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Department
of Psychology |
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Proposal Development Services - Psychology Specific
For Government Grants:
Contact: Jen
Taylor Hillebrand
Grants Development Specialist
Email: jth18@psu.edu
Phone: 814-863-6477
For Private Foundations and Corporations:
Contact: Alicia
J. Knoedler, CRA, PhD
Assistant Director, Corporate and Foundation Relations
Email: ajk12@psu.edu
Phone: 814-863-4308
The following support and services are available to investigators (faculty, postdocs, graduate students) relevant to building research programs to incorporate project funding. Depending on the type of funding sponsor/agency, investigators are encouraged to contact either Jen Hillebrand or Alicia Knoedler to receive assistance in finding and applying for research funding.
Individual Investigators:
- Discussions with investigators regarding research programs and projects – what are your current and future projects that might attract funding
- Searches for funding opportunities – specific program announcements for your research program – government sponsors (NIH, NSF, Dept of Ed, etc.), military sponsors (Air Force, Army, DARPA, etc.) in addition to non-government sources (for example, private foundations, industry)
- Fostering collaborations among investigators– are you looking to make contact with investigators in other areas, Colleges, campus, institutions? Jen and/or Alicia can help with these contacts and the logistics to bringing a group together on a grant proposal
- Deciphering of funding guidelines - what are the important things you need to know and follow for an acceptable proposal
- Information regarding agency funding priorities – sponsors change their priorities (what they want to fund) often; Jen and Alicia will keep up with the changes and relay them to you
- Questions about funding sponsor policies – if you did something one way for one sponsor, will it work for all sponsors (short answer: NO);
- Contact with sponsor program officers/directors – do you have a question for a program officer and don't want to reveal your identity? Do you want to know if your project fits with a particular program? Do you want know in advance about forthcoming program announcements and priorities? Jen and Alicia can help.
- Grant Writing - Jen and Alicia can assist with all stages of the development and writing of the research plan, such as: planning an outline, reading and editing the proposal, giving feedback on how well review criteria have been addressed, creation of tables and figures, polishing the final version, etc.
- Electronic Research Administration – News, requirements, and assistance with Grants.gov proposals; assistance in using and navigating NSF's Fastlane and NIH's eRA Commons; Are you having trouble using the electronic proposal submission systems provided by various government agencies? Are PDF forms driving you crazy? – Jen can provide assistance
- Budget development – tell Jen what you need and she will develop the budget and write the justification
- Biosketch/Biographical Sketch maintenance - Jen will maintain current copies of your NIH and/or NSF biosketches and update them as necessary.
- Resources/Facilities/Equipment descriptions - Example descriptions of lab configurations, office, and equipment descriptions and well as descriptions pertaining to resources at Penn State University are available from the Grant Support Services home page.
- Listings of Current/Pending/Complete Support - Jen and the Liberal Arts Grants and Contracts Office will maintain a current list of your current awards, pending proposals, and funded work that has been completed in the past 3-5 years
- Boilerplate descriptions – Boilerplate descriptions to get you started on Human Subjects sections (NIH), Broader Impacts (NSF), and similar commonly-used sections are available from the Grant Support Services home page.
- Coordination of subcontracts with other institutions – are you writing a grant with colleagues at another institution? Is PSU the lead institution or the subcontracting institution? Jen can assist you with the coordination and arrangements for these relationships
- Timely submissions - Jen and Alicia work with investigators to ensure that proposals are completed prior to the deadline and sent through the proper university channels prior to being submitted to the agency
- Post-proposal work with investigators on revisions – for proposals that were not funded, Jen and Alicia will read the reviews and discuss changes to make to proposals prior to resubmission (and they will contact program officers if necessary)
Collaborative Proposals:
All of the above services are provided for individual investigators as well as groups of collaborative investigators. However, there are aspects of collaborative research and proposal development that are unique and require additional services, which are listed below:
- Planning Meetings - Jen and Alicia can assist in the organization and scheduling of planning meetings among all involved investigators. They can provide background information on/summaries of RFA/PAs, set the agenda, create and manage an ANGEL-based website for exchange of information, whatever is needed for productive and efficient use of time.
- Identification of interested investigators - For the cases in which RFA/PAs call for a large number of investigators, Jen and Alicia can help identify potential collaborators and gather necessary information and documentation from these investigators
- Resources - For large collaborative projects, institutional resources need to be identified and described in the proposal, and possibly contacted to provide committed support of the proposal (e.g., a letter of support, estimate of services, etc.).
- Cost-sharing proposals - In the event that cost-sharing from the institution is required or strongly recommended, Jen and Alicia can assist in the development of a cost-sharing proposal (in addition to developing the budget, as described above) that could then proceed to required levels of administration for consideration.
- Continual Program Officer contact - In large collaborative projects, it is best to work with the sponsor program officers to determine competitive characteristics, priorities, and the like. Jen and Alicia can establish initial contact with the program officer and pose questions about the project and its perceived ability to compete. In addition, she can maintain contact with the program officer (who are often difficult to contact) to request additional information or documentation (e.g., sample successful proposals).
Additional Information for Graduate Students:
The information above pertains to all investigators: faculty, postdocs, graduate students. However, there is additional information specifically for graduate students that can be found on the Grant Support Services home page or from the Graduate Grants Support page.
Post-Award Grant Management:
After an award/grant is received, investigators need to know that there are "rules" and guidelines for spending their money, especially if that money is from the federal government. Information regarding these rules and guidelines are available from the Grant Support Services home page or from the Award Management page.
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