- Outline your long‐term goals for research, education or service.
- Review your literature to make sure you provide evidence from the literature documenting the importance of your work.
- Identify a problem that must be solved to reach your long‐term goals and develop a proposal.
- Locate funding opportunities in which the funder’s goals are the closest match with your goals.
- Read the full announcement carefully, paying special attention to the eligibility requirements for the institution and investigator, any limits on the amount of money that can be requested, the length of the award period, due dates, any requirements for supplementary documents, review criteria and any restrictions on formatting.
- Some federal agencies (DOE, DOJ, NASA, NIH and NSF) require principal investigators (PIs) to register as individuals (and affiliated with the University) before PIs can use the agencies’ respective electronic submission portals. Contact your pre-award research team member for assistance.
- Many federal agencies (NIH, NSF, DOE, and USDA) require principal investigators (PIs) and key personnel to use SciENcv to develop their biological sketches and current and pending supporting documents. This is a free, web-based tool that helps researchers manage and reuse professional information. See the NCCU SciENcv guide to get started.
- Certain federal agencies (NIH, NSF, NASA, DOE, USDA, DOD) now require PIs, co-PIs and senior/key personnel to complete research security training. This training must be completed within 12 months prior to the proposal’s submission. NCCU is using the consolidated training module (CTM) and annual/refresher training module (ARTM) created by the National Science Foundation to comply with this requirement. Once you have completed the training, email your certificate to [email protected].
- Develop a timeline for completing your proposal. If you need letters of support, send your requests to the appropriate people at least one month ahead of time. Your timeline must include time for your chair and research dean to authorize your proposal and a minimum of three (3) business days for pre-award to review and submit it.
- Contact pre-award for assistance in developing your budget and documents/forms. We will help you throughout the process of preparing your proposal. Begin working on your budget as soon as possible. This is critical if there is a maximum amount of funds that will be awarded; you do not want to complete your narrative and find out there will not be enough money to do what you have planned.
- Enter the preliminary data for your proposal into Cayuse. The internal routing/approval does not start until you submit the data.
Note: Allow at least two months (60 days) to prepare your proposal. Utilize a proposal checklist and the internal checklist to keep your proposal submission on track.