Proposals: a Primer

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Proposals a Primer

• Linda Johnson, Ph.D.
• Assistant Dean,Pre-Award Services
• College of Letters Science Office of Research
  Services

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• This Presentation
• Terms
• Proposing through LS and the UW (or not)
• The WISPER system
• Overview
• Demonstration
• Resources
• Relationship to funder e-submission systems

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• This Presentation (Contd)
• NSF DDRIG Program
• Where to get information
• Targets and Deadlines
• How to sign up for Fastlane
• Building a budget (and getting it approved)
• A fast Fastlane walkthrough for a DDRIG app
• Summary of Steps

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Terms

• You find one of these to apply for money
• Request for Proposals (RFP)
• Announcement
• Solicitation
• Call for Proposals
• Program Announcement
• They contain the
• INSTRUCTIONS and DEADLINES

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Terms

• PROPOSAL
• What you write to ask for the money
• GRANT
• What you are AWARDED if you win
• You can write FOR a grant but you do not
  write a grant.

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Terms

• DIVISION The College of Letters Science (48)
• Linda in the LS Pre-Award Office for proposals
• SRO Sponsored Research Office (generic)
• RSP Research Sponsored Programs (UW)
• UW SRO is RSP the central extramural fund
  adminstration office for all of UW-Madison
• Except NSF Fastlane SRO Linda for LS

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Get the UW Involved?
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Get the UW Involved?
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Get the UW Involved?
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To Summarize

• Route through the UW if
• Institutional signatures are required
• Award will be made to /distributed by the UW
• Do not get the UW involved if
• No institutional signatures are required
• Award will be made directly to the individual

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What if

• At time of award the recipient is offered a
  CHOICE (UW vs. individual)?
• Contact Linda Johnson to discuss
• Award can be brought in through the UW at time of
  award
• BUT
• If you suspect this might happen
• Budget restriction/charges might be different, so
• Discuss with Linda at time of proposal

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Questions?
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The WISPER system

• WIS consin
• P roposal
• E lectronic
• R outing

www.RSP.wisc.edu/WISPER
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WISPER

• For all proposals through the UW, regardless of
  submission mechanism
• Used to
• Share information on various tabs
• Obtain approvals on approvals tab
• Obtain signatures on signature tabs
• House/share documents via attachments tab
• Route the action steps of submission
• Provide notifications of action done/needed
• Serves as a virtual filing cabinet for
  extramural support proposals

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WISPER RECORDS

• Use the WISPER record to
• Get the PI/Advisor to sign
• Obtain Chair approval
• Obtain Division approval of budget
• Get the Division to sign
• Get RSP to sign
• GET THE PROPOSAL SUBMITTED (by you, the Division,
  or RSP depending on the submission mechanism)

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WISPER

• No one wants to sign/approve a blank form
• Create record and provide general info
• Provide budget for review (attach or direct)
• Provide proposal narrative (and any other
  required documents)
• Ask the Division to approve the budget early so
  the PI and Chair are comfortable
  approving/signing
• Provide the solicitation/funder URL if it is
  uncommon (note in Comments tab)

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The WISPER record
. . . And its relationship to . . .
Submitting a Proposalvia the Funders
e-submission system
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Submit to federal agencies using Grants.gov
Cayuse system-to-system software
PureEdge Viewer software
Adobe Interactive Forms (pdf) documents
all submitted by RSP
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NSF Fastlane submitted by Division (Linda)
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Relationship to WISPER
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Lets Create a WISPER Record!
www.RSP.wisc.edu/WISPER
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Demonstration in WISPER system

• Create a Record
• Fill out the General Tab
• Request PI Signature and/or Sign as PI
• Add attachments
• Request approvals Chair Approval, Division
  Budget Review
• Watch progress of completion in History Tab
• ROUTE to some one else Department or Division
• What happens next

Great written documents and webcast instructions
are at the RSP home page for WISPER
www.rsp.wisc.edu/wisper Training sessions
(WISPER 101 and WISPER 201) available quarterly
sign up via link at www.rsp.wisc.edu/wisper - and
the powerpoints used are available there any time.
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ROUTING OWNERSHIP of a WISPER record
The PI or PIs group
Dept. Office Staff
Division/Deans Office
RSP/SRO

• Takes ownership of WISPER record and Signs for
  the Dean
• Submits proposal in the e-system being used - OR
• Pushes WISPER record (and/or e-file) to RSP/SRO
  to submit

• Takes ownership of WISPER record, signs, and
  submits the proposal
• Preps record for post-award, etc.

• Starts WISPER Record
• Attaches documents, budget
• Add clearance and other info
• Adds approval requests
• Communicates with Chair and Division

Meanwhile These tasks are happening in
parallel, and ownership is unnecessary . . .
AND creation of the proposal documents (e-system,
.doc, .pdf documents, etc.) outside of the WISPER
system
PI Signature
Chair Approval Other Approvals
Division Budget Approval
REMEMBER SIGNING, APPROVING, and
ROUTING are different!
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Proposing for Extramural funding as part of a
Department/Unit in the College of Letters
Science, UW-Madison
For LS pre-award/proposals, the DIVISION 48
contact is Linda Johnson but, do not Route to
Linda individually always route to DIVISION 48.
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Questions?
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National Science Foundation(NSF)Doctoral
DissertationResearch Improvement Grants(DDRIG)
www.NSF.gov
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NSF DDRIG Proposals

