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

   

THE ABSTRACT

The abstract is a short summary of the proposed research, typically not exceeding 200 words. Some care should be given to the abstract, since many agency officials rely on it for their understanding of the proposal as a whole. Also, the abstracts of proposals are frequently journalized or published in some way (e.g. by the Smithsonian Science Information Exchange), and so may gain fairly wide distribution. An abstract should be confined to a description of the proposed project, and should not involve any discussion of the Principal Investigator's background, the amount or kind of funding requested, or other peripheral matters, unless these are specifically required by agency guidelines. It should be informative to other investigators in the same or related fields and, insofar as possible, understandable by a scientifically literate reader.

Next: The Project Description (including Facilities Available Section)