Examples of grad student NSF proposals?

October 17, 2006 7:21 PM

My friend is putting together a National Science Foundation proposal, and is looking for examples of other Ph. D. (or doctoral/maters) students' NSF proposals. Any ideas or resources would be greatly appreciated.
posted by stewiethegreat to Education (7 answers total)

Call the NSF and ask for successful past proposals, they will almost certainly send you some. The HEH and the Department of Education do this, as do most private foundations. A work-around is to contact last year's winners and ask for copies, many will share.
posted by LarryC at 7:29 PM on October 17, 2006

Oops, HEH = NEH, the National Endowment for the Humanities.
posted by LarryC at 8:08 PM on October 17, 2006

Every university has an office of grants and such. They usually offer useful information and hands-on help. It is important they contact this office because they have their own requirements about budgeting and overheads etc etc etc.
NSF has very strict guidelines (even for language used, sections layout etc) that your friend will have to follow (http://www.nsf.gov/funding/). Also, they might want to get hold of an actual proposal on a similar topic that got funded (from their department?)
Ah, yes what LarryC said already.
posted by carmina at 9:09 PM on October 17, 2006

sorry, I meant to post this:
http://www.nsf.gov/publications/pub_summ.jsp?ods_key=gpg
posted by carmina at 9:11 PM on October 17, 2006

When I did this I got examples from people within my department who had won one in the past. Note that this won't necessarily help as the results are highly dependent on who reads them. (Also, examples from outside your friend's field won't really help because there is only one outside judge.)

Carmina, I don't think that document applies to the NSF Graduate Research Fellowship, which is what I bet the poster is asking about (and a very different matter than regular NSF grants).
posted by advil at 9:39 PM on October 17, 2006

In what field? If mathematics, zap me an email and I'll send you mine.
posted by gleuschk at 3:58 AM on October 18, 2006

Keep in mind when asking that there are two types of NSF proposals for grads in many fields - the research fellowship, and the dissertation research improvement grant. When you search for/ask for these you have to be specific as to which one you're interested in.

Also, don't get upset if people say "no, sorry, I won't give you a copy of my proposal" -- while proposals to the NSF are public documents, I believe they are kept in confidence until the research is complete. I would be very wary to send a copy of my dissertation improvement grant proposal to someone who randomly e-mailed me at this point because I have yet to use the data I have collected...
posted by sablazo at 7:13 AM on October 18, 2006