• READ THE INSTRUCTIONS
• General Instructions (NSF 06-605 - pdf)
• Program-specific Instructions (web page)
• KNOW WHERE TO GET HELP
• Fastlane Help (link on homepage)
• SBE Doctoral Dissertation Contact List
  www.nsf.gov/sbe/ddrig_contacts.jsp
• Linda Johnson johnson_at_LS.admin.wisc.edu

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Search at www.nsf.gov for SBE Doctoral
Dissertation Research Improvement Grants
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NSF Targets and Deadlines For Solicitation 06-605
(DDRIGs)
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Program-specific instructions for DDRIGs
Each program has its own specific instructions!
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Fastlane account setup
Send your request with this information in an
e-mail to Linda Johnson johnson_at_LS.admin.wisc.ed
u

• Last name, First Name, (optional) MI
• Department Name
• Business phone and fax numbers
• E-mail address
• Highest degree achieved to date(e.g. M.S., M.A.,
  etc.) AND
• the year this degree was awarded(NOT the year
  you expect your Ph.D.)

Your Fastlane account will be set up in 1-2
business days
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Working in the Fastlane Systemwww.fastlane.nsf.g
ov
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DOCTORAL DISSERTATION IMPROVEMENT GRANT LINK
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On the Fastlane Homepage we will start HERE for
Doctoral Dissertation Research Improvement Grant
applications
GRFPs and Postdoc Fellowships We are NOT
talking about these today
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LOG IN
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Choose Proposal Functions
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Choose Proposal Preparation
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Choose Prepare Proposal
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Choose Create Blank Proposal
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Build COVER SHEET First
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Choose Program Announcement
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Choose NSF 06-605 SBE Doctoral . . .
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Choose appropriate Division and then Program
(they change, depending) and make sure you hit
the select buttons
Then the go back button
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Then, choose Remainder of Cover Sheet
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Must have some variation of DISSERTATION
RESEARCH in title (check instructions)
Generally One Year
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Enter NSF ID or email of the Advisor OR the
Dissertator if Advisor begins file
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Human Subjects checkbox
Then click the OK button at the bottom of the
page, and . . .
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Change the PI Order
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Choose Change PI
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Click this button
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Go ahead -
Now the advisor is in PI position and the
dissertator is in the co-PI position
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Now this dissertator is listed here. This is
OK! Just hit Go Back
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Work on the Proposal

• You can write word processing documents
  Fastlane will convert them to pdf
• Then upload them into Fastlane
• There are some forms to fill out
• The budget is a fill in the blanks exercise
• FOLLOW THE INSTRUCTIONS

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Work your way through completing the rest of the
(necessary) forms, using the instructions as your
guide.
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PRINTING
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Note Correct Order Advisor first, Dissertator
second
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Careful Intellectual Merit and Broader Impacts

• What is the intellectual merit of the proposed
  activity?
• How important is the proposed activity to
  advancing knowledge and understanding within its
  own field or across different fields? How well
  qualified is the proposer (individual or team) to
  conduct the project? (If appropriate, the
  reviewer will comment on the quality of prior
  work.) To what extent does the proposed activity
  suggest and explore creative and original
  concepts? How well conceived and organized is the
  proposed activity? Is there sufficient access to
  resources?

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Careful Intellectual Merit and Broader Impacts

• What are the broader impacts of the proposed
  activity?
• How well does the activity advance discovery and
  understanding while promoting teaching, training,
  and learning? How well does the proposed activity
  broaden the participation of underrepresented
  groups (e.g., gender, ethnicity, disability,
  geographic, etc.)? To what extent will it enhance
  the infrastructure for research and education,
  such as facilities, instrumentation, networks,
  and partnerships? Will the results be
  disseminated broadly to enhance scientific and
  technological understanding? What may be the
  benefits of the proposed activity to society?

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DDRIG Budgets

• No Indirect Costs (aka FA, Overhead)
• Maximum of 12,000 (usually CHECK the
  instructions!)
• International per diems on State Dept web
  sitehttp//aoprals.state.gov/web920/per_diem.asp

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SAMPLE BUDGET JUSTIFICATION
This project will be based on a 12-month period
of fieldwork in _________ in order to conduct
ethnographic research of _______________. I am
requesting 12,000 to cover travel expenses to
and within _______ for fieldwork, a local
research assistant, and materials and supplies
for data collection. The specific costs are
below.
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• Make sure you check your proposal for errors
• Then allow SRO access
• There are THREE clearance levels of allow SRO
  access
• when you are not ready but may want SRO to review
  check view or view and edit
• when you are REALLY ready make sure the clearance
  is set to view, edit AND SUBMIT

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Down to the Wire Summary of Steps

• Write/build the proposal
• Build the budget
• Start a WISPER record complete general tab
• Get budget PRE-approved (using WISPER) from the
  Dean/Division level (Linda)
• Make sure PI has signed the WISPER record
• Make sure Chair has approved in WISPER
• Get everything uploaded and finalized in Fastlane
  (this is the only place the full proposal needs
  to be at time of proposal)
• THEN . . .

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Down to the Wire Summary of Steps

• Route the WISPER record to Division 48
• AND
• Allow SRO Access in Fastlane at the view, edit
  submit level

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FINALLY -

• Celebrate with the
• Ice Cream Flavor
• OR
• Nap
• OR
• Beverage of your choice!

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Thank You!

• Linda Johnson
• LS Pre-Award Services
• 208 South Hall
• johnson_at_ls.admin.wisc.edu
• 265-9655