STANDARD PROPOSAL COMPONENTS

LETTER OF TRANSMITTAL.

The letter of transmittal serves the purpose of identifying for the use of the agency the name and telephone number of the project director and the university contracting officer so that questions concerning technical or fiscal details can be answered by telephone by the proper person quickly and easily. Proposals to foundations and corporations should include a letter of transmittal from the Executive Director of the Research Corporation. When a letter of transmittal from the president is needed, prepare a draft letter for the president to work from.

TITLE PAGE.

Some agencies include in their application packages a specific title page which should be used. In the absence of a formal title page supplied by the agency, we suggest that the project director follow the sample format. Unsolicited proposals should include the signature of the project director and the Executive Director of the Research Corporation on the title page.

ABSTRACT.

The abstract sums up the proposal. It is typically between 200 and 500 words long. While the abstract is the first component of the proposals the final abstract draft should be written after all other components of the proposal have been completed. The abstract is essential because reviewers sometimes weed out inferior proposals solely on the basis of a cursory reading of the proposal abstract. The abstract is the first impression the reviewers will have of the project.

The abstract should condense the narrative sections of the proposal, briefly describing your project, its background and significance, and the methodology you plan to use. It should state who you are, what you plan to do, and how you plan to do it. This is not easy in just half a page. Therefore, you should write the abstract last. But remember the abstract is not an afterthought: it is the first thing people will see. You want to make perfectly clear what you intend to do.

TABLE OF CONTENTS.

If your proposal is longer than four or five pages, you should include a table of contents listing the different sections the proposal contains. This gives reviewers, who are considering a number of proposals for possible funding, ready reference to the parts of your proposal. Always remember to number the pages of your proposal.

INTRODUCTION.

The next item after the abstract is the introduction. An introduction is not always required by the funding agency but should always be included. This portion of the document should be no more than two pages. It should state who you are and what you intend to do, a repeat and an expansion of the abstract. You should include in the introduction your qualifications and the resources which make the proposed project possible. When writing to foundations, it is particularly critical to establish the credibility of the organization in the introduction.

The introduction serves as an advance organizer for the reviewer so that he or she will know what to look for in the rest of the proposal. It should describe what is planned and what the major outcomes of the project are to be.

STATEMENT OF NEEDS / SIGNIFICANCE.

The statement of need identifies why this project is important; it describes the problem that exists and why it is significant. This is the section to indicate the key literature in the field and demonstrate your understanding of the literature. In the statement of need it is useful to include survey and statistical information based upon local vs. regional and national averages.

PURPOSE / OBJECTIVES.

The purpose section explains what this project proposes to do and the intended outcomes for the project. It provides the project goals and objectives. In it you identify the short and long-term expected result -- state objectives as outcomes or results. Objectives must be measurable, time limited, realistic and relevant and must relate to the problem statement. In a research proposal you identify the research hypotheses and questions. An effective objective states a desired outcome in measurable terms. After reading your objectives, the reviewer should have a very good idea of what you intend to do.

APPROACH - METHODOLOGY.

The approach section explains how your project will solve the problem that exists and the specific action steps that you plan to take in addressing the problem. The methodology identifies the research procedures you plan to utilize in the project. Your methods should be directly related to your objectives. There should be a direct correlation between what you intend to do and how you intend to do it. In describing your methods consider the questions that reviewers might ask about your approach to the problem. Your approach can be organized in several different ways: by activities tied to specific procedures; by functional categories such as planning; development, and implementation; or by major time blocks.

Why did you choose these methods? The methods section of your proposal is not just a description of your plan. It is a forum where you show why your chosen methods will solve the problem.

Why do you think these methods are better than others? This section is also where you show the funding agency why your proposed methods will work best.

How much time is required to carry out the methods? Is that time reasonable? Will it take longer than anticipated, or is too much time allocated to the method?

Does the investigator have any experience with these methods? Do you or anyone in the institution have any experience or track record in using the method? If you do not, how do you plan to acquire expertise?

When you outline your methods, it is important to tell the funding agency who will be responsible for implementing each phase of your project. The person responsible for carrying out a given phase should have the necessary qualifications to do the job. It is a good idea to repeat the relevant objective for each portion of the methods section. In this way the reviewers can tell which methods will be used to accomplish each objective. A project management table can be highly effective in depicting the relationship between objectives, activities, and expected outcomes. You can also use a management table to illustrate who will be responsible for each activity.

It is often wise to include a Project Timeline. The timeline tells when the planned activities in the methods and evaluation sections are to occur. The timeline provides a visual summary of project activities and sequence. In preparing a timeline, use months and not specific dates to describe the timetable in which activities will be accomplished. The use of months permits greater project management flexibility. Explain clearly the sequence and timing for each part of the project. Remember to allow time at the end of the project for the preparation of a final report. Above all, be realistic about how much you can accomplish in the period of time set aside for each part of the project. The persons reviewing the proposal will easily recognize an overly optimistic timetable.

If the procedures section takes up an undue number of pages, you can reduce the narrative considerably through the judicious use of appendices, tables, and illustrations. If the proposal is limited to a certain number of narrative pages, these devices can be particularly useful. Remember, however, that all material necessary for review should be included in the body of the proposal. Only supplementary material should be placed in an appendix.

