Writing a Successful CAREER Proposal - my personal experience

1
Writing a Successful CAREER Proposal- my
personal experience

• Hong Liang
• Jordan Career Development Associate Professor
• Mechanical Engineering
• Texas AM University
• NSF CAREER Workshop
• Fairbanks, AK
• Aug. 22-23, 2007

2
At the Starting Line

• Start from the day one
• Manage time teaching, research, and proposal
  writing
• Generate preliminary results
• Student training
• Journal paper publication
• There are three years till midterm tenure review
  

3
Career Preparation

• What is the research focus?
• Unique and exciting
• Needs to be different from Ph.D. thesis
• Align with department and college mission
• Have local infrastructure support
• Lifelong research and learning

4
Proposal Preparation

• Discuss your career plan with the department head
  and obtain support
• Do a thorough literature search
• Explore new ideas
• The literature review can be used for future
  publications
• Compare your idea with prior art
• Put in the format of tables or charts
• Potential impact should be clear at this stage
• Discuss with mentors

5
Education Plan

• Set goals - dont make a laundry list
• Be innovative but stay focused on achieving goals
  
• - Be unique and achievable
• Curriculum development
• Does your department need it?
• Will the school be better ranked because of it?
• Students
• Would they be better prepared for future?
• Community
• Will more people benefit from your effort?

6
Writing the Proposal

• Read and follow NSF guidelines carefully
• Any sign of carelessness will cost the proposal
• Objectives should be clearly stated and easy to
  find
• 1st line in the summery, subtitles, or starting
  paragraphs
• Use figures and tables
• Be your own reviewer what, why, how, and outcome

7
Writing the Proposal

• Collaboration
• establish a strong connection but make sure to be
  independent
• Propose the exact budget
• Get help from local proposal office
• Have it reviewed by peers and senior colleagues
• Which program to submit?
• read winning award abstracts
• ask program managers

8
Improving the Proposal

• Dont take panel review comments personally
• You might have written the best proposal, but
  someone else wrote a better one
• Panel is formed of researchers from different
  areas
• Everyone should be able to grasp your ideas
• Consult popular science magazines
• Submit regular proposals
• Proposal writing skill is important for a
  successful academic career, so might as well
  enjoy doing it

9
Final Words

• Be innovative
• Be persistent
• Be resourceful

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• Open Discussion