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

   

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH

This is one of the most important parts of a proposal.

To quote NIH regarding biographical sketches: "This information is used by reviewers in evaluating the adequacy of project staff." In fact, the competence of the people proposed as researchers has much (perhaps everything) to do with whether or not the project will yield meaningful results. The biographical sketch is the only way by which reviewers can evaluate the researcher's competence, and normally, it must serve as his/her only credentials.

Of course, the importance of a biographical sketch, or vita, is well known to everyone who has ever achieved professional status in a learned discipline. The usual practice is to include in your vita everything you have ever done in a professional way: every committee membership, every paper, every workshop, every minor society joined. Many people even include their height, weight, hobbies, and state of health. In a vita for use in seeking employment, this practice has some merit, but for the specialized purposes of a research proposal it is not a good idea.

What should go into the biographical sketch? The following list includes the basic items:

• Name; date and place of birth
• Educational history, beginning with the Bachelor's degree (give institution and dates attended)
• Honors, beginning with graduate-level awards
• Languages (if relevant)
• Major presentations at professional meetings within recent years
• Publications

About publications: These are probably the most important things in your biographical sketch; they demonstrate the range and quality of your work; they constitute your contribution to posterity; through them your name will become familiar to your colleagues. Everyone is proud of his/her publications list. However, when a list is very long, and especially when many of the publications are not relevant to the proposed project, some editing is called for. A publications list can be shortened in several ways: It can be a list of selected publications, including major papers and books from an individual's entire career. It can be a list of relevant publications, i.e., a list of works that bears on the proposed project. It can be a partial listing of publications, covering perhaps the last five or ten years. Combinations of these can also be used. Probably the most important thing to remember about your publications list (and your entire vita) is that it must be kept current. Articles not yet in print can legitimately be included in your list of publications if they are at all relevant, but it is essential that the citations be corrected as they are published.

Besides the Principal Investigator's vita, a biographical sketch should be included for all professional personnel involved in the project: associated faculty members, major collaborators from other institutions, postdoctoral research associates, and so on. In short, anyone who is making a substantial contribution to the project deserves, and ought, to have his/her vita included.

Next: Current Support and Pending Applications