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Every Proposal Needs a Story Sally Bond Assistant Director of Research Development Services Proposal Coordination Office of the Executive Vice President for Research and Partnerships
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Every Proposal Needs a Story - Purdue University College of … a Storyline 2016.pdf · clarity of your thinking and presentation, weaknesses in the logic of your research, vagueness

Jul 07, 2020

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Page 1: Every Proposal Needs a Story - Purdue University College of … a Storyline 2016.pdf · clarity of your thinking and presentation, weaknesses in the logic of your research, vagueness

Every Proposal Needs a Story Sally Bond Assistant Director of Research Development Services Proposal Coordination Office of the Executive Vice President for Research and Partnerships

Page 2: Every Proposal Needs a Story - Purdue University College of … a Storyline 2016.pdf · clarity of your thinking and presentation, weaknesses in the logic of your research, vagueness

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Purdue Research Development Services Services and resources

Page 3: Every Proposal Needs a Story - Purdue University College of … a Storyline 2016.pdf · clarity of your thinking and presentation, weaknesses in the logic of your research, vagueness

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Where Do I Go for Help? Hyperlinked “help” flowchart

Page 4: Every Proposal Needs a Story - Purdue University College of … a Storyline 2016.pdf · clarity of your thinking and presentation, weaknesses in the logic of your research, vagueness

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Where Do I Go for Help? Hyperlinked “help” flowchart

Page 5: Every Proposal Needs a Story - Purdue University College of … a Storyline 2016.pdf · clarity of your thinking and presentation, weaknesses in the logic of your research, vagueness

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Large and Consultation All sizes, all agencies

Page 6: Every Proposal Needs a Story - Purdue University College of … a Storyline 2016.pdf · clarity of your thinking and presentation, weaknesses in the logic of your research, vagueness

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Key Strategies Avoid common trouble spots

•tell a compelling story •respond to solicitation •answer “Why us?” •know your reviewer • internal review before submission

Page 7: Every Proposal Needs a Story - Purdue University College of … a Storyline 2016.pdf · clarity of your thinking and presentation, weaknesses in the logic of your research, vagueness

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Building the Storyline Storyline first!

• storyline provides the “north star”

• helps you not to be overly ambitious, a common problem of new investigators

Page 8: Every Proposal Needs a Story - Purdue University College of … a Storyline 2016.pdf · clarity of your thinking and presentation, weaknesses in the logic of your research, vagueness

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What makes a good story? You are not the audience. Don’t write for yourself.

•Make them want to read on • Is something important at stake? •Answer “So what?” •Make it memorable, not complex, and have clear logic flow

•Back it up with targeted proof. Not anecdotal.

Page 9: Every Proposal Needs a Story - Purdue University College of … a Storyline 2016.pdf · clarity of your thinking and presentation, weaknesses in the logic of your research, vagueness

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Building the Storyline Storyline first!

Page 10: Every Proposal Needs a Story - Purdue University College of … a Storyline 2016.pdf · clarity of your thinking and presentation, weaknesses in the logic of your research, vagueness

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Building the Storyline Four helpful questions to build your flow of logic

•What is the problem? •What has been done already to address the problem?

•What is the gap that remains? •How do you propose to address this gap?

Page 11: Every Proposal Needs a Story - Purdue University College of … a Storyline 2016.pdf · clarity of your thinking and presentation, weaknesses in the logic of your research, vagueness

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Building the Storyline Logic flow goes from broad to narrower

•What is the problem? •What has been done already to address the problem?

•What is the gap that remains? •How do you propose to address this gap?

Page 12: Every Proposal Needs a Story - Purdue University College of … a Storyline 2016.pdf · clarity of your thinking and presentation, weaknesses in the logic of your research, vagueness

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Building the Storyline Example narrative…in op-ed language

Page 13: Every Proposal Needs a Story - Purdue University College of … a Storyline 2016.pdf · clarity of your thinking and presentation, weaknesses in the logic of your research, vagueness

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Build the Storyline Example narrative…in op-ed language

•What is the problem?

