UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, DAVIS

CAREER: Planning and Writing a Competitive NSF CAREER Proposal

Kenneth J. LohAssociate Professor

Department of Civil & Environmental EngineeringNano-Engineering and Smart Structures Technologies (NESST) Laboratory

NSF/CMMI CAREER Proposal Writing WorkshopUniversity of Maryland, College Park

April 8, 2014

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Disclaimer

There is no secret formula…

I am just like you…

I will do my best to share with you my experiences and

the important steps along the way

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Why the NSF CAREER Proposal?

It’s not that good of a deal… In my time, $400K over five years or $80K per year (less than an unsolicited

grant) Takes considerable more effort to plan and write

Possibilities offered by an NSF CAREER award: Steady stream of funding for five years Supplement awards eligibility Institutionalize new education and outreach programs

Other benefits: More visibility Tenure Recognition Investment for the future PECASE eligibility

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Multi-dimensional Approach

NSF CAREER Proposal

BOTTOM-UP

TOP-DOWN

RESEARCH EDUCATION

5. Why you?

4. What’s missing?

3. What’s your long-term goals?

2. What’s your passion?

1. Who are you?

6. Start the conversation

7. Find the right program

8. Plan the big stuff

9. Go make some friends

10. Communicate your vision

11. Ask for help

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BOTTOM-UP APPROACHQuestions that you should be asking yourself

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Bottom-up: 1. My Personal Roadmap

Birth :: Urbana, IL

GK-12 :: Taipei, Taiwan

Johns Hopkins University :: Baltimore, MD

University of Michigan :: Ann Arbor, MI

University of California :: Davis, CA

B.S. in Civil Engineering (2004)

• Chi-Chi Earthquake (Sept. 21, 1999)

• Urban damage detection using the synthetic aperture radar

• Bridge monitoring using wireless MEMS sensors (UC Irvine REU)

M.S. in Civil Engineering (2005) & M.S. in Materials Science & Engineering (2008)

Ph.D. in Civil Engineering (2008)

• Carbon nanotube-based thin films for structural health monitoring

Assistant Professor (2009 – 2014)

Associate Professor (2014 – present)• Nano-Engineering & Smart Structures Technologies (NESST)

Laboratory

• Multifunctional materials and structural health monitoring research

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Bottom-up: 1. My CAREER Roadmap

2009, January: Assistant Professor at UC Davis 2009, April: Decided to submit CAREER proposal (one of my first

proposals) 2009, July: Proposal submitted 2009, December: Proposal rejected

Sadness followed…

2010, January: Prepared and applied for NSF CAREER Proposal Workshop

2010, February: Rewrote and resubmitted CAREER as unsolicited proposal

2010, March: Attended workshop 2010, June: Unsolicited proposal awarded

Hope followed…

2011, July: Began proposal preparation and getting new preliminary results

2012, July: New CAREER proposal submitted 2012, December: Proposal awarded

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Bottom-up: 2. My Passion

Ask yourself these questions: What’s more important than sleep? What makes you want to skip a meal? What drives you to work those extra hours during the weekend? What fundamental research areas or problems are you passionate about?

Materials Science

Structural Engineerin

g

Biochemistry

Solve large-scale problems that

mattered to the world

Materials are everywhere, and

it’s how we interact with the

world

Controls the inner-workings

of the world

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Bottom-up: 2. Discovering My Passion

Citywide damage

assessment via satellite imaging

Wireless sensors for structural

health monitoring

Densely distributed

passive wireless sensors

Carbon nanotube thin films for

spatial damage detection

UG/MS

MS/PHD

UG

PHD

FOUNDATION FOR FUTURE RESEARCH

AND EDUCATION

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Bottom-up: 3. Long-term Goals

What are your long-term goals? Think 10 to 15 years ahead Consider research and education – are they integrated too? Write strategic plan for your career (and then change it later)

NSF CAREER award should be a major enabling mechanism that will help you attain your research and educational goals

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Bottom-up: 4. Knowledge Gaps

Identify scientific advancements needed or knowledge gaps Necessary for transitioning from current state-of-art to your long-term goal What is the need for research and students (education)?

Identify the progression of science or future trends/needs

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Bottom-up: 5. Why You?

