Proposal Writing

Allow plenty of time to discuss your ideas with colleagues and others outside your discipline before you start to write. These discussions may help refine your argument and methodology and may bring related research to your attention. If possible, complete a first draft with enough spare time to share the text with critical readers.

Every funder will publish guidelines describing what issues or problems they seek to address with a particular grant program. Describe how your work serves the purpose of the grant and where possible, mirror the grant-maker’s language.

Funder guidelines not only describe what they want addressed in a proposal but how they want it presented, often in very specific terms. Usually proposals or responses will be limited to a specific length, whether in pages or, increasingly, character counts. They may request specific section headings. Some even prescribe font sizes and page margin widths. Read guidelines carefully and follow all directions. These may seem trivial, but they are not: some federal funders will not review a proposal, however meritorious, if it does not meet specific practical requirements.

Some funding programs require the submission of a pre-proposal as a means of managing grant competitions with large numbers of applications. If you plan to apply to such a program, you should treat the pre-proposal with the same care that you would a full proposal: the budget should be as accurate as possible and all approvals must be obtained via the internal transmittal form. A letter of intent is also used by some funding agencies to gauge expected submissions; in most cases, the letter is not an instrument in the selection process. Contact the Grants Office if a letter of intent is required.

The first draft you write is just that: a first draft. Be ready to revise and rework it to make it even better. Grants Office is ready to read, but you make sure someone – a trusted colleague or friend – reads your first draft to help you find the weak spots and polish the strong sections.

Errors in grammar and spelling may confuse your argument and they will definitely make a bad impression on busy reviewers.

Check out the Research Policy page for required forms that may apply to your project.

An increasing number of funding agencies, both public and private, require proposals be filed electronically. Online submission can make proposal preparation more streamlined and efficient, but it does not supersede the college’s institutional approval requirements. In other words, even if the technology permits the principal investigator to complete, upload, and send the proposal completely independently, they should not do so until the project has received institutional approval via the internal transmittal form.

Federal funding agencies use several online portals for submitting proposals. For example, the National Institutes of Health (NIH), for example, uses ASSIST and eRA Commons; the National Science Foundation (NSF) uses FastLane and Grants.gov; and the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) uses Grants.gov. Contact the director of faculty grants for more information about online proposals for your specific project.

Getting an early start on your proposal is especially important for government grants. Faculty members who plan to submit proposals to federal funding agencies should contact the director of faculty grants at least two weeks before the deadline to ensure that the necessary accounts and permissions have been set up. Early online submission allows us to correct any mistakes that pop up. Proposals to federal entities can only be submitted by the director of faculty grants and only upon completion of Trinity’s institutional approval.