Page 14: Every Proposal Needs a Story - Purdue University College of … a Storyline 2016.pdf · clarity of your thinking and presentation, weaknesses in the logic of your research, vagueness

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Build the Storyline Example narrative…in op-ed language

•What has been done already?

Page 15: Every Proposal Needs a Story - Purdue University College of … a Storyline 2016.pdf · clarity of your thinking and presentation, weaknesses in the logic of your research, vagueness

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Build the Storyline Example narrative…in op-ed language

•What is the gap that remains?

Page 16: Every Proposal Needs a Story - Purdue University College of … a Storyline 2016.pdf · clarity of your thinking and presentation, weaknesses in the logic of your research, vagueness

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Build the Storyline Example narrative…in op-ed language

•How will you address this gap?

Page 17: Every Proposal Needs a Story - Purdue University College of … a Storyline 2016.pdf · clarity of your thinking and presentation, weaknesses in the logic of your research, vagueness

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Building the Storyline Where do you put it? For NSF etc….

• as soon as possible! • follow prescribed format in

solicitation • common options

• Background • Rationale • Vision and Goals

Page 18: Every Proposal Needs a Story - Purdue University College of … a Storyline 2016.pdf · clarity of your thinking and presentation, weaknesses in the logic of your research, vagueness

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Building the Storyline Example of storyline location in general NSF proposal.

Page 19: Every Proposal Needs a Story - Purdue University College of … a Storyline 2016.pdf · clarity of your thinking and presentation, weaknesses in the logic of your research, vagueness

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Building the Storyline Where do you put it? For NIH, this is Specific Aims and Significance

Page 20: Every Proposal Needs a Story - Purdue University College of … a Storyline 2016.pdf · clarity of your thinking and presentation, weaknesses in the logic of your research, vagueness

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Building the Storyline NIH example from Carolina Wählby at Broad Institute (NIAID website)

Page 21: Every Proposal Needs a Story - Purdue University College of … a Storyline 2016.pdf · clarity of your thinking and presentation, weaknesses in the logic of your research, vagueness

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Building the Storyline NIH example from Carolina Wählby at Broad Institute (NIAID website)

http://www.niaid.nih.gov/researchfunding/grant/pages/appsamples.aspx

Page 22: Every Proposal Needs a Story - Purdue University College of … a Storyline 2016.pdf · clarity of your thinking and presentation, weaknesses in the logic of your research, vagueness

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Building the Storyline One-page…taste of your entire grant in a single, bite-sized piece

It forces you to distill all aspects down to their essences and to find a way of piecing things together that is economical, coherent, logical, and compelling […] is totally unforgiving, revealing problems in the clarity of your thinking and presentation, weaknesses in the logic of your research, vagueness in your methods, and failures in the all-important ‘so what?’ realm. Given the luxury of length, additional verbiage has a way of camouflaging weaknesses (at least from the writer but not so often from the reviewer).

—Robert Levenson, UC-Berkeley

Page 23: Every Proposal Needs a Story - Purdue University College of … a Storyline 2016.pdf · clarity of your thinking and presentation, weaknesses in the logic of your research, vagueness

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Building the Storyline Create a one-page brief. (For NIH, this is the Specific Aims page.)

One-page project description sent to program officer that includes:

• concise storyline • vision/goals • team • methodology/approach • impact

Page 24: Every Proposal Needs a Story - Purdue University College of … a Storyline 2016.pdf · clarity of your thinking and presentation, weaknesses in the logic of your research, vagueness

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Talking to a Program Manager Prepare a one-pager in order to get targeted feedback

Page 25: Every Proposal Needs a Story - Purdue University College of … a Storyline 2016.pdf · clarity of your thinking and presentation, weaknesses in the logic of your research, vagueness

Practice

Page 26: Every Proposal Needs a Story - Purdue University College of … a Storyline 2016.pdf · clarity of your thinking and presentation, weaknesses in the logic of your research, vagueness

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New Proposal Brainstorm on a storyline

•What is the problem? •What has been done already to address the problem?

•What is the gap that remains? •How do you propose to address this gap?