Concepts of Ecology

Assignments concering grant proposals (beginning with discussion on September 24, 1998)
 

  1. Download a copy of the NSF guidelines for submitting Doctoral Dissertation Improvement (DDI) grant proposals, and a copy of the Grant Proposal Guide.  I've also made a copy of two of my grants available via the course readings page.  You are free to download these.
  2. What do you think defines a good grant proposal?  How might these criteria differ among various granting agencies (e.g., would you submit the same proposal to Florida Department of Environmental Protection, The Nature Conversancy, and NSF?).  [This will be the primary focus on discussion on September 24th].
  3. What sort of items need to go into a budget?  Start putting together a draft budget for your grant (yes, this is premature -- you haven't yet designed your study, but I'd like you to start thinking about what should or should not be included in a budget).  I'd like you to handle this budget different than a standard DDI proposal.  Instead of writing a budget for a DDI (on the order of $10,000), assume that you are a faculty member at UF, and that you can include graduate student salaries, post-docs, technicians, undergraduates, etc. (so we're talking about grants on the order of $50,000 - $500,000).  What are the various expenses that you will incur related to the costs of conducting your proposed work.  [We'll deal with this during a subsequent discussion meeting.]
  4. How should you review a grant proposal?  What do you look for as a reviewer?  Are there ethical considerations that arise when serving as a reviewer?  If so, what are they?  How might you deal with these possible issues? [We'll probably also address this in a subsequent meeting]
osenberg@zoo.ufl.edu