Tips and More

• On the Art of Writing Proposals: Some Candid Suggestions for Applicants to Social Science Research Council Competitions

  • Brief, to the point, and full of good ideas for any grant-seeker, including: “To write a good proposal takes a long time. Start early. Begin thinking about your topic well in advance and make it a habit to collect references while you work on other tasks. Write a first draft at least three months in advance, revise it, show it to colleagues. Let it gather a little dust, collect colleagues' comments, revise it again. If you have a chance, share it with a seminar or similar group; the debate should help you anticipate what reviewers will eventually think. Revise the text again for substance. Go over the language, style, and form. Resharpen your opening paragraph or first page so that it drives home exactly what you mean as effectively as possible.”

• How Not to Kill a Grant Application

  • written in installments, and you can get started here.

• NIH-NINDS How to Write a Research Project Grant Application

  • “Although the advice provided in this document is relevant to all research grants, it is geared toward the traditional research project grant (R01).”

• NIH-NIAID How to Write an Application Involving Research Animals

  • “Explains procedures for writing an application and then applying for and maintaining an NIH grant application for research that uses animals.”

• Making the Right Moves: A Practical Guide to Scientifıc Management for Postdocs and New Faculty

  • See Chapter 9 - “Getting Funded” for information on the NIH and NSF funding processes and how to prepare a strong application and budget.

• What to Say-and Not Say- to Program Officers

2020 CLASP Webinars on Fellowship Applications

The following resources and presentations are put together by our peers at Carleton and Grinnell. They contain roundtables with faculty members at our peer schools who have won competitive grants and fellowships about the process of applying from a small liberal arts college.

• Guggenheim Fellowship: Advice from Winners at Liberal Arts Colleges
• ACLS Fellowship: Advice from Winners at Liberal Arts Colleges
• NSF CAREER: Advice from Winners at Liberal Arts Colleges

2017 CLASP Conference

The following resources and presentations are from the 2017 CLASP conference. For faculty who are interested in applying for NIH grants, these documents may be of interest.

• Best Practices for Mixed Methods Research in the Health Sciences

• R01 Sample Application 1 -- full application, including all forms and narrative documents

• R01 Sample Application 2 -- NIH-annotated introduction to resubmission section as well as annotated specific aims and research strategy

• R01 Sample Application 3 -- NIH-annotated specific aims and research strategy

• R01 Sample Application 4 -- NIH-annotated specific aims and research strategy

• R15 Sample Application -- full application, including all forms and narrative documents

• R15 Guide for Reviewers

For faculty interested in applying to the American Philosophical Society, don't miss these documents.

• APS Fellowships

• APS PowerPoint Presentation

2017 NSF Grants Conference

Please find PowerPoint documents and videos of the 2017 NSF Grants conference here. 

2016 NSF Grants Conference

Sponsored Research attended the NSF Grants Conference (November 14-16, 2016) in Pittsburgh, and has posted several of the presentations below. Let us know if you have any questions or want to discuss any of the presentations in more detail!

• Proposal Preparation

• Merit Review

• IT Modernization Initiatives at NSF

• Biological Sciences (BIO)

• Computer & Informationan Sciences & Engineering (CISE)

• Education & Human Resources (EHR)

• Engineering (ENG)

• Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) Program

• Geosciences (GEO)

• Mathematics & Physical Sciences (MPS)

• Office of International Science & Engineering

• Social, Behavioral & Economic Sciences (SBE)

• Award Management

• Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) Program

• Major Research Instrumentation (MRI) Program

• NSF Award & Financial Reporting Process

• Types of NSF Funding Opportunities

Workshops hosted by Office of Sponsored Research

• Data Management Workshop with Moacir de Sá Pereira, Research Data Librarian at Columbia University - April 2019

• Managing Your Grant Funds at Barnard - October 2017

  • Approval Procedures

  • Expenditure Policy

  • Grant Spending Procedures Overview

• Data Management Workshop with Columbia Center for Digital Research and Scholarship - November 2015

  • Checklist provided by Columbia Center for Digital Research and Scholarship