In last month's newsletter, I included a short article on the process of overall proposal planning.  During the next few months, I plan to focus on some common general sections of a grant proposal and provide tips for preparing these sections.

1. The Introduction -

Purpose of the Introduction - The introduction is a credibility statement that describes your professional and organizational qualifications and establishes the significance of your idea.  The introduction section establishes the tone of the whole proposal.  Beginning proposal writers focus on their own need for funds instead of using the introductory section to link their project with the sponsor's priorities.  Successful grant seekers capitalize on the partnerships they could potentially build and cast their projects in ways that mesh with sponsors' values and mission. The introduction section should not focus on the negative - do not start off the proposal by your lack of funding for the project.  Instead focus on the benefits of your project to the community at large. 

Key Questions to Answer -

1.  Have you clearly established who you are?

2.  Have you described your organizational goals?

3.  Have you clearly established your credibility in the project topic area?

--sections reprinted by permission, Miner and Associates, Inc.

Proposals Submitted February 2007

Dr. Tom Dasher and Dr. Debbie Heida - American Association of Colleges and Universities

Dr. Chris Mowry, Biology, National Science Foundation

National Science Foundation -

Upcoming Deadlines, March & April, 2007

• Chemical and Biological Separations, March 1
• Interfacial Processes and Thermodynamics , March 1
• Thermal Transport Processes, March 1
• Biotechnology (BTEC), March 1
• Environmental Sustainability, March 1
• Environmental Technology, March 1
• Undergraduate Research and Mentoring in the Biological Sciences (URM), March 6
• Informal Science Education (ISE), March 8
• Earth Sciences: Instrumentation and Facilities (EAR/IF), March 15
• Robert Noyce Scholarship Program, March 29
• Interdisciplinary Training for Undergraduates in Biological and Mathematical Sciences (UBM), April 4
• Ethics in Education in Science and Engineering, April 10
• Broadening Participation in Computing, April 11
• National Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics, April 11
• Advanced Learning Technologies, April 25
• Advanced Technological Education, April 26

National Endowment for the Humanities - Upcoming Deadlines

Digital Humanities Start Up Grant

NEH invites proposals for the planning or initial stages of digital initiatives in all areas of the humanities. Digital Humanities Start-Up Grants may involve:

Summer Seminars and Institutes

These grants support national faculty development programs in the humanities for school teachers, and for college and university teachers. Seminars and institutes may be as short as two weeks or as long as six weeks. The duration of a program should allow for full and thorough treatment of the topic.

Summer seminars and institutes:

• extend and deepen knowledge and understanding of the humanities by focusing on significant topics, texts, and issues;
• enhance the intellectual vitality and professional development of participants;
• build a community of inquiry and provide models of excellent scholarship and teaching; and
• promote effective links between teaching and research in the humanities;

Seminars and institutes may be hosted by colleges, universities, school systems, learned societies, centers for advanced study, libraries or other repositories, and cultural or professional organizations. The host site must be appropriate for the project, providing facilities for scholarship and collegial interaction.

Program formats

• Seminar for school teachers—15 participants
  A seminar enables fifteen participants to explore a topic or set of readings under the guidance of a scholar with expertise in the field. Participants may, for example, examine an important text, study works of well-known authors, or review significant scholarship on an important historical period or event. The principal goals are to engage teachers in and deepen their understanding of the humanities through reading, discussion, reflection, and writing in a manner that will help sustain their intellectual commitment to teaching. The director guides discussion of common readings and provides mentoring for individual study and projects.
• Institute for school teachers—25 to 30 participants
  An institute, which is typically guided by a team of core faculty and visiting scholars, presents the best available scholarship on important humanities issues and works taught in the nation's schools. Participants may compare and synthesize the various perspectives offered by the faculty, make connections between the institute content and classroom applications, and develop new teaching materials.
• Seminar for college and university teachers—15 participants
  A seminar enables participants with related interests to conduct scholarly research or focused study under the direction of an expert. The director designs a program of study to articulate key issues and focus discussion in seminar meetings. The director also advises participants on their individual projects.
• Institute for college and university teachers—25 to 30 participants
  An institute focuses on a topic of major importance in undergraduate curricula. Guided by a team of scholars, participants explore a challenging and complex subject. The primary goal is to deepen understanding of a subject in order to advance humanities teaching.

