When writing proposals, you are less likely to win if you assume your proposal is about you. You are the one who is asking for funding and your record of accomplishments and expertise are going to determine whether you get funded. So surely a proposal is about you and what you want to do. Right? Wrong!

Yes, there are opportunities that are focused on supporting your career development such as the NSF Early Career grants. But these are exceptions. Especially when you are looking for more or longer-term funding. Say to start a research program, to build new instruments, or to lead a space mission. In the most common situations, it is all about the sponsor. It is the sponsor’s money you are asking for. And the sponsor’s goals are what should be the focus of your proposal. Yes, your unique abilities are critical to the success of your project, but only in as far as they help achieve what the sponsor wants to accomplish. 

How do you know what the sponsor wants? Luckily, they tell you. All you need to do is read. All major funding organizations publish strategic documents such as roadmaps, decadal surveys and other guiding documents. Solicitations, often also called calls for proposals, usually list the specific documents that they would like you to respond to. Based on my personal experience as a reviewer, the simple step of reading the solicitation carefully, will put you ahead of at least one third of your competitors. This number has held up surprisingly well across disciplines. Wouldn’t you want to leave a third of the field behind right from the start?

And no, you do not need turn yourself or your research inside out to match what a sponsor is looking for. What you do need to do is build a bridge from what the sponsor is looking for to what you want to accomplish and how your experience enables it. And it doesn’t matter in which direction you build this bridge. Whether you start with the sponsor goals, your desire for funding, or build from both side and meet in the middle. But in the final proposal writing, the text you are submitting, you want to start your argument from the goals and objectives of the sponsor. 

Let me give you an example. You may start with Question 11 from the 2023 planetary decadal survey. “Is there evidence of past or present life in the solar system beyond Earth, and how do we detect it?” You could start like this: 

To make progress towards finding evidence of past or present life beyond Earth, we have identified the spectra signature of minerