Step I: Clearance

Discuss your ideas with your department chair/unit supervisor, the central point between you, other faculty in your department and the president. The initial discussion of ideas prevents duplication, wasted effort, and inadvertent conflict with institutional priorities.

Step II: Consultation

Once you have been given the "go ahead" by your department chair, draft a concept paper for review by the Office of Grants and Research. The Office of Grants and Research staff can tell you of similar efforts currently being funded or being considered for funding (if any) at the university. The office can also provide you with a sense of national trends and priorities being adopted by a variety of funding sources. Once the Office of Grants and Research staff has developed a sense of what you want to do, a list of potential funding sources or prospects that might be interested in funding your project/program idea will be prepared and forwarded to you. You may also call or email us to find suitable funding opportunities for your initiative. After identification of the appropriate prospect, the Office of Grants and Research will assist you in gathering and interpreting agency guidelines. Most importantly, the office will help you meet your proposal deadline.

Step III: Organization and Writing

Early and careful planning can help you avoid a last minute rush. Begin by preparing a working outline, complete with dates for completion of each component of the outline. This outline will help to organize your thoughts and your activities, and it is especially useful if you are using a team approach to developing the proposal. Each team member can then be assigned a specific part of the proposal to develop. Once everything is done, a single person (usually the project director) should be assigned to put the pieces together and to make the document uniform.

Step IV: Budgeting

You should begin working on the budget after you have developed a realistic sense of the activities your project will undertake, the time frame, personnel involved, and equipment needs. After this, make an appointment with the Office of Grants and Research. The office can review your work and update you on current fringe benefits information, indirect cost rates and release time. This office can provide you with a copy of its guidelines and procedures.

Step V: Sign-Off

Circulate a near-to-final draft of the proposal to the Office of Grants and Research as well as to your department chair. Also submit an electronic copy of the proposal to the Office of Grants and Research, preferably in Word format. A proposal routing form needs to be completed, including your signature and the signature of your department chair. An application for external funding must also be submitted. You may request this form by contacting our office. Return the routing form and proposal to the Office of Grants and Research. We will transmit the proposal and obtain the necessary internal signatures needed for packaging and submission.

Step VI: Package and Submit

It is important that all proposals conform to university standards, including how they look and how they are packaged. The Office of Grants and Research can help provided you give enough advanced notice.

For lengthy government applications, this office will double check to make certain you have not omitted any items and will help you fill out required forms. For corporate and foundation applications, we will assist in packaging the application and will also provide you with a sample transmittal letter to be signed by the president.