www.microsoft.com/giving/

Funding Opportunity Identification

• Foundation– Generally on the web

– Books of foundations

– Generally every large corporation has a foundation• Intel (www.intel.com)

• Compaq (www.compaq.com)

• Microsoft (www.microsoft.com)

• Burroughs Wellcome Fund– http://www.bwfund.org/science_education.htm

Funding Opportunity Identification

• Foundations– http://fdncenter.org/

• Search by keyword

• Search by state

• Grant maker search 3.0

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

• 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

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• 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. All must be engaged

– Collaborators who are “too busy” – 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• 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– 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

– Background– Need– Project Partners and Roles– Goals and Objectives– Outcomes

Proposal Outline

• Project Description (cont’d)– Project Design– Technology Plan– Work Plan– Project Management– Key Personnel– Advisory Committee– Evaluation Plan– Dissemination Plan– Institutionalization

Proposal Outline

• Institutional Resources Available• Bibliography• Biographical Sketches• Budget

– PI institution– Subcontracts

• Current and Pending Support (NSF)• Project Data Sheet (NSF)• Letters of Support

Budget

• 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

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:– Negotiate with your institution on indirect costs– Increase cost sharing– Decrease scope of work and decrease cost– 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 pre-proposal 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.