1. 1 Writing a Successful CAREER Proposal - my personal experience Hong Liang Jordan Career Development Associate Professor Mechanical Engineering Texas A&M University NSF CAREER Workshop Fairbanks, AK Aug. 22-23, 2007

2. 2 At the Starting Line Start from the day one Manage time – teaching, research, and proposal writing… Generate preliminary results ◦ Student training ◦ Journal paper publication There are three years till midterm tenure review…

3. 3 Career Preparation What is the research focus? ◦ Unique and exciting ◦ Needs to be different from Ph.D. thesis ◦ Align with department and college mission ◦ Have local infrastructure support ◦ Lifelong research and learning

4. 4 Proposal Preparation Discuss your career plan with the department head and obtain support Do a thorough literature search ◦ Explore new ideas ◦ The literature review can be used for future publications Compare your idea with prior art ◦ Put in the format of tables or charts ◦ Potential impact should be clear at this stage ◦ Discuss with mentors

5. 5 Education Plan Set goals - don’t make a laundry list Be innovative but stay focused on achieving goals - Be unique and achievable Curriculum development ◦ Does your department need it? ◦ Will the school be better ranked because of it? Students ◦ Would they be better prepared for future? Community ◦ Will more people benefit from your effort?

6. 6 Writing the Proposal Read and follow NSF guidelines carefully ◦ Any sign of carelessness will cost the proposal… Objectives should be clearly stated and easy to find ◦ 1 st line in the summery, subtitles, or starting paragraphs Use figures and tables Be your own reviewer: what, why, how, and outcome

7. 7 Writing the Proposal Collaboration ◦ establish a strong connection but make sure to be independent Propose the exact budget Get help from local proposal office Have it reviewed by peers and senior colleagues Which program to submit? ◦ read winning award abstracts ◦ ask program managers

8. 8 Improving the Proposal Don’t take panel review comments personally ◦ You might have written the best proposal, but someone else wrote a better one Panel is formed of researchers from different areas ◦ Everyone should be able to grasp your ideas ◦ Consult popular science magazines Submit regular proposals Proposal writing skill is important for a successful academic career, so might as well enjoy doing it

9. 9 Be innovative Be persistent Be resourceful State Web Final Words Disney S.F. tour UAF Web

10. 10 Open Discussion