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Proposal Development

 

Overview

ORSP at RU-N supports everyone seeking external funding by helping to facilitate a smooth process of proposal development. Rutgers requires that your ORSP Grant Specialist review and approve all proposal documents prior to submission, even if the funding sponsor allows a direct proposal submission from the principal investigator (PI). This is non-negotiable.

Proposal Writing Guides:

 

Grant Specialist Services

Contact your Grant Specialist as soon as you decide to prepare a proposal to an external sponsor, and prepare a Funding Proposal in the RAPSS (Research Administration Proposal Submission System). Important information, such as the agency name, opportunity name and/or number and the submission due date must be entered along with a copy of the actual funding announcement (as an attachment for easy reference and archival purposes). Read the guidelines, funding announcement, or request for proposals very carefully to ensure that the application package is prepared in accordance with the applicable requirements and regulations.

Grant Specialists provide a variety of pre-award services, including:

  1. Comprehensive review of:
    • Sponsor submission requirements
    • Sponsor Program Announcements/Requests for Proposals and Letters of Intent
    • Non-Science portions of the proposal
    • Budget and Budget Justification
    • Cost Share inclusion (if required)
    • Rutgers Institutional documents (if requested)
    • Final application package prior to submission
  2. Submission of applications
  3. Additional pre-award information as requested by the Sponsor
  4. Review and negotiations for certain type of agreements

In addition, Grant Specialists provide some postaward services.

  1. Initiation of Award Set Up process in RAPSS
  2. Review and Submission of Post-Award Non-Financials:
    • Just in Time information
    • Carryover requests
    • Progress Reports
    • No Cost Extensions
    • Award Transfers
    • Official correspondence with sponsors

 

RAPSS

RAPSS is an electronic gateway for the submission, review, approval and tracking of funding proposals and awards within Rutgers University. Research Financial Services maintains all information regarding grant and contract applications, budgets and on-going annual adjustments to sponsored research and projects funding. Using this system is mandatory for all submissions of sponsored research, projects proposals, corporate contracts, and associated items.

Your ORSP Grant Specialist can provide guidance on the development of your budget and budget narrative. Contact your Grant Specialist at any time with questions or to discuss your work out-loud. (opens in a new tab)

 

Data Management Plan (and NIH)

For NIH, please view the new NIH Data Management and Sharing Policy page on the Office for Research’s website.

A data management plan (DMP) is a written document that describes the data you expect to acquire or generate during the course of a research project; how you will manage, describe, analyze, and store those data; and what mechanisms you will use at the end of your project to share and preserve your data.

Many funding agencies require a DMP with every funding request. In particular, federal agencies believe that knowledge created with federal funds should be made available as broadly as possible and within a reasonable period of time. Each agency or directorate creates its own set of policies for data management. SPARC (the Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition) has compiled an excellent resource with information about the data management and data sharing requirements from all the federal funding agencies.

Your data management plan should address each of the following topics:

  • types of data, samples, physical collections, software, curriculum materials, and other materials that will be produced over the course of the project;
  • existing data that will be incorporated into your research project;
  • standards to be used for data and metadata format and content (where existing standards are absent or deemed inadequate, this should be documented along with any proposed solutions or remedies);
  • policies for access and sharing, including provisions for appropriate protection of privacy, confidentiality, security, intellectual property, or other rights or requirements;
  • policies and provisions for reuse, re-distribution, and the production of derivatives; and
  • plans for archiving data, samples, and other research products, and for preservation of access to them.

Please see the sample TEMPLATE (editable document): Data Management Plan

 

Broader Impacts (and NSF)

The broader impacts of a research project are those components that, beyond the advancement of knowledge, have the potential to benefit society and contribute to achievement of specific desired societal outcomes. The National Science Foundation (NSF) requires proposals to address the broader impacts in addition to the intellectual merit of the project. Other federal funders increasingly incorporating a requirement to address the social impact as part of your proposal. The tools listed below, including the Broader Impact Wizard, provide resources to address the societal benefits.

NSF provides the following examples of desirable societal outcomes:

  • Full participation of women, persons with disabilities, and underrepresented minorities in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM)
  • Improved STEM education and educator development at any level
  • Increased public scientific literacy and public engagement with science and technology
  • Improved well-being of individuals in society
  • Development of a diverse, globally competitive STEM workforce
  • Increased partnerships between academia, industry, and others
  • Improved national security
  • Increased economic competitiveness of the US
  • Use of science and technology to inform public policy
  • Enhanced infrastructure for research and education

For more information, please view the guiding principles of broader impacts (positive social outcomes) which includes questions of the type that reviewers may use to assess the broader impacts component of your proposal. You can also use the Broader Impacts Plan Checklist available here.

Please take a look at the Broader Impacts Toolkit website for additional resources.

The resources on this page were initially developed in 2012 by Janice McDonnell (Rutgers School of Environmental and Biological Sciences) and her colleagues. In 2021, a substantially revised version of the Broader Impacts Wizard was launched in partnership with Susan Renoe at the University of Missouri-Columbia, Executive Director of Center for Advancing Research Impact in Society (ARIS), which the goal of developing a collaborative network of broader impacts professionals across the United States.