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- Ambiguity in Narratives (August 2012) - It's insidious and creeps in - get rid of it!
- The Background Researcher on Proposals (February 2013) - Why you should read the literature cited in proposal solicitations.
Big Changes in STEM Education Funding (June 2013) – a description of the NSTC’s 5-year Strategic Plan and potential impacts on funding opportunities.
- Broader Impacts and Evidence-Based Models (June 2015) - Thoughts on effective and interesting broader impacts.
- CAREER Heads Up: Don't Let This Happen to You! (June 2015) - Hints to be sure your proposal is compliant with the new guidelines.
- Confessions of a Grumpy Reviewer - A lesson on how to irritate your reviewer.
- The Dictionary of Common NSF Usage (February 2013) - Shows you how to refine your proposal language to edge out the competition.
- From Silos To Synergy: The Yellow Brick Road of Grant Writing (December 2012) – Writing the successful collaborative proposal.
- Funding Favors the Strategically Prepared (February 2014) Build a plan for funding success!
- Getting the Writing Right (April 2013) - Get fresh eyes to read and critique your proposals.
- Going From Research Ideas to Research Dollars (June 2013) – Critical touchstones that will transform your ideas into funded projects.
- Grant Writer’s Checklist (September 2013) – A checklist for good writing and good content.
How Proposals are Reviewed by NSF, NIH, DoED, and DOE (June 2013) – When you understand the review process, you write a better proposal!
- Importance of the Practice Proposal (July 2013) – Practice, practice, practice – you get better.
- Interviewing Schrödinger’s Cat (August 2012) – the role of Ambiguity in proposal narratives.
- The Myth That Agencies Fund Good Ideas (May 2015) - Or how to market your idea to support funders.
New NSF EHR Programs: EHR Core, IUSE, and REAL (December 2013) - What are the differences between these education research programs?
- No Squishy Commitments or Weasel Clauses (March 2013) - Guidance for writing the most compelling letters of support or commitment.
- No Tweaking, No Nudging, No Band-Aids, Please (November 2012) – Resubmitting your proposal? Revise thoughtfully!
NSF Crosscutting and Interdisciplinary Programs (August 2014) - Some strategies for handling your interdisciplinary project proposal when no single program seems to fit.
- NSF Ferrets Out and Punishes Research Misconduct - (June 2014) - Why does OSP and Sponsored Accounting always question everything?? Or, how stupid can people be?? This article will give you a glimpse of the work of the Office of the Inspector General, and the processes universities have in place to ensure the ethical and intelligent conduct of research.
- NSF’s Perp Walk for Plagiarism (June 2015) - Sad, but true.
Optimizing the Proposal Planning Process (December 2012) - How to determine if you have the time to prepare a competitive proposal.
- An Overview of IARPA (June 2012) – the Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Activity funder.
- Proportionality and Sequence in the Project Narrative (March 2013) - Writing the narrative is tricky – how to make the most of your proposal real estate.
- Psychology and the Reviewer (March 2015) - Will your reviewer look forward to reading your proposal? Or expect a long, hard slog?
- Quantifying the Project Narrative (April 2013) – Give your proposal punch with well placed data!
- Red Teaming: Scalable, Adaptable, and Versatile (May 2013) – Tap your colleagues to better understand a solicitation and create a better proposal.
- Red Teaming the Solicitation (July 2012) - Use the face-to-face crowd to help focus the call for proposals!
- A Research Professional's Grant Writing Elevator Speech (November 2013) Be ready for that fleeting moment!
- Restoring The Research Foundation (October 2014) why research investment is critical to our economic prosperity.
- The Role of Context in a Successful Proposal (November 2012) – Addressing the impact of your project on your discipline and to the agency’s mission.
- Time to Get Started on Your NSF CAREER Proposal (March 2013) - Do it now! Advice for the CAREER writer.
- The Too Kind Program Officer (February 2013) - Program officers want to encourage; proposers are eager to be funded - A caution to listen critically to the careful language of program officers and hear what they cannot say.
- Too Much Data? (September 2012) – Data is good, but don’t obscure your message.
- Update on Funding for Social, Behavioral, and Economic Sciences at NSF - The SBE total budget is not large, so it pays to know what the agency’s priorities, goals, and strategies are for the immediate future.
- Using Databases of Previous Awards to Understand What Funders Want (June 2014) a necessary step to matching your project to a program.
- What is Big Data and How to Fund it (October 2014) Links to current solicitations and programs.
- Why Formatting Matters, Part 1 (November 2012) – Sage advice on how to convey more information using formatting and graphics.
- Why Formatting Matters, Part 2 (December 2012) – More sage advice on how to convey more information using formatting and graphics.
- Why Halloween is Bad for Proposals, Part 3 (June 2012) – Make sure your research ideas are not disguised by these masks.
- Why Halloween is Bad for Proposals, Part 4 (July 2012) - More disguises.
- Why Halloween is Bad for Proposals, Part 5 (August 2012) - More disguises.
- Why Halloween is Bad for Proposals, Part 6 (September 2012) - More disguises. Jeff Fouts