BEST PRACTICES A Dozen Pieces of Tested Advice by Gil Harootunian, PhD Director, ORSP

#1: Program Guidelines Read (then re-read) the sponsor’s Program Guidelines. The guidelines make explicit ‘eligibility thresholds.’ Research or teaching priorities Funding ceilings, floors, or allowances Standards for expert evaluation Supplementary requirements or documents; etc.

#1: Program Guidelines Examples National Endowment for the Humanities Department of Education National Science Foundation Outline the critical requirements. I create a “Summary Sheet” for every major grant that I work on—see Handout. “Summary Sheet” is a quick guide during planning and during submission.

#2: Past Awards From past awards, you can deduce implicit expectations (vs. explicit expectations in Program Guidelines). What are they actually funding? You are ‘reading between the lines’ of the Program Guidelines. Discern Funding Trends. Department of Education

#2: Past Awards Other examples National Endowment for the Humanities National Science Foundation Department of Education Outline—and then consult frequently.

#3: Touch Base w/ ORSP We will— Translate ‘sponsor-ese’ into plain English. Share experiential knowledge of what gets funded (and what does not). Explain both internal and external procedures.

#3: Touch Base w/ ORSP We will— Elaborate on sponsor prerogatives like “positive accountability.” Example: “GRPA” Elaborate on most common reasons for declension of a grant application. An excessive or poorly justified budget (NSF). Why? Indicates that project is poorly designed.

#4: Touch Base w/ Program Officer Example: After you have studied the program guidelines and talked w/ ORSP, contact sponsor’s program officer to see if your idea is competitive. NSF requirement Keep in touch w/ program officer between applications or between pre- and post- award.

#4: Touch Base w/ Program Officer Cycle back: discuss w/ staff in ORSP the highlights of your discussion w/ sponsor’s program officer. Share and store knowledge for future applications. Verify program officer’s comments (no human is infallible). Be careful you do not hear what you want to hear.

#5: Heed the Reviewers Question: Whom should you heed? Answer: Always heed the reviewers. Team of experts reviews and—importantly—responds to your project. Reviewers have more say than anyone else in the funding of your project. That is why second-time submissions have the highest funding rate. Most program officers (if asked) will repeat all this.

#6: Form Teams Disciplinary Interdisciplinary Readers Mentors “De facto team” w/ reviewers [who remain anonymous]

#7: Leverage, leverage, leverage A.k.a., “Bang for the Buck” Example: National Science Foundation’s “Math and Science Partnerships” See Handout

#8: Network, network, network Read notices in professional journals. “How I Got My First Grant” tale Visit sponsor booths at professional conferences. If time and resources permit, go to federal agency workshops. The feds are fast becoming the ‘gold standard’ in external funding.

#9: Be Resourceful Use resources. Do not re-invent the wheel. ORSP resources Sample Budget Narratives Evaluation guidelines Letters of support guidelines and samples Sponsor resources NIH “OppNet” ―Basic Behavioral & Social Sciences Opportunity Network Do not re-invent the wheel.

#10: Disseminate…. Shows you are valuable member of the field. Advances knowledge in field. Assures sponsor of real mileage. Does not apply to salary or proprietary information.

#10: Disseminate…. Examples Articles Papers at conferences NSF: National Science Digital Library NIH: Pub Med Central NEH: Publicly accessible results

#11: Evaluation—Make It Good Sponsor ensures it is getting what it wants through on-going evaluation. Examples: Department of Education IMLS NEA

#11: Evaluation—Make It Good New standard = positive accountability (vs. old standard of negative accountability) Get objective, external evaluator. Formative and Summative Formative = strategy to monitor project as it evolves to provide feedback Summative = strategy to measure overall effectiveness and extent to which goals met

#12: Align w/ Sponsor’s Priorities Examples Scalability (a.k.a., Replication). Does sponsor want a project that can be scaled up regionally or even nationally? U.S. Department of Education National Science Foundation Sustainability Does sponsor want only projects that can be institutionalized? The Council for International Exchange of Scholars (a.k.a., Fulbright Program)

#12: Align w/ Sponsor’s Priorities Examples Community Engagement Does sponsor want more fluid boundaries between academy and surrounding community? National Endowment for the Arts Infrastructure Does sponsor want to strengthen department’s long- term capacity to support your work? National Endowment for the Humanities

#12: Align w/ Sponsor’s Priorities How can you be sure that you are aligning your project’s goals with the sponsor’s goals? Cycle back: Re-read the program guidelines.

Questions?

Follow-up Questions Gil Harootunian, PhD Director, RSP 8-0863 gharootunian@csufresno.edu