Proposal Development Resources

Proposal Writing 

SRI Proposal Writing Programs: Annual proposal writing workshop series (Proposal Writing Academy and PROWESS) for faculty in STEM and in the social sciences, humanities, arts, and education. 

Recommended Reading

Links go to the UCSB Library catalog.

Writing and Productivity (all fields)

• Belcher (2019), Writing Your Journal Article in Twelve Weeks
• Booth, Colomb, and Williams (2024), The Craft of Research
• Silvia (2018),  How to Write a Lot: A Practical Guide to Productive Academic Writing
• Sword (2017), Air & Light & Time & Space : How Successful Academics Write

Grant Seeking and Collaboration

• Licklider (2012), Grant seeking in higher education : strategies and tools for college faculty
• Bennett, Gadlin, and Khuri, (2025), How to Succeed at Collaborative Research: A Practical Guide for Teams
• Unruh, Banks, Fresquez, and Haeger (2025), Designing and Implementing a Successful Undergraduate Research, Scholarship and Creative Activity Program

STEM and Health Sciences

• Gerin and Kapelewski, (2011), Writing the NIH grant proposal : a Step-By-Step Guide
• Schimel (2012), Writing Science: How to Write Papers That Get Cited and Proposals That Get Funded

Humanities and Social Sciences

• Walker and Unruh (2017), Funding Your Research in the Humanities and Social Sciences
• Knox and Van Deventer (2023), The Dissertation-to-Book Workbook : Exercises for Developing and Revising Your Book Manuscript
• Portwood-Stacer (2021), The Book Proposal Book: A Guide for Scholarly Authors

Contacting a Program Officer

A short summary of your project helps you start a conversation with a program officer before you apply.

NSF: Writing a One-Pager

• Guide to writing a one-page project summary (PDF): How to summarize your project for an NSF program officer.

NIH: Writing a Specific Aims Page

Use a draft Specific Aims page to introduce your project to an NIH program officer. It follows the same format as the Specific Aims page in a full NIH application.

• Draft Specific Aims (NIAID, external): Tips for drafting your aims.
• Writing Specific Aims (NINDS, external): Guidance on structure and content.

Sample Proposals

• Funded UCSB proposals: Email funding@research.ucsb.edu or your SRI contact to request samples for your agency or program.
• Open Grants (external): A crowd-sourced collection of proposals that researchers have shared publicly, sorted by funder.

Required Plans and Supplementary Documents

Many proposals require one or more of these plans. Check your solicitation for which ones apply.

Mentoring Plan (NSF)

Required for NSF proposals that request funding for postdoctoral scholars or graduate students.

• NSF Mentoring and Individual Development Plan Guidance (UCSB login): What to include and how to tailor the plan to your trainees.

Data Management and Sharing Plan

Most federal agencies require a data management and sharing plan. Start with your agency's requirements, draft in DMPTool, and ask Library Research Data Services to review it.

• DMPTool (external): Free templates that follow each agency's requirements. Log in with your UCSB credentials.
• Free plan review: Email Library Research Data Services at rds@library.ucsb.edu.

Agency requirements

• NSF (external): Data Management and Sharing Plan, now submitted through Research.gov.
• NIH (external): Data Management and Sharing Plan. A new format applies to applications due on or after May 25, 2026.
• IES (external): Data Sharing and Management Plan.
• NEH Office of Digital Humanities (PDF, external): Data Management Plan
• Other agencies usually list their requirements in the funding announcement.

Safe and Inclusive Working Environments Plan (NSF)

NSF proposals that include off-campus or off-site research need a plan for keeping those settings safe and inclusive, including how inappropriate behavior will be addressed. Most programs use a Safe and Inclusive Working Environments (SAIWE) plan. Some BIO and GEO solicitations instead require a Safe and Inclusive Fieldwork (SAIF) plan as part of a pilot. 

• Guidance for PIs on SAIWE and SAIF Plans (UCSB login)
• SAIWE Plan template (UCSB login)
• SAIF Plan template (UCSB login)

Broader Impacts

NSF evaluates every proposal on Broader Impacts. These resources help you plan activities and find campus partners.

• Find a UCSB outreach partner: A directory of campus STEM education and outreach programs that work with K–12 students, community college students, teachers, and families. Use it to identify partners.
• NSF CAREER Education Plan guide: How to design and write the integrated education component of a CAREER proposal. Prepared by Strategic Research Initiatives.
• Advancing Research Impact in Society (ARIS) (external): An NSF-funded national center offering toolkits, examples, and research on effective broader impacts.

Facilities and Institutional Data

Standard descriptions and statistics to use in your proposal's facilities, institutional, and context sections.

Facilities

• Facilities handout (UCSB login): Ready-to-use descriptions of shared campus facilities for your Facilities, Equipment, and Other Resources document.
• UCSB Shared Instrumentation Network: Search shared instruments and facilities across campus departments, institutes, and centers.

Institutional Data

• Institutional Information: Common institutional data that sponsors require in proposals.
• Campus Profile: Enrollment, demographics, personnel, and financial data.
• National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics (NCSES) (external): National data on the science and engineering workforce, education, and research funding.

Research Data and Computing

Campus support for managing, storing, and computing on research data. For data management and sharing plans, see Required Plans.

• Library Research Data Services: Free consultations on data management plans, plus help with storage, sharing, and archiving at every stage of a project. Contact rds@library.ucsb.edu.
• Research Computing and Data (RCD): Campus computing clusters, storage, and technical consulting. Useful when describing computing resources in your proposal.
• Federal Dataset and Website Preservation: Community-run archives of federal datasets and websites, including ones no longer available from the agencies.