CONFERENCE 2018

PROPOSALSLIKE IT’S

Writing and Illustrating Grant Proposals for the Information Age

Tobin Spratte | Michael Northrop Arizona State UniversityJessica Brassard Michigan Technological University

2019

AD 1219• Sir, your proposal to the Archbishop of

Canterbury is on track for delivery next month.• This pie chart has too much gold leaf, and we

need to mention our history of shepherding serfs on the Earl of Shaftesbury’s land. And what about Friar Bernard’s exegesis on the parable of the barren fig tree?

• Got it. But if we make these changes, the archbishop won’t be getting our proposal for another six and a half years.

THE DIGITAL REVOLUTIONTHE INFORMATION AGEAND

INFORMATIONOVERLOAD

6.9ZETTABYTES

Americans in 2013 consumed

360MILLION

times the amount of printed material in the Library of Congress

INFORMATIONTSUNAMI 18,264,840

MEGABYTES

Every minute, Americans together chomp through

304,414NSF PROPOSALS

This is like reading through

19607213000 BC

Writing develops

Rise of scientific

thought and texts

900 BC

Philosophical and religious texts appear

624 BC

Dawn of math and astronomy

Islamic Golden Age

First universities

created

1088

Scientific Revolution

1543

Digital Revolution

2003

Hungry for Data

35GB per day

2019

.7GB per day

1989

CHANGED CONSUMPTION HABITS

8SECONDS

Average length of a television commercial

20MINUTES

Selective sustained attention span

20PERCENT

Amount read of any given text

MINI POLL

How many of you read print?

How many of you read on a screen?

How do reviewers read proposals?

How many of you work on proposals with relaxed guidelines?

HOW PEOPLE READ AND REMEMBER

THE TIMES, THEY ARE A CHANGIN’

RESISTANCE IS FUTILE

RESILIENCE IS KEY

WHO MOVED MY PROTEASE ENZYMES?

EXAMPLES OF CHANGE

twitter chatter#dataviz, #scicomm

FINDING INSPIRATION

twitter chatter#sciart

FINDING INSPIRATION

twitter chatter#dataviz

FINDING INSPIRATION

MAKING THE MOST OF GRAPHICS Doug McNeall & Ed Hawkins, Making

Better Scientific Graphics, British Antarctic Survey, Cambridge, England, March 2018, https://drive.google.com/file/d/1UfL9hNCKvQol4OQZwna0PLvzVYvwdxuL/view

The principles of design provide basic guidelines that dictate the arrangement of objects within a composition. They include:• Balance: the symmetrical or asymmetrical arrangement

of objects to create visual weight• Rhythm: the repetition or alteration of elements

to create movement, pattern, or texture• Proportion: the comparison of dimensions or

distribution of form where scale is relational• Dominance: emphasis is placed on relationships

of scaled design elements• Unity: the relationship between

individual elements to create wholeness• Repetition of Form: Using similar design elements

throughout the proposal

KEY DESIGNRULES

Both figures created in PowerPoint

YOURTOOLS DON’TMATTER

Rive

r or L

ake

Wastewater Treatment plant

Humans

Incineration Drinking Water Treatment Plant

Humans

Wastewater Treatment plant

Air

Land Application of biosolids, fertilizers,

pesticides on Agricultural lands

Landfill

Dry & Wet Deposition

Rivers and Lakes

Rivers and Lakes

Incineration

Incineration

Land Application of Biosolids, Fertilizers, and Pesticides on

Agricultural Lands

Land Application of Biosolids, Fertilizers, and Pesticides on

Agricultural Lands

Humans

Humans

Dry and Wet Deposition

Dry and Wet Deposition

Mineral & Soil Weathering

Volcanoes

Volcanoes

Air

Air

Wastewater Treatment Plant

Wastewater Treatment Plant

Drinking Water Treatment Plant

Drinking Water Treatment Plant

Landfill

Landfill

Mineral & Soil Weathering

YOURTOOLS DON’TMATTER

BRANDING AND IDENTITY

https://www.statista.com/statistics/188312/top-bottled-still-water-brands-in-the-united-states/

A LESSON FROM BILLBOARDS

Zone 1

Zone 4

Zone 2

Zone 3

Zone 1

Zone 4

Zone 2

Zone 3

Zone 1

Zone 5

Zone 2

Zone 3

Zone 4

Zone 6

Keep the figure simple by creating a caption that defines the details.

PROCESS SCIENCE ENVIRONMENT

QUICK FIGURES

Stuart Lindsay* (PI)Raymond DuBois* (Co-PI)

Robert RosProject 1 Lead

Yang Jiao

Mina Bissell* Project 2 Lead

Dan FletcherClaire Robertson

Ke Xu

Karen AndersonCore 1 Co-Lead

Joni MottCore 1 Co-Lead

Joshua LaBaerCore 2 Lead

Pauline Davies Education and Outreach

Unit Lead

Paul Davies*

Center Administrator

Jason SteelJin Park

NIH

Cheryl Nickerson

ENGAGE YOUR SOPHISTICATED AUDIENCEGRAPHICS ARE ALWAYS USEFUL• Most useful if they

are strategic

• Stylized tables and bullets can be just as effective

GRAPHICS ARE ALWAYS USEFUL

INFOGRAPHICS MADE EASY

DefineProperties

Synthesis

SpecializedcharacterizationandMachinelearning

DeviceAssembly

MaterialsbyInverseDesignApproach

• MachineLearningbased• AdvancedandCorrelated

Characterization• High throughput

LowEnergyStructures

DeviceOrientedMaterial’sDesign

• HighComputationalPower• HighThroughputMaterial

Screening

HighThroughput screeningforcandidates

Narrowbesto

fclass

SET YOURSELF APART

CREATE ADISTINCTADVANTAGE

DESIGN IS NOTA SILVER BULLET

But it can be a silver lining.

YOUR BRAND EXTENDSBEYOND COLOR AND LOGO

RESPECTTHE SPACE

Figure 1 Our center is organized to quickly, efficiently respond to industry needs and concerns while maximizing input and ideas from participating faculty across all institutions and thrusts.

Figure 1 Center organization chart.

Boring.

WRITING21ST CENTURYAUDIENCEFO

R TH

E

THE FIRST RULE OF PROPOSAL WRITING IS

THE SECOND RULE OF PROPOSAL WRITING IS

Know thy audience.

COROLLARYTO RULE TWO

Know thy audience.Be ClearClear writing is an indicator of clear thinking.

THECURSE OF KNOWLEDGE

“The main cause of incomprehensible prose is the difficulty of imagining what it’s like for someone else not to know something that you know.”

– Steven Pinker

WHAT’S IN ITFOR THEM?

Logos Pathos

Ethos Expertise, authority

EmotionsReason

THE ART OFRHETORIC

CULTIVATING A CULTURE

• Proposal development vs. faculty development

• Encourage enthusiasm• Work with faculty (especially

early-career faculty) and teach them to stand up for proposals (*with merit) which also show an aesthetic

HOW TO MOVE THE NEEDLE

TRANSFORMING FACULTYFROM MECHANICS TO ARTISTS

Hire a consultant

Talk to your Marketing and Communications unitHire a graphic designer

Hire a student

FINDING THESKILLS

BEFORE WETAKE OFF Q

&A