writing successful science proposals andrew friedland & carol folt yale university press 2000...
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Writing Successful Science Proposals
Andrew Friedland & Carol Folt
Yale University Press 2000
Notes based on the book titled,
Getting Started
• Think Big• Avoid tunnel vision• Dream• Take your time
• Think of using starting exercises – critique proposals, accomplish administrative tasks, search the web for grant opportunities
Know your audience
• Basic research proposals – NSF, NIH, EPA, NASA
• Program initiatives
• Corporate funding
• Private non-profit organizations
• Call the program officer?
Authorship & Responsibility
• Discuss expectations from the onset
• Appreciate what goes into research
• Understand the responsibility of 1st authorship
• No one owns ideas, right? Learn the conventions of your field
Ethics and Research
• Responsibility and accountability
• Understand your obligations
• Give appropriate credit
• Remain objective
• Spend money appropriately
• Treat your co-workers with respect
Four Precepts for Communication
• Organize
• Highlight
• Funnel
• Focus
• All parts of the proposal from the summary to the methods benefit from these precepts
Basic Organization
• Project Summary
• Table of Contents
• Project Description– Prior results– Problem and significance– Introduction/Background– Research Plan– References
Pitfalls
• Failure to establish significance• Too many details about the wrong aspects of the
work• Failure to provide testable hypotheses • Good idea but weak design/approach• Inadequate skills of the investigator(s)• Poor presentation- messy, crowded, small font• Typos and other errors
Cornerstones of the Proposal
• Important questions
• The best and most appropriate methods
• Effective analysis and application
• Synthesis and timely dissemination
Titles
• Clear and concise
• Avoid jargon
• Buzzwords – good or bad?
• Cute and informal – good or bad?
• Questions
Weak Titles
• Does tectonic activity cause global extinction?
• Mathematical modeling of non-linear systems
• Erosion in streams- slip, sliding away?
• In search of the solar constant
Stronger Titles
• Analysis of pesticide transport pathways and degradation in natural wetlands
• Predicting the response of landscape modification in new England and Florida
• Reconciling molecular and fossil evidence on the age of angiosperms
• Spatially efficient management of a seawater-intruded aquifer
The Significance Statement
• This is the heart of your proposal
• Several ways to craft a strong statement:– Breadth and generality – Concrete contribution– Demonstrate basic and applied uses– Short and long term applications
Project Summary
• Not the same as an abstract to a paper
• Provide the template for the reviewer
• Check conventions in your field
• The two-paragraph model– Context, significance, succinct description– Techniques, important details, outputs,
summarize contributions
Objectives and Hypotheses
• What are the differences?
• Observe the conventions of your disciplines
• Placement in the proposal- several options
• Link your objectives and hypotheses to your significance – essential!
• Make sure your methods/design truly tests the hypotheses or meets objectives
Linking throughout the Proposal
• Title• Project Summary• Introduction/Background• Significance• Research design and methods
• Reinforce your goal, deepen and focus several places in the proposal
Introduction/Background
• Relevant literature review
• Preliminary data
• Conceptual or empirical model
• Justification of approach or novel methods
Introduction/Background
• Lay the foundation for your proposed work
• Key concepts
• Previous work (yours and others)
• Funnel from general to specific
• Follow parallel organization
Other issues in the Introduction
• References – how many, which ones?
• The role of models
• The role of figures, data, schematic diagrams
• The physical layout
• Funnel to your objectives/hypotheses
Problems with References
• Too many, too few
• Too old
• Too many to yourself or your advisor
• Poorly placed
• Mis-cited
Research Plan
• Overview of design
• Objectives, hypotheses and methods
• Analysis of expected results
• Timetable
Important Points for Organizing
• Provide roadmaps• Use parallel language and organization• Repeat a bit but add detail as you go• Organize,Highlight, Focus, Funnel• Use headers• Vary sentence length• Don’t put reviewers to sleep; make
everything easy for them!
Experimental/Research Design
• Give enough but do not get bogged down in detail
• Questions reviewers want to know:
- are these the best methods for this question?
- are methods proven and cited?
- feasible?
- precision?
Plan for the Unexpected
• Discuss expected and unexpected outcomes
• Do not have a proposal that rests on a single outcome for its importance
• Suggestions:– Expected results & significance– Future direction– Related research
Timeline
• This is a reality check for you and the reviewers