Although requests for equipment are usually set forth in a separate section, additional justification for unusually expensive or specialized equipment can be stated in the procedures section to reinforce the budget request.

Organization and Personnel. The approach section should also describe the administrative structure of the project. It is a good idea to include an organizational chart listing key project personnel and their relationship to each other. If more than one organizational unit is involved in the project, the relationship between these organizations should be shown in the chart. In this section you can describe in greater detail the nature of your organization and how the proposed project will relate to the existing organization. The project staff, their qualifications, and their responsibilities should also be briefly outlined in the project. The resources and facilities which will be utilized in the project can be included in the organization section, or they can be in an appendix detailing equipment and facilities.

Future Funding. What are your plans for program continuation in future years? Most funding agencies do not want to fund a project indefinitely. It is in this section that you should describe how you plan to operate without grant funds after the initial funding period.

EVALUATION.

All projects should include an evaluation of accomplishments. A description of the evaluation usually follows the procedures section. The evaluation, which is normally carried out both during the project and after its conclusion, can be done in a number of ways. Its basic intent is to determine whether or not the project was successful in carrying out its objectives. A concise description of the evaluation design is essential, particularly in educational and social welfare proposals. A functional evaluation should provide both process and outcome assessment, and an analysis of the impact of the project.

A formative or process evaluation and a summative evaluation should be included in this section. A formative evaluation responds to the question: Are you doing what you said you would do? Example: 100 students were tested; three staff were hired; etc. A summative evaluation reports outcomes or products. Did you accomplish your objectives? Example: 40% of the cohort of students selected to take the final exam scored 75% or higher.

It is also helpful to have internal review by the project director and/or an advisory board, and external review by a consultant. Contact the OGCD for additional assistance in developing an effective evaluation.

DISSEMINATION.

While projects generally result in published papers in professional journals, many agencies require additional means of disseminating the results. A statement explaining methods for dissemination should be included at this point. Dissemination of the results may take the form of a conference or workshop, project newsletter, production of audiovisual material, travel to a meeting to report results to potential users, or other means. For obvious reasons, agency, foundation, and corporation officials welcome understandable reports on successful projects.

REFERENCES / LITERATURE REVIEW.

Proposals should include a list of references of pertinent literature in the field. This list should be as current as possible at the time the proposal is prepared, citing the most important advances in the field to date. It is not necessary to provide an exhaustive list of publications on the topic.

APPENDICES.

Appendices may be used to indicate data of peripheral benefit to the project (i.e., reprints of articles, subcontract data, letters of support, tabular data, and graphs). The use of appendices is recommended, particularly when a sponsor limits the length of the proposal to a specified number of pages. All appendices should be referenced in the proposal, and the effectiveness of appendices is significantly increased when they are clearly numbered for easy reference.

Biographic Sketch/Vita. A biographical sketch or vita should be included for all essential project personnel. The biographical sketch should clearly indicate the qualifications of the individual to carry out the designated role in the project. A complete list of publications of the individual is not needed if the list is lengthy. List only those citations that relate to the work described in the proposal. The professional experiences section should include relevant activities related to the project. What is listed in the biographical sketch should support other descriptions of the individual contained in the proposal and should usually be limited to no more than two pages. Refer to the funding agency's instructions regarding page limits.

Letters of Support. For some proposals it is desirable to include letters of support. Letters of support should be included only if they are related to the nature of the project that is being presented. If the project is a cooperative effort between two or more units within the same institution or more than one institution, then letters of support should be included which indicate a willingness to participate. If the proposal indicates that significant contributions to the project will be made by the sponsoring institution, then a letter of support is required to indicate that support. If you plan to have community involvement, letters of support from appropriate community groups are needed. Be sure that these letters clearly state the type of support that will be provided and that the individual is enthusiastic about that support.

Letters from members of Congress or other political figures should not be used unless they will have some direct involvement in the project. Whatever you do, don't include letters that are exactly the same. Each letter should be individually written and appear unique even if the same type of support is being provided. A useful tool in getting an effective letter of support is to draft a "sample letter" to serve as a working format for the person writing your letter of support. Again, limit letters of support to only those key individuals whose support is required to have the project succeed.

Equipment and Facilities / Resources. Most proposals should include a section on equipment and facilities to be used on the project. These may be items of equipment which the proposal is requesting the agency to purchase for the project director's use, or they may be items currently at the University which are going to be made available to the project. It is critical that major items of equipment and facilities either requested or being supplied by the University are clearly identified so that reviewers know that the project director and the University have the resources necessary to carry out the project described in the proposal. In addition, many federal agencies now require certification as to the non-availability of capital equipment at the time of proposal submission.

Additional Supporting Materials. In some instances it is necessary to include additional supporting information with your proposal. Items to include in the appendices are items too long to include in the text; information that supports assumptions made in the text; anything that would break up the flow of your proposal or make it boring to read.

A word of caution about appendices - Reviewers often don't read them, and sometimes they don't receive them from the funding agency. If an item is essential to your proposal, it should be contained in the body of the grant and not placed in the appendix.