How to Write Proposals

This is still a work in progress, again, always take everything I say with a grain of salt, I am not liable for this advice, take this at your own risk, this is put out into the world with only good intentions. At this point in my career (2023) I’ve now been on over a dozen different proposals, mostly for NASA funding. I’ve attended proposal writing classes, I’ve sat on NASA proposal review panels, and I’ve approached proposals from both the engineering and science sides of a team. I enjoy seeing what goes into these proposals, because when it comes down to it, a proposal is basically someone’s formally documented dreams and aspirations. They’re creatively beautiful exercises in humanity’s pursuit of knowledge, and they’re a damn pain in the a$$ to write and put through whatever your bureaucratic system of choice happens to be.

Where to Propose

Well, it really depends on what your field is. For me, coming from planetary science and nuclear nonproliferation, my options have usually been NASA, NSF, DARPA, and DOD/DOE. There are also options like internal funding (e.g., LDRDs for National Labs, IR&D’s for private/non-profits, etc.) which typically have smaller page limits, smaller pots of money, and allow for less multi-institute collaborations. My personal favorite source of funding is NASA ROSES. My fiance Jon is in biomedical engineering, he might propose to something like the National Institute of Health, or again, NSF (National Science Foundation).

Regardless of which funding institute you’re applying to with your proposal, you need to make sure that whatever institute you’re working under is willing to help put your proposal application in (I learned this the hard way at ASU). Be sure to check with wherever you’re employed to make sure you can put your application through properly and give your admins plenty of lead time to get the appropriate paperwork together to submit on your behalf. Usually your admins will take care of your budget and contracts. If you’re applying as a contractor or under your own business, I highly suggest finding a financial expert to consult with on proposed budgets. I am not a financial advisor.

How to Start a Proposal

Assuming you’ve picked a place to propose and you have an idea that fits in with that institution’s top-level goals, you’re going to need to really make sure that your proposed idea will fit into the details. I’m going to use NASA ROSES from here out as my example funding institution.

Step 1: Identify Where Your Proposal Fits & Identify Your Team

Let’s use an example of the instrument that my advisor Craig proposed and I developed during my PhD, called SINGR (SIngle scintilator Neutron and Gamma-Ray spectrometer). So Craig had the idea to use the same nuclear detection crystal material from the NASA LunaH-Map mission but with a bigger crystal and to use it with a pulsed neutron generator in order to perform active neutron and gamma-ray measurements. Getting past the jargon, he had an instrument concept idea that needed to have its technical readiness level (TRL) increased to make it viable for use on future missions (spoiler alert: its now on LunarVISE, go Craig!). This idea falls under NASA ROSES PICASSO, a funding opportunity for instrument development from “napkin idea” (TRL 1) to “bench top system” (TRL 3) that puts out an Announcement of Opportunity (AO) through NASA NSPIRES; they now have an “always open” call with rolling applications for PICASSO. This is typically the last document listed under “Announced Documents.”

So two things happened here, first there was an idea, then there was identification of where it belongs in order to get it funded. Finding the appropriate funding match is your first priority! If your idea doesn’t match the AO, then you need to find some other place to fund it.

You need to read through the AO to make sure your idea fits in. Typically, AOs will be a dozen or so pages long (longer for bigger proposals, like missions) and will state exactly what needs to be in your proposal. They may have links in them to lists of topics that are currently major priorities for funding, definitely look at those!

After you’ve read through the AO (and potentially other documents), you’re going to want to identify major strengths your idea has for winning this proposal. You’re also going to want to come up with your proposal team, your timeline, an idea of your budget, and other things such as deliverables/outcomes/etc.. Proposals are no joke! They can take weeks to months to write (although I am guilty of writing and submitting one in two days).

To put your proposal team together, reach out to the relevant scientists and engineers you know who are likely to say yes to being on your proposal. Ask what time they can commit to a proposal and to the project overall. Figure out who on your team will be responsible for what. Will you have Co-I’s? Will you need Science Leads? Will you have Grad Students? Post Docs? I highly suggest keeping track of who, what, where, how much, and when in a spreadsheet.

Before you even start your proposal writing, gather your team in a proposal kick-off meeting and be ready with a slide deck to explain your vision. Be prepared for answering questions and be prepared to ask questions of others. Take good notes and send them to your team after! Create a shared drive or file repository (Box, Google Drive, etc.) so that all members of the group will have access to the proposal as it gets written and all supporting documents (the AO, useful papers, etc.). This process should be a lengthy discussion amongst interested colleagues.

Step 2: Proposal Summary & Outlining Your Proposal

Now that you’ve identified what you’re going to propose, where you’re going to propose it, and who you’re proposing it with, you’re going to need to start on the Proposal Summary and the outline. Think about the whole proposal as a story – what story are you trying to tell?

Proposal Summary

People approach writing their proposals in many different ways. Above all, it is common to start with the Proposal Summary, as this will typically be the Step 1 (1-page) in the proposal process that must be submitted ahead of the Step 2 (the full X-page long proposal – this is pretty NASA-specific). The Proposal Summary shouldn’t change much, if at all, between Step 1 and Step 2. Think long and hard about your Proposal Summary – the summary of your story – and keep it under the 4000 character limit. Eventually, you’ll use your Proposal Summary to write your Executive Summary (yes, they can be different, in fact, the Executive Summary can even look flashy). Brain storm the outline to the short story of your project, then write up your Proposal Summary.

Proposal Outline

Most AOs will have an outline for you to follow already (they may even require it and in a specific order, and again, using NASA ROSES as an example, typically the NSPIRES website compiles this into one document for you). This is an example of a typical proposal outline, not including subsections (specific instruments or whathaveyou):

0. Proposal Summary

  1. Cover Page
    • Includes Title and Table of Contents, could include a fancy logo if you choose
  2. Executive Summary
  3. Scientific/Technical/Management
    • Objectives, Rationale, & Relevance
      • Introduction
      • Background/Motivation
      • Goals & Objectives, typically in a table (e.g., STM; should also have science questions clearly indicated)
      • Relevance (Reference NASA Decadal, Moon-to-Mars, etc. specific goals)
    • Science & Methodology OR Payload Technical Information
      • Science/Payload information
      • Methodology/Experiment information
      • List of Tasks/ConOps, typically in a table
    • Project Management Plan
      • Schedule with Milestones, typically a Gantt chart
      • Include Risk Management/Identify Risks
      • May include a Project Roles chart
    • High End Computing (if using)
    • Summary
    • References
  4. Data Management Plan
  5. Detailed Budget (you’ll get from your institute)
  6. High-End Computing Request (if needed)
  7. Expertise and Resources (may not be required)
    • Short paragraphs on PI/Co-I’s/etc.
    • Facilities and Equipment
  8. Personnel and Work Efforts
  9. Budget Justifications
  10. Biographical Sketches (CVs)
  11. Current and Pending Support

You will typically be on the hook for supplying 1-4, 6, 7, 10, and any special requirements. Everything else (5, 8, 9, and 11) should typically be handled by an admin. Again, this is an EXAMPLE outline. Read the AO VERY carefully! They may request that you include extra sections or not include other sections! There will typically be an outline for you to follow! If there’s any reason to get rid of your proposal, it will be taken advantage of and your proposal will be scrapped! Make sure you include everything they require (including font size, page margins, etc.)!

Text taken directly from the ROSES Planetary Science Research Program Overview

NASA will also direct you to other documents that are helpful in writing your proposal. These typically include the NASA Proposer’s Guide, NSPIRES help page, and background information such as the Planetary Science Research Overview, amongst others. There’s typically also a proposal checklist (print this out, tack it up on the wall, check things off when you finish them).

Step 3: Writing Your Proposal like a Story

Now that you have a basic outline and your Proposal Summary, you need to detail your story. Proposal reviewers are reading dozens of these over the course of a week or two, and you want to stand out and not bore them, but most importantly, you want one of the reviewers to champion your proposal for you. You want an ally on the inside – “that one reviewer” – so get ready to be convincing, detailed, succinct, and #innovative.

After Step 1 and the Proposal Summary are fine and dandy (and you’ve likely submitted it after having your collaborators review it, and entered everyone’s information into NSPIRES or whatever other institute online form is required), you are ready to start on Step 2, the full proposal document. Again, stick to your story, but now expand on those details and follow the outline. Be sure to assign roles to collaborators as needed and delegate writing and figure-making tasks.

The Champion Reviewer’s Money Figure

All credit goes to my friend and colleague, Dr. Sierra Ferguson, for this brilliant idea and explanation. One of the most important things you can have in your proposal, in my opinion, and which will allow a reviewer to better champion your proposal, is a money figure. Your money figure is a creative and all-encompassing diagram that shows the various stages or tasks that should occur during your funded project. I have included an example of my money figure from a proposal that I didn’t win (understandable, I wrote that proposal in two days and had a half-baked idea, still got a “Good” on my review!), to demonstrate the concept of a proposal money figure.

Example of a proposal money figure, showing the tasks (1, 2, 3), science occurring (SEP science, Mars moon potato target), and deliverables (output data +15% recovered GRS data during SEP events). (c) Lena Heffern 2022.

In context of the broader proposal, and with the appropriate figure caption (which I’m not supplying here), this money figure becomes explainable by “that one reviewer.” That one reviewer can take this one figure, put it up in front of the review committee, and use it to explain your entire proposal in about five minutes. The money figure helps that one reviewer champion your proposal, it makes everything easier on all the other reviewers, and it makes your proposal sellable because it is easily explained. This is like having that really great resume that the recruiter sees and then takes to the hiring committee to get you more attention as a candidate. This is the figure that gets you the money, hence the name money figure.

More to Come on Proposals… again, this is a work in progress!

List of Future Topics

  • Types of Proposals
  • How to break down a timeline
  • How to break down tasks
  • Language in a proposal
  • Bang Boxes and their Uses

Acknowledgements

I learned about proposal writing from four main people in my career: Dr. Craig Hardgrove, Dr. Mark Robinson, Dr. Lindy Elkins-Tanton, and Dr. Sierra Ferguson. I also took a few NASA proposal writing classes, but these are the main people I have to give credit to for being so incredibly helpful.

Resources/References