Proposal Development Institute
The Proposal Development Institute (PDI) provides a variety of experiences that collectively enhance the ability of Virginia Tech tenure-track faculty and research assistant professors to successfully pursue externally funded grants and contracts to support their research and scholarly activities.
The program is designed to help early-career faculty members to translate research ideas into formal written proposals to external sponsors and includes a portfolio of activities tailored to the participants, regardless of their affiliation.
The program is jointly funded through the Office of Research and Innovation, colleges, departments, and research institutes who select faculty members to participate in the program.
Department heads and institute directors should email the names and email addresses of early career faculty members that they would like to nominate for PDI to Randy Heflin (rheflin@vt.edu) by Dec. 13. The sponsoring program (department or institute) commits to a $300 registration fee per participant that provides partial support of the PDI program.
Over the semester, a weekly one-hour session is provided on topics related to proposal preparation, spanning from how to interact with program managers to effectively communicating research ideas in proposals. At the end of each seminar there will be time allotted for participants to consult one-on-one with the external consultants in areas of interest about effective proposal writing skills development.
Participants will also be assigned a task to complete that week, related to the material covered related to the preparation of a research proposal. The idea is to facilitate the planning of a research proposal, piece by piece, implementing the knowledge acquired during the semester.
Each component of the proposal will be reviewed by a mentor and the members of a working group to be introduced next.
Weekly workshops will take place via Zoom on Wednesdays from 4 - 5 p.m. The workshops will also be recorded for those who cannot attend a particular session.
Spring 2024 Schedule
Jan. 17 | Introductions and Goals
Jan. 24 | Session 1
Articulating your research agenda and identifying your funder
Jan. 31 | Session 2
Analyzing your funding opportunity and identifying your program officer
Feb. 7 | Session 3
Types of projects, and articulating your project goals and hypotheses/research questions/challenges
Feb. 14 | Session 4
Objectives/aims, outcomes, significance and putting it together
Feb. 21 | Session 5
Positioning: publications, preliminary data, and collaborators
Feb. 28 | Session 6
Talking to the Program Officers
Mar. 6 | Spring Break
Mar. 13 | Session 7
Grantsmanship and mock review exercise
Mar. 20 | Session 8
Outlining your narrative and writing the first section and using graphics
Mar. 27 | Session 9
Writing the background section and preliminary results
Apr. 10 | Session 10
Writing the approach/methodology/research plan
Apr. 17 | Session 11
Education, training, workforce development, broadening participation, stakeholder engagement, dissemination, etc.
Apr. 24 | Session 12
Other sections (risk and mitigation, management plans, broader impacts, etc.)
May 1 | Session 13
The budget, budget justification, and other proposal components
May 8 | Session 14
Interpreting and responding to reviews
Participants are asked to prepare a one-slide presentation about their research interests and activities to provide their fellow participants an overview of their research. The slides will help generate potential new collaborations, clustering 4-6 participants with similar interests into working groups for the semester.
Members of each working group will review each other's work during the semester and provide feedback. In addition, each working group is paired with a more senior Virginia Tech faculty member who will serve as the mentor for the group.
Regular meetings of the mentoring group will take place during the program. These mentoring groups primarily focus on aspects of writing effective research proposals and pursuing funding with external agencies and foundations; however, they likewise are designed to address topics of interest and importance that arise among the participants in the group.
Program directors from different federal funding agencies and foundations are invited to talk about their research programs and funding opportunities for newer faculty. More importantly, the program directors will be available to answer any questions raised by the participants. This meeting will be held in addition to the previously mentioned seminars.
Throughout the PDI program participants are given an opportunity to participate in synchronous and asynchronous seminars that address a wide variety of topics related to the pursuit of external research funding and the conduct of funded research grants and contracts. Seminar titles from the PDI program in previous years include:
- An Overview of the Office of Sponsored Programs
- Understanding University-Level Investment Research Institutes
- Forming and Participating in Interdisciplinary Research Teams
- Preparing Effective Broader Impact Statements and Educational Plans for Proposals to the National Science Foundation
- Preparing and Implementing Data Management Plans to Support Research Activities.
Additional topics could be included if requested by participants.
Participants who are planning to submit an NSF CAREER Award proposal during their time in the program can obtain an internal review of their proposal from Virginia Tech faculty members. This input can help the faculty member strengthen their proposal prior to formal submission to NSF.
Last Updated: Jan. 10, 2024
Contact
Randy Heflin
Senior Associate Vice President, Research and Innovation
540-231-3899
rheflin@vt.edu