These four models allow for considerable variation. For example, seminars may be co-directed or they may include one or more visiting scholars who contribute additional viewpoints or scholarly expertise. Institutes may provide time for individual research, reading, or writing. Variations in format should be explained in the proposal and time and resource allocations fully justified.

NEH encourages Summer Seminars and Institutes designed to help teachers use electronic technologies for accessing resources and engaging students in active learning.

Seminars and institutes for school teachers should begin no earlier than late June and end before the middle of August. Projects for college and university teachers typically begin no earlier than the middle of June.

Participants should be chosen by a selection committee convened by the project director. Seminar selection committees customarily consist of three members: the director; one or two colleagues of the director who have special knowledge of the subject under study; and, in the case of school teacher seminars, a K-12 teacher, preferably someone who has participated in a previous seminar. Institute selection committees may be drawn from the scholars and master teachers who will contribute to the project and may include more than three members. NEH staff will provide general eligibility and selection criteria, along with guidelines for a standard essay.

Deadline:  March 1, 2007

National Endowment for the Arts -

Access to Artistic Excellence

Access to Artistic Excellence fosters and preserves excellence in the arts and provides access to the arts for all Americans.  March deadline focuses on public presentations and performances of artistically excellent works, new works, professional artistic development, and services that reach a broad constituency.

To explore available funding opportunities, click on the artistic discipline or field below that is most relevant to your project. In most areas, funding is limited to organizations. (Direct awards to individuals are made only through Literature Fellowships, NEA Jazz Masters Fellowships, and NEA National Heritage Fellowships in the Folk & Traditional Arts.)  Federal Partnership opportunities such as Save America's Treasures and Coming Up Taller are listed within the disciplines/fields.

Deadline:  March 12, 2007

International Research and Exchanges Board -

U.S. Embassy Policy Specialist Program

The US Embassy Policy Specialist Program (EPS) was established in 2005 to support US embassies and consulates overseas by providing policy specialists-in-residence. While serving at the embassy or consulate the specialists also conduct their own research. To date, EPS fellows have served missions in Baku, Azerbaijan; Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan; Dushanbe, Tajikistan; Ekaterinburg, Russia; and Vladivostok, Russia. EPS fellowships are one to two months. Grant length and dates are determined in consultation with the specific embassy or consulate. Examples of embassy service can include conducting field research, writing policy papers, consulting embassy staff, and assisting with grant panels. EPS is funded by the US Department of State’s Title VIII Program.

KEY OBJECTIVES

• Support US embassy and consulates overseas by providing resident scholars to conduct research and offer expertise

• Offer US senior scholars an opportunity to conduct research abroad while serving as experts to a US embassy or consulate in Eurasia

• Serve embassy and consulate and conduct their own research for approximately one month

Deadline:  March 30, 2007

Draper Richards Foundation

The Foundation provides funding and business mentoring to social entrepreneurs beginning nonprofit organizations. By delivering support at the critical start-up phase, the Draper Richards Fellowships help outstanding people create wide-reaching social change. The idea must be sustainable and scalable. The founder must have the skills to manage a national or global organization. The projects selected will demonstrate innovative ways to solve existing social problems. The Foundation will accept proposals for a variety of public service areas, including, but not limited to, education, youth and families, the environment, arts, health, and community and economic development. Based on the structure of a venture capital fund, the Foundation offers financial support as well as strategic and organizational assistance. Fellows will be required to present quarterly or annual milestone reports to the Foundation's Director.

The Draper Richards Foundation provides selected social entrepreneurs with funding of $100,000 annually for three years. The funds are specifically and solely for entrepreneurs starting new nonprofit organizations.

Creative Capital Foundation

Creative Capital Foundation, a New York City-based nonprofit organization, acts as a catalyst for the development of adventurous and imaginative ideas by supporting artists who pursue innovation in form and/ or content in the performing and visual arts, film and video, and in emerging fields. The Foundation supports work with the potential for significant artistic and cultural impact, and seeks to act as a catalyst for the development of adventurous and imaginative ideas. Creative Capital is interested in artists who are deeply engaged with their art forms and exhibit a rigorous commitment to their craft, as well as projects that transcend discipline boundaries. This year, the Foundation is accepting applications for the performing arts and emerging fields/ innovative literature program.

Creative Capital will support approximately 4-21 projects per discipline at initial levels of $10,000. With additional financial support provided by Creative Capital, a project may receive as much as $50,000 throughout the life cycle of the grant although the average amount is $35,000 per project.

Deadline:  March 5, 2007

Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts

Grants are made on a project basis to curatorial programs at museums, artists' organizations and other cultural institutions to originate innovative and scholarly presentations of contemporary visual arts. Projects may include exhibitions, catalogues and other organizational activities directly related to these areas.

The program also supports the creation of new work through regranting initiatives and artist-in-residence programs. The work of choreographers and performing artists occasionally is funded when the visual arts are an inherent element of a production. The Foundation also supports efforts to strengthen areas that directly affect the context in which artists work -- such as freedom of artistic expression and equitable access to resources.

In 2006 the Foundation inaugurated the annual Wynn Kramarsky Freedom of Artistic Expression award to recognize the work of organizations with a deep-seated commitment to preserving and defending the First Amendment rights of artists. Created in honor of the Foundation's former Board Chair, the grant rewards outstanding advocacy, legal, and curatorial efforts on behalf of those whose rights to free expression have been challenged.

Deadline:  March 1, 2007

Gloeckner Foundation

The Gloeckner Foundation awards grants for research and educational projects in floriculture and related fields at universities, colleges and Federal research institutions in the United States. The proposed research and educational projects must be of substantial importance, and the results made available to the interested public.

Grants are awarded on the basis of project outlines, including objectives as well as methods, procedures, materials, equipment and personnel involved in the project. Requests for only equipment are considered when supported by a research project outline. Grants are awarded on an annual basis, subject to review and renewal. The Foundation recognizes that research often cannot be accomplished in a single year. Grants, although approved for funding for only one year at a time, will be evaluated and considered for renewal upon receipt of a progress report, plans for the coming year, and a written request for continuation of funding.

Deadline:  April 1, 2007

American Educational Research Association

With support from the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) of the Institute of Education Sciences, the AERA Grants Program announces its Research Grants Program. The program's goals are: (1) to stimulate research on issues related to U.S. education policy and practice using NCES and NSF data sets; (2) to improve the educational research community's firsthand knowledge of the range of data available at the two agencies and how to use them; and (3) to increase the number of educational researchers using the data sets. Underrepresented minority researchers are strongly encouraged to apply. AERA invites education policy- and practice-related research proposals using NCES, NSF, and other national data bases. Research Grants are available for faculty at institutions of higher education, postdoctoral researchers, and other doctoral-level researchers. Applicants for Research Grants may be U.S. citizens, U.S. permanent residents, or non-U.S. citizens. Applications are encouraged from a variety of disciplines, such as but not limited to, education, sociology, economics, psychology, demography, statistics, and psychometrics.

Research topics may cover a wide range of policy- or practice-related issues that include but are not limited to: teachers and teaching, including supply, quality, and demand; policies and practices related to student achievement and assessment; policies and practices that influence student and parental attitudes; contextual factors (individual, curricular, and school related) in education; educational participation and persistence (kindergarten through career entry); at-risk students; early childhood education; US education in an international context; school finance; materials (curriculum) development, research and informal science education; undergraduate science, engineering, and mathematics education; the supply (pipeline) of students taking mathematics and science courses; the quality of educational institutions; and methodological studies. Researchers must include the analysis of data from at least one NSF or NCES data set in the project. Additional large-scale nationally representative data sets may be used in conjunction with the obligatory NSF or NCES data set. If international data sets are used, the study must include U.S. education.

Deadline:  March 1, 2007