The staff of the Grants, Foundation and Corporate Relations office is available and happy to provide individual guidance when crafting your grant proposal. We can assist you in finding a funding source, developing your budget, reviewing your narrative, and acting as a liaison for other relevant offices and services on campus. In addition, we have compiled some tools to further assist you in developing a successful grant proposal.
Grant Lifecycle
A flow chart of activities for moving your project from idea to implementation to completion
Project Profile Tool
Developing your idea and finding funding
Proposal Checklists
- General Proposal Checklist
- NSF Proposal Preparation Checklist
- NEH Fellowship Proposal Preparation Checklist
FAQs for NSF Reports
Frequently asked questions on reporting requirements for your National Science Foundation grant
Significant Changes and Clarifications to NSF Proposal & Award Policies and Procedures
Here is a summary of changes and clarifications that have been made throughout the most recent version of the NSF-PAPPG guidance document.
Data Management Plan
A Data Management Plan (DMP) is a document outlining plans to manage data during and after a research project including how the data will be organized, maintained and shared. A DMP is required by some federal funding agencies, including NSF and NIH. There are a number of places you can go for guides and tools to help you create an effective and sound DMP.
- Macalester library staff and your AIA are important resources and they have developed a good place to start.
- Some NSF programs have program-specific guidelines on what the DMP should include. Check the NSF website for your program to see if this pertains to your proposal.
- You can review the templates, tools, best practices and examples made available by the Inter-University Consortium for Political and Social Research. These resources are relevant for projects outside of the social sciences, as well.
- DMPTool will walk you through the steps to create a DMP.