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On Preparing Proposals: Comments from Both Inside and Outside NSF

On Preparing Proposals: Comments from Both Inside and Outside NSF. Xiaodong Zhang The Ohio State University. Job Requirement in Research Universities. Fund-raising for research is an unwritten requirement for faculty in US research universities.

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On Preparing Proposals: Comments from Both Inside and Outside NSF

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  1. On Preparing Proposals: Comments from Both Inside and Outside NSF Xiaodong Zhang The Ohio State University

  2. Job Requirement in Research Universities • Fund-raising for research is an unwritten requirement for faculty in US research universities. • It is an important part of faculty research activities. • Grants serve as a critical input (“fuel”) of research. • Experimental and most CS work are grants dependent. • Research/education programs and infrastructure will be improved by continued contributions of external grants. • Part of the univ./college/dept. budgets come from grants. • Research expenditure is an important consideration for national ranking of univ./college/department.

  3. Value of a Successful Proposal • A research proposal contains visions, targeted problems, and plans on what we are going to do. • The review process is a serious and rigorous. We must convince a funding agency and the research community. • The reward of a successful proposal: • Supporting research activities: RAs, Postdocs, ourselves, travels, and contributions to univ./college/dept. • Gaining recognition in the community: the significance and importance of the research are positively judged and approved by our peers.

  4. Where are the Funding Sources? • Government funding agencies • National Science Foundation (basic research and Ed.) • DoE (Office of Sciences), DoD (DARPA, AFOSR, ONR), DoEd, DoA, NASA ... (can be Mission-oriented) • Industries • Agreements and contracts with Companies, and Labs • Limited unrestricted funds. • Private Foundations • Sloan, Guggenheim, HP, …

  5. Computer science/mathematics 74% Social sciences 56% Atmospheric/earth/ocean sciences 51% Engineering 49% Physical sciences 38% Life sciences 6% Psychology 2% NSF Academic Research Obligations (99)(The percentage for CS is much higher now: 90+%) NSF-22

  6. NSF invests in the best ideas from the most capable people, determined by competitivemerit review. Merit Review Criteria • What is theintellectual meritof the proposedactivity? • What are thebroader impactsof the proposed activity? NSF-11

  7. Types of Proposals • Basic Research • Regular proposals (annual competitions with specific scopes) • Special proposals (such as CAREER) • New Initiatives (such as ITR, Sensors, high-end …) • Fellowships for graduate students and Postdocs. • Research Infrastructure • building/updating experimental research environment • Curriculum development • developing new classes, updating teaching labs, … • Special programs • International collaborations, funding for minority institutions, ...

  8. Common Mistakes in Proposals • NSF should fund me based on my past record. • Massively cut and paste published papers. • Giving detailed descriptions on what I am going to do. • If you know everything, it is not research, but engineering. • The problem is highly difficult/complex, but … • The importance and significance of the problem is not clear. • Big visions but vague and unfocused on what to do. • Lacking a thorough study on related work. • The proposed work will not fly due to technical flaws. • The budget is unrealistic to the workload. • Already cover committed to current projects.

  9. A Career Proposal has its Unique Requirement • An academic ``Career” is not just research. • It is a 5-year plan of integration between research/education. • The research vision should have a 5 year scope. • Education plan should be very innovative and thoughtful. • What are other criteria? • PI’s Publication record. • Internal (Institution) and external (e.g. industry) support. • Minor: geographic distribution and diversity. • Who are in the panel? (often academia folks only) • Senior faculty: full professors/department chairs • Tenured associate professors who were supported by Careers • Assistant professors of recent Career awardees

  10. Impact of CISE Reorganization • Purpose of cluster-based management • Increase communications among related research topics. • Attempt to eliminate duplicated funding. • An example: CCF CPA cluster: • Arch. (T. Pinston), SE (S. Greenspan), HPC (A. Chtchelkonova), Viz, (L. Rosenblum) CAD (S. Busu) • The cluster will organize different panels among POs. • The budget is given to a cluster, not to a program. • A submission is not explicitly placed to a program • A contact is necessary if PI wants to be handled by a PO. • A cluster can be very effective for a set of closely related topics, such as Arch. and compiler.

  11. General Suggestions • Building a strong research record. • Establishing unique identity and reputation. • Separating the writings of proposals and papers. • A research vision rarely comes from papers, but: • Real world problems from industries and society • Discussions with different kinds of people. • Widely building effective research collaborations. • Contacting and visiting program directors. • Participating NSF panels.

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