Proposal Development

Timeline: The timeline for every grant is different. One thing is for certain when you applying for a grant, by the time you sit down to actually apply you have already invested numerous hours.

Each funding agency has different policies and award amounts, making it impossible to give one timeline. Instead, we hope to give you the tools to develop your own timeline to ensure timely submission of quality proposals.

Working backwards

Final step: The University of Alabama’s Office for Sponsored programs will submit the completed application to the agency. All applications are submitted by OSP because the grant is awarded to UA and not the PI. Instead, the PI administers the project for UA. Therefore, each grant is thoroughly reviewed by the appropriate Grant and Contract Specialist. View the List Here

Each complete proposal needs to be submitted to OSP no later than 4 business days before the due date accompanied by a completed and signed (by the PI, department heads, and Deans associated with the proposal) Internal Coordination Sheet

It is recommended that you contact your Grant and Contract Specialist as early as possible to allow them to review the guidelines for the particular program in which you are applying, so that they can pass on any pertinent information.

To further expedite your submission, you are encouraged to submit, via e-mail, all non-narrative information as early as possible. That way, the Grant and Contract Specialist will have time to finalize the budget within university regulations and to make sure all the forms are filled out in accordance with both university regulations and grant specific regulations.

Resources for Writing

• The University of Alabama offers a program in grantsmanship for new investigators (link to come).
• The Office of Sponsored Programs offers a variety of workshops that can aide in preparing your grant. (link to come)
• The CFDA website has a comprehensive guide to writing a proposal. http://12.46.245.173/cfda/cfda.html
• NSF
• The Foundation Center has a short tutorial http://foundationcenter.org/getstarted/tutorials/shortcourse/index.html
• Dr. S. Joseph Levine of Michigan State University provides a comprehensive step-by-step guide. http://learnerassociates.net/proposal/
• Dr. Jacob Kraicer of the University of Toronto offers his guide to grantsmanship. http://www.hfsp.org/how/ArtOfGrants.htm
• The NIAID has both a guide to developing (http://www.niaid.nih.gov/ncn/grants/plan/plan_a1.htm) an NIH grant and a guide to writing http://www.niaid.nih.gov/ncn/grants/write/write_a1.htm an NIH grant

Budget Resources

• Your Grants and Contract Specialist (Listings Here) can help you write your budget.
• Templates
• Instructions (link to come)
• University policies
• Examples (link to come)

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