Tips on applying for an NSF DDIGDoug Levey

Dept. of Biology

1. Why apply?

2. Understanding the Program and the Process.

3. What the proposal should look like.

1. Why apply?

• Good odds: 20-30% of proposals can be funded.

• It looks great on your CV

• It forces to you clarify your ideas and sharpen your pitch

• Guaranteed Feedback (don’t be afraid of failure!)

• Practice, practice, practice….

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2. Understanding the Program and Process.• DDIG = ?

Doctoral Dissertation IMPROVEMENT Grant

So, explain how the grant will help you fill in a “missing piece” of your work

• Always keep in mind that reviewers are– Human (under pressure, yet easily bored)

– Generalists (keep prose simple & friendly)

– Perfectionists

• Broader impacts are key (seek advice)

3. What the proposal should look like

• Perfect!• Convincing

– frame a Big Question (recent references!)– point out a missing piece– explain its importance– lay out your approach

Goal: “Why hasn’t anyone already done this? – it’s so obvious!”

• Must have hypotheses or explicit goals

3. What the proposal should look like

• Use different fonts; highlight key points

• Include figures and pictures

• Provide “preliminary” data. (You’re a senior graduate student, after all.)

• Take Broader Impacts very seriously. Show a track record, if you can. Be explicit about plans.

Example from a successful DDIG

Ecologists have long been challenged to understand species distributions and the ecological factors that maintain species range limits. Montane regions have allowed ecologists to study range limits for multiple species simultaneously because habitats and species composition often change abruptly along altitudinal gradients. Tropical montane regions should be key landscapes in this area of research because of their high species diversity and the concentration of range limits at small spatial scales along altitudinal gradients, which offers unprecedented opportunity to study replicated patterns. Credit: Jill Jankowski

Example

Ecologists have long been challenged to understand species distributions and the ecological factors that maintain species range limits. Montane regions have allowed ecologists to study range limits for multiple species simultaneously because habitats and species composition often change abruptly along altitudinal gradients. Tropical montane regions should be key landscapes in this area of research because of their high species diversity and the concentration of range limits at small spatial scales along altitudinal gradients, which offers unprecedented opportunity to study replicated patterns.

Example

Ecologists have long been challenged to understand species distributions and the ecological factors that maintain species range limits. Montane regions have allowed ecologists to study range limits for multiple species simultaneously because habitats and species composition often change abruptly along altitudinal gradients. Tropical montane regions should be key landscapes in this area of research because of their high species diversity and the concentration of range limits at small spatial scales along altitudinal gradients, which offers unprecedented opportunity to study replicated patterns.

From Panel SummaryBroader Impact Strengths: The broader impacts were

impressive. The co-PI has put a lot of time and effort into ensuring that her work will have the greatest impact on the most people. She works with US students, both women and minorities, mentors Peruvian students, and also does outreach to middle and high school students. Pollen samples new to the Neotropical pollen collection will contribute to a growing online database; a hummingbird-flowering plant photo guide, featuring hummingbird species for which pollen is being analyzed in this study along with their primary flowering plants in Manu will be produced. A set of three compact discs of recorded bird species from the montane forests of Manu, which are currently being organized by an undergraduate student and be available to researchers distributed beginning investigation with birds of the Peruvian Andes.

Broader Impact Weaknesses: None identified.