The ACES OR supports faculty actively participating in research, including early career tenure-track faculty, midcareer tenured faculty, and senior tenured faculty. Our services focus on pre-award activities for research proposals across the spectrum of agriculture, consumer, and environmental science.
The OR proposal support staff makes no priority distinction when accepting a support request in terms of anticipated funding amount, funding agency, type of proposal (e.g., institutional training grant, research grant, conference grant, etc.), or tenure status. Requests are taken on a first-come first-served basis.
Please note, however, that proposal support staff availability is currently limited. Proposal support requests should be made well in advance of the SPA application due date, preferably as soon as a funding opportunity is identified. Successful awardees from the College of ACES often request proposal support 3 to 6 months in advance of SPA due date. Assistance with complex proposals, including but not limited to NIH Institutional Training, AFRI Coordinated Agricultural Project, or NSF Convergence Accelerator projects, should be requested at least 4 months in advance. In some cases (e.g., NIH Institutional Training Grants), additional support from campus units (Office of Proposal Development) will be required.
Proposal support for other grant types (e.g., standard) should be requested at least 2 months in advance of the SPA due dates. This should not be confused with the start date of your proposal development.
“Walk-ins” will be accommodated if possible but no later than 2 weeks ahead of the SPA due date. Please complete a proposal development support form regardless of due date.
Proposal Development Support
The ACES OR can help you:
- Identify funding opportunities
- Manage, coordinate, and facilitate the pre-award proposal development process
- Prepare for communicating with program officers or agency officials
- Obtain a critical review of the narrative/research strategy
- Develop a budget and budget narrative document
- Facilitate the development of multidisciplinary teams to respond to specific funding opportunities
- Review solicitations and identify key required elements
- Establish proposal development timelines and content
- Strategize ways to frame project ideas in the context of sponsor goals and mission
- With non-technical (non-disciplinary) proposal sections (facilities and resources template, broader impacts etc.)
- With templates, timelines, checklists, and guidelines for typical proposal components
- With obtaining Institutional Letters of Support
- Connect with faculty and other resources at UIUC