Proposal Writing Assistance

There are a variety of on-line resources to assist you with your proposal writing.

Agency Specific

EPA Grant-Writing Tutorial

A resource from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. This interactive software tool walks you through the grant-writing process and helps you to learn to write more competitive grants.

National Institutes of Health (NIH) 

• Grants & Funding-About Grants
• New Investigator Guide to Research Funding:  Outlines strategies for gaining an NIH grant and explains basic funding concepts and processes to new and would-be principal investigators.
• All About Grants Tutorial: A resource from NiH and National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) featuring tutorials to help biomedical investigators, especially new ones, plan, write, and apply for the basic NIH research project grant, the R01. This advice comes from the experience of NIAID staff, including former NIH grantees, and should be considered as opinion only. Differing opinions may exist.
• Proposal Writing: The Business of Science: This guide, written by Wendy Sanders and provided by the Whitaker Foundation, discusses how to obtain a NIH grant, including a look at the NIH review system.
• The Original How to Write a Research Grant Application : This resource by the National Institutes of Health, May 2002 takes you through the PHS 398 forms and shows how to respond to events after application. You can review the original tutorial, and other tutorials as well through this site.

National Sciences Foundation (NSF)

• Funding:  How to Prepare Your Proposal
• A Guide to Proposal Writing: National Science Foundation Division of Undergraduate Education, 1998. A Practical Guide for Writing Proposals. A resource written by Alice N. T. Reid.
• Some Tips for Writing Grant Proposals: A resource written by Jan Harrington, National Science Foundation, October 2000.

Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA)

• How to Write a Winning Grant Proposal

U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA)

• How to Write a Grant Proposal: General tips not limited to USDA Rural Development. Contains links to other sites with additional advice.

US Department of Education

• How to Write a Quality Grant Proposal from Center for Faith-Based and Community Initiatives, U.S. Department of Education.
  

U.S. Department of Energy | Office of Science

• Funding Opportunities - Grants & Contracts

General

Non-Profit Guides

This is a free web-based grant-writing site offering tools for established non-profit organizations, charitable, educational, public organizations, and other community-minded groups through the grant-writing process.

A Guide for Proposal Planning and Writing

This publication is an excellent free resource for new grant-writers This resource is written by Jeremy T. Miner and Lynn E. Miner.

Developing and Writing Grant Proposals

A resource from the Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance.

General Guidance

A resource from the J. C. Downing Foundation that offers practical tips that can help grant seekers increase their chances for a successful application with any foundation.

How to Improve your Score When Submitting a Grant Proposal

Written by Dr. David Hemenway. This commentary discusses how you can improve your priority score by 50 to 100 points or more. It is based on factors totally unrelated to the science of your proposal but which will definitely cause your priority score to deteriorate unless you pay heed to the items listed. Ignore them if you like, but it will still impact (negatively) on your priority score.

Proposal Writing Short Course

The Foundation Center has summarized the steps to writing a proposal.

Writing from the Winner's Circle: A Guide to Preparing Competitive Grant Proposals

Written by Dr. David Stanley, was published by Nebraska EPSCoR in 1996 to assist researchers in Nebraska (and other states) as they develop grant proposals.

How to Develop and Write a Grant Proposal - Congressional Research Service

Includes advice on both government and private grants.   

How to Write an Effective Letter of Support 

How to Write an Effective Grant Application

A PowerPoint with general advice and some specific to NIH & NSF from the Oklahoma EPSCoR Director. Pay special attention to the slide that reminds you not to bring your proposal to Research Administration at 4:30 p.m. on the day it’s due!