On Preparing Proposals: Comments from Both Inside and Outside NSF Xiaodong Zhang The Ohio State University

Job Requirement in Research Universities l Fund-raising for research is an unwritten requirement for faculty in US research universities. l It is an important part of faculty research activities. l Grants serve as a critical input (“fuel”) of research. l Experimental and most CS work are grants dependent. l Research/education programs and infrastructure will be improved by continued contributions of external grants. l Part of the univ./college/dept. budgets come from grants. § Research expenditure is an important consideration for national ranking of univ./college/department.

Value of a Successful Proposal l A research proposal contains visions, targeted problems, and plans on what we are going to do. l The review process is a serious and rigorous. We must convince a funding agency and the research community. l The reward of a successful proposal: l Supporting research activities: RAs, Postdocs, ourselves, travels, and contributions to univ./college/dept. l Gaining recognition in the community: the significance and importance of the research are positively judged and approved by our peers.

Where are the Funding Sources? l Government funding agencies l National Science Foundation (basic research and Ed.) l DoE (Office of Sciences), DoD (DARPA, AFOSR, ONR), DoEd, DoA, NASA... (can be Mission-oriented) l Industries l Agreements and contracts with Companies, and Labs l Limited unrestricted funds. l Private Foundations l Sloan, Guggenheim, HP, …

NSF Academic Research Obligations (99) (The percentage for CS is much higher now: 90+%) Computer science/ mathematics Social sciences Engineering Physical sciences Life sciences Psychology Atmospheric/earth/ ocean sciences 2% 6% 38% 49% 51% 56% 74% NSF-22

Merit Review Criteria uWhat is the intellectual merit of the proposed activity? uWhat are the broader impacts of the proposed activity? NSF invests in the best ideas from the most capable people, determined by competitive merit review. NSF-11

Types of Proposals l Basic Research Regular proposals (annual competitions with specific scopes) Special proposals (such as CAREER) New Initiatives (such as ITR, Sensors, high-end …) l Fellowships for graduate students and Postdocs. l Research Infrastructure building/updating experimental research environment l Curriculum development developing new classes, updating teaching labs, … l Special programs International collaborations, funding for minority institutions,...

Common Mistakes in Proposals l NSF should fund me based on my past record. Massively cut and paste published papers. l Giving detailed descriptions on what I am going to do. If you know everything, it is not research, but engineering. l The problem is highly difficult/complex, but … The importance and significance of the problem is not clear. l Big visions but vague and unfocused on what to do. l Lacking a thorough study on related work. l The proposed work will not fly due to technical flaws. l The budget is unrealistic to the workload. l Already cover committed to current projects.

A Career Proposal has its Unique Requirement l An academic ``Career” is not just research. It is a 5-year plan of integration between research/education. The research vision should have a 5 year scope. Education plan should be very innovative and thoughtful. l What are other criteria? PI’s Publication record. Internal (Institution) and external (e.g. industry) support. Minor: geographic distribution and diversity. l Who are in the panel? (often academia folks only) Senior faculty: full professors/department chairs Tenured associate professors who were supported by Careers Assistant professors of recent Career awardees

Impact of CISE Reorganization l Purpose of cluster-based management Increase communications among related research topics. Attempt to eliminate duplicated funding. An example: CCF CPA cluster: –Arch. (T. Pinston), SE (S. Greenspan), HPC (A. Chtchelkonova), Viz, (L. Rosenblum) CAD (S. Busu) The cluster will organize different panels among POs. The budget is given to a cluster, not to a program. l A submission is not explicitly placed to a program A contact is necessary if PI wants to be handled by a PO. A cluster can be very effective for a set of closely related topics, such as Arch. and compiler.

General Suggestions l Building a strong research record. l Establishing unique identity and reputation. l Separating the writings of proposals and papers. l A research vision rarely comes from papers, but: l Real world problems from industries and society l Discussions with different kinds of people. l Widely building effective research collaborations. l Contacting and visiting program directors. l Participating NSF panels.