Present compelling argument why you are uniquely positioned for solving that particular scientific problem

Use space in your project description Relate your past and current research to your proposed project

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TOP-DOWN APPROACHReach out, ask questions, and write a

responsive, integrated, research and education proposal

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Top-down: 6. Start the Conversation

Interact with NSF through different opportunities: NSF CAREER proposal writing workshop (check!) Physically go there and visit different program managers E-mail (maybe call) program managers Volunteer to serve on review panels Interact with program managers at conferences

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Top-down: 7. Find the Right Program

One of the most important qualities about any proposal is responsiveness

NSF CMMI website: http://www.nsf.gov/div/index.jsp?div=CMMI Read synopsis of each program and determine fit Can always meet, e-mail, or call program manager to learn more

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Top-down: 8. Plan the Big Stuff

Formulate your research question If question were to be answered, it should bring you closer to your long-term

goal Hypothesis-driven and/or scientific research questions Include research, education, and outreach objectives

Identify main tasks or milestones that need to be achieved to address goal

Present CLEAR objective for each task Organize tasks in LOGICAL fashion Do these tasks FIT within your proposed timeline of five years and budget? JUSTIFY that you are able to perform these tasks

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Top-down: 8. Feasibility

Eliminate reviewers’ skepticism by providing adequate preliminary results

Position yourself as: “high-risk, high-reward…but feasible” Clearly identify assumptions and what you are ignoring

Getting preliminary results for your proposal means starting very early

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Top-down: 9. Go Make Some Friends

Identify collaborators that are absolutely necessary for project success

Setting up meetings or calls to get letters of collaboration (takes a lot of time)

Department Chair letter Meet with Associate Dean(s) Support from Dean Resource planning/budget Leverage existing resources Campus programs/groups

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Top-down: 10. Read Before You Write

Before you start to write anything, read the CAREER solicitation (14-532)

PI eligibility (three tries) Tenure-track assistant professor No Co-PIs allowed Deadlines for certain divisions Project title: “CAREER: …” Page limits Broader impact and intellectual merit Project summary Project timeline Previously $400,000 budget (exact) Department letter Letter of support (1 page maximum) Data management plan (see GPG) Post-doctoral scholar mentoring plan Cost-sharing is prohibited Etc…

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Top-down: 10. Who is Your Audience?

REVIEW PANEL

Multi-disciplinary reviewers

Junior, mid-career, and

senior faculty

Your competitio

n

Over-committed versus un-committed

Believers versus non-

believers

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Top-down: 10. Write for Your Audience

Proposal needs to speak out to three levels of reviewers:

1. High-level

2. Overall content

3. Your ‘buddies’

Quick read Is proposal aligned to

agency? Quickly flip through Will not read carefully

Reading a magazine article

Knowledgeable, but not expert

Logical and comprehensive?

Does your plan make sense?

Detailed checking Colleagues and

competitors Technical experts Detail-oriented

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Top-down: 10. Psychology of Reviewers:

Proposal reviewed based on ‘intellectual merit’ and ‘broader impact’

P

P

F

G

V

E

F G V E

BI

IM

1253564

Greatest likelihood of funding

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Top-down: 10. Start Writing!

Important points to remember when writing: State and explain your long-term goal, objectives, and hypotheses Be clear and concise, not overly verbose Explain your methods and assumptions Answer the ‘what’, ‘why’, and ‘how’ Make it visually appealing (think magazine)

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Top-down: 11. Ask for Guidance

There’s a lot of value in having your colleagues and friends review your draft proposal (but grow a thick skin)

Friends, colleagues, or collaborators Recent CAREER awardees (probably ones that you know well) Department Chair

Other considerations: Request successful and unsuccessful CAREER proposals Serve on a CAREER panel (rare but possible)

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Presentation Summary

Vision: The long-term career goal of the PI is to drive innovative research and and to train outstanding personnel for maintaining and escalating United States’ role as the global leader in both research and education

Conduct potentially transformative, high-risk, high-reward research Prepare students for careers in a multidisciplinary, competitive, future job

landscape Develop and mentor outstanding young faculty

Objective: As a step towards this goal, the objective of this talk is two-fold…

To share my lessons learned during the PI’s CAREER proposal planning, writing, and reviewing stages

To test the hypothesis that workshop attendees will be more successful (statistically significant) at winning NSF CAREER awards in the next five years

Assessment: participant data will (hopefully) be tracked by NSF

Scope: Present to you important elements in planning and writing an NSF CAREER

proposal Use the PI’s planning process and proposal for illustrating specific techniques

UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, DAVIS

The PI thanks the National Science Foundation for the support of his research and the opportunity to

give this talk

This presentation would not have been possible without the help from:

Previous NSF CAREER Proposal Writing WorkshopAttending other proposal writing workshops

Mentors, role models, colleagues, and friendsProgram managers at NSF and other agencies

Anyone who has given me advice or suggestions…

Acknowledgements