Grant Playbook Theme 4

 

 Collaborative grants

This page serves as a guide for those who wish to work on a proposal collaboratively with others. 

 

The ideas present on this page are largely from Nita Tarchinski’s reflections on past proposals. Her advice is pulled from developing a January 2022 NSF IUSE submission to create STEM Equity Learning Communities (awarded), a February 2022 NSF S-STEM submission for collaborative planning (awarded), and a July 2022 NSF IUSE-intended submission for Bright Spots (not submitted). 

ORGANIZE

  • Identify a single person responsible for cleaning up the narrative and ensuring a single voice throughout the proposal

 

  • Have a clear shared working folder for drafts

 

  • Share deadlines for completing different parts of proposal early, noting that partner institutions may have different internal deadlines

 

  • Meet weekly with anyone writing the grant to discuss questions and motivate progress between meetings

 

  • Identify a feedback team and plan to send the draft for feedback a few weeks in advance of submission deadline. Include specific requests on areas for feedback

10 SEISMIC Institutions

Institutions

  • Decide which institutions will be in the budget early and connect with research administrators at each institution. Decide if you are submitting a collaborative proposal (every institution submits) or a single  proposal with subcontracts that send money to the other institutions. Note that indirect costs vary depending on the route

 

  • Decide who will be lead institution

 

  • Get letters of collaboration from the other SEISMIC institutions not included in budget

 

  • Note that including senior personnel from other institutions, even if they are not part of the budget, is allowed. In this case, the lead institution submits documents about external senior personnel, such as the biosketch, current and pending support, and collaborators and other affiliations

NARRATIVE

  • Sketch out the narrative for the project early

 

  • Do the Project Summary last, pulling heavily from early sections of Project Description

 

  • Put the section on Results from Prior NSF Support last

 

  • Make sure the review of relevant literature  is directly tied to the project activities. It is not meant to be a broad description of the field

 

  • If specific people for an advisory council, evaluation, or something else are called out, request letters of collaboration