Overview
PROWESS is an intensive summer program designed to support early-career STEM faculty in developing competitive grant proposals and navigating the research funding landscape. The workshop covers a wide range of topics, including proposal writing strategies, communicating persuasively, navigating funding as an early career faculty, and insights into major funding agencies and their review processes. Instruction is provided by experienced SRI staff and distinguished guest experts, including Josh Schimel, author of Writing Science. In addition to writing skills, PROWESS introduces participants to valuable UCSB research resources, such as Library Research Data Services, Research Computing and Data, Research Integrity, and the Office of Technology and Industry Alliances (TIA). Faculty panels also offer participants a chance to learn from the first-hand experiences and insights peers a few years ahead in their academic careers. Over the course of PROWESS, each participant works on developing their own proposal draft, receiving constructive feedback through peer-review group meetings led by SRI staff. While some participants focus on NSF CAREER proposals, this is not a requirement. We encourage you to join us for PROWESS early in your faculty career and take advantage of this unique opportunity to accelerate your research funding success.
Scheduling
PROWESS takes place over approximately 6 weeks in June and July, typically beginning just after the end of Spring Quarter (mid-June), and ending in mid-late July. PROWESS typically meets twice per week, 3 hours per meeting. Meetings are a mix of lecture-style sessions and peer review sessions where participants critique the proposal drafts of their peers. Applications open in Winter Quarter.
Topics
Topics vary from year to year, and participants will have the opportunity to request additional topics that interest them. Topics from recent PROWESS workshops include:
- Developing Summaries and Pitches
- Story Structure for Proposal Writing
- Overview of Federal Funding Agencies
- Writing for Flow and Coherence
- Tips for Specific Aims/Overview Sections
- Preparing Figures for Proposals
- Preparing Proposal Budgets
- Working with Foundations
- Early Career Funding Opportunities
- An Inside View of Review Panels at Funding Agencies
- Collaborative Grants
- Setting Yourself up for Future Awards Nominations
- Creating Competitive Ancillary Documents
- Data Management and Data Management Plans
Frequently Asked Questions
All STEM assistant professors are eligible, with preference given to those in their first 1-2 years at UCSB.
Watch for an email announcement from SRI in Winter Quarter (typically January or February).
Popular choices include single-investigator NSF or NIH proposals, NSF CAREER proposals, or other early career proposals (i.e. to DOE or DOD); this is up to you.
Participants will be grouped into teams of 3-4 people, who will read and critique one another’s proposals over the course of 3 peer review sessions. Participants are asked to share their drafts with their team members several days in advance of each peer review meeting, and to read one another’s drafts before each meeting. Typically, the first session covers the introduction/overview, the second covers the research plan, and the third covers the full draft (revised from previous sessions).
In order to receive financial support, participants should not miss more than one session. We recommend taking PROWESS in a year when you do not have significant travel plans in June and July.
We ask that participants bring at minimum, a rough draft or very detailed outline of their planned proposal, which they will flesh out over the course of PROWESS, but a complete draft is preferred.
Questions?
Contact stem@research.ucsb.edu