Tips for your NSF Doctoral Dissertation Enhancement Grant Application

Zoe Ziliak

PhD Candidate in Linguistics

ziliak@ufl.edu

First rule:

Start early!

Start at least one month before the deadline.

First step

Visit the Division of Sponsored Research in Grinter Hall

Open NSF account, get tips

Later, have them look over your documents

Read ALL the available instructions

Program Solicitation (20 pages)

Grant Proposal Guide (GPG, 68 pages)

Application Guide (62 pages)

Really – It’s worth it

If you have access to them

Read other successful proposals

Don’t break any rules

Margins

Font size

Page length

Budget

Know your audience

Definitely people in your field (Linguistics, Chemistry)

Probably people in your subfield (Sociolinguistics, biochemistry)

Probably not people working on your specific area of research (acquisition of the Northern Cities Chain Shift)

Content of the proposal

Use vigorous language with short, clear sentences

Get to the point – Why does this work need to be done, and why should you be the one to do it?

Give big picture so they know importance, but also enough specifics that it sounds like you know what you’re doing

Content continued

DO give an adequate lit review

DON’T overlook Broader Impacts – Very important!

(Intellectual Merit and Broader Impacts supposed to be interwoven in text, but I didn’t do this)

How to get Broader Impacts

Inventions? Improvements?

Donations to causes – I donated my interviews to a museum

I.e., if you don’t have any, create some!

Appearance of your proposal

Use underlining, bold, italics, etc.

Bullet points are good

Use larger font, wider margins, etc. if possible – Make it easy on the readers’ eyes

Have lots of other people read your proposal

Committee members

Other people who get lots of grants

Somebody who doesn’t know (much) about your project

Budget

Pad correctly – add a few dispensable items, don’t pretend things cost more than they do

Budget (continued)

Your chances may improve if you’re well under the limit

MAKE SURE to ask someone in the DSR to check your budget for you!

Questions, comments?

ziliak@ufl.edu