Short Guide to Proposal Preparation

• What Goes Into a Proposal
  • The Cover Page
  • The Abstract
  • The Project Description (including Facilities Available Section)
  • The Bibliography
  • The Biographical Sketch
  • Current Support and Pending Applications
  • The Budget
  • The Budget Justification
  • Attachments
  • Where to Submit Proposals
• The University Review Process

• The Post Submission Period

• Writing a Better Proposal

   

COVER PAGE

By "cover page" we mean simply the topmost page of the proposal. It is an integral part of the proposal, first because of the information it carries, and second because it bears the signatures that are required to make the proposal a formal, certified document.

A sample cover page that displays the basic format employed by OCG for almost all proposals is available on request. (Some agencies, of course, issue printed forms for proposals; these should be used whenever they are required.) This format has the virtues of simplicity and flexibility: simplicity in that it presents only what information is needed, in a plain, easily read form; flexibility in that items can be inserted or deleted as necessary without disrupting the basic pattern.

Several things should be noted regarding the cover page:

• The CU Proposal Number will be assigned and typed in by OCG.
• The name of the funding agency should be given in its complete, official form. Sometimes, additional information (e.g. the name of an office or program within the funding agency) is included in this space.
• The space for the title (and this should be as short as scholarly rigor allows) may include certain additional information, preferably in lower case, parenthesized under the title. For example, if our sample proposal were for renewal of an existing grant, the current grant number would be referenced thus: Effects of Climate Change in the Colorado Alpine (ATM-9748769)
• The name and address of the institution should be exactly as shown:

  The Regents of the University of Colorado
  572 UCB
  Boulder, CO 80309-0572

  (if a street address is required please use 3100 Marine St., 4th Foor, Room 481)

• The amount requested is not typed in. Budgets occasionally change during the course of routing (due to the discovery of errors, revisions by the Principal Investigator, etc.), and so the dollar amount requested may also change. Since agency regulations usually forbid corrections on signed documents, an executed cover page might have to be redone and replaced if the amount requested were changed. The amount requested will be typed in at OCG when the proposal is ready to be mailed.
• There may be more than one Principal Investigator. In this case, the designation Co-Principal Investigator is adopted for each person, and the same information provided for each. When space is restricted, an investigator's data and signature-block can be combined.
• The chair of the primary department involved must sign the cover page; "involved" means the department determined by the Principal Investigator(s) that would administer the University account if the proposal were funded.
• The bottom signature on the cover page is always that of the official specifically authorized to commit the institution to contractual agreements.

Next: The Abstract