Proposal Development
Office of Research Development and Education (ORDE) has developed a variety of proposal development resources and has identified a variety of helpful resources related to proposal development that are available from funding agencies and other organizations as detailed below.
External Resources
American Council of Learned Societies (ACLS) - ACLS offers specific advice on writing fellowship proposals for their organization. Written by former ACLS program officer and humanities scholar Christina Gillis, she provides important information about proposal focus and the audience for whom you are writing in her article, “Writing Proposals for ACLS Competitions”
The National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) offers sample narrative sections from successful applications for review. Each NEH funding program has several available to give applicants good ideas on how successful NEH application narratives are constructed.
To review these sample application narratives, go to the web page listing all NEH grant programs and select the program of interest to you. In the column on the right of your screen titled “Guidelines Resources”, go down to Sample Application Narratives and select the one(s) you wish to read.
One other note about NEH: Many NEH funding programs provide opportunities for review of your draft application in advance of the deadline. NEH program staff read your draft and provide comments to you. While this does not guarantee an award, NEH indicates that many applicants have found this service helpful. Check the guidelines for your particular funding program to see if this service is available.
The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) has made available sample R01, R03, R21 and K applications complete with peer review summary statements.
The National Institutes of Health (NIH) has developed a database providing detailed information on all projects funded by NIH. You may search the database by keyword, by funding institute, by award mechanism (e.g., R01, R03), by the specific request for application or program announcement under which the project was submitted, by study section, and many other parameters. You can use the NIH RePORTER database to see who is doing research similar to yours in an effort to locate potential collaborators, identify best study sections for your discipline and topic or read funded research abstracts.
The National Cancer Institute (NCI) has published a helpful “Quick Guide for Grant Applications (September 2010)”, providing helpful information on best practices when developing an application to be considered by NCI.
Timberley Roane, Associate Professor in the University of Colorado Denver Department of Integrative Biology, served as a faculty guest expert in an ORDE Faculty Seminar and supplied helpful documents:
This resource provides details about the University that will be helpful when writing the proposal section describing the institution.
View the 2030 CU Denver Strategic Plan.
ZJ Pei, currently a program officer at the National Science Foundation, edited a series of articles written by former NSF CAREER awardees; the book is titled “NSF CAREER Proposal Writing Tips” (2007).