Which part of your proposal should you write first?

When you start drafting a proposal, the ~15-page Project Narrative or Project Description stands out as the big thing to tackle. For that reason, PIs often start writing that first; they begin with the Introduction and work their way through from there. While the required or expected sections of a Project Narrative can vary, there are some standard ones. In addition to Introduction, these may include Approach, Personnel, Broader Impacts/Mission Relevance, etc.

Last year, a PI told me that they looked at each of these sections and subsections as ‘parts of the proposal that I need to fill out’. That’s a pretty common and understandable way to approach the task. However, after working with me, this PI developed a new approach to writing proposals, and they recently learned that they were funded on an NSF proposal at $345k. 😀

In most cases, the part of the proposal that you should write first is the Project Summary or Abstract. Yes, it can be ‘harder’ to start here, but forcing yourself to outline the framework for your entire project at any early stage will allow you to make important assessments and adjustments much earlier in the proposal preparation process than you would otherwise. Here are some of the benefits:

• If you can’t come up with a good 1-3 page summary of what you want to do, you may need to rethink preparing and submitting a proposal at this stage and work to fill whatever gaps (data, collaborators, etc.) you need to make a stronger case. This lets you put your time to better use.

• If you like what you see in the Summary you can work through and revise your plan within that. Do your first rewrites there rather than in the longer document.

• You can make sure you have a strong and clear statement of your objective(s) that you can stay true to throughout everything else you draft.

• You can ask colleagues to read and comment on your 1-3 page document; (1) it’s easier on people to comment on this than on a 15-pager and (2) you will get their feedback earlier in the process so those comments can inform your drafting of the rest of the proposal.

After leaving my program manager position, I came across a comment on Twitter/X in which a PI who had received a lot of support from the program I managed stated that they always wrote the Summary first. I was not surprised to learn this because I had read, processed and recommended for funding ~4 proposals from this PI over the years, all of which were very strong. Their comments on Twitter support the idea that this approach, which requires forcing yourself to gain clarity on what you want to do early in the proposal prep process, allows all of your documents to shine with one clear, consistent message.

I’ve highlighted this topic because I’ve just published the next installment of the Countdown to CAREER video training, where I cover drafting your Project Summary. See below for the link. As I say in the video, this first draft of your Summary will be revised, edited, and trimmed down to the required length later in the process. There’s no need to worry about character counts at this stage; just get something down!

Considering an NSF CAREER submission?

I’ve published the latest installment of my free training on preparing for NSF CAREER proposal submission in July 2024. We are just 5 months away from the deadline, and this is a not a proposal you want to throw together at the last minute. Check out this video and the previous ones if you are considering a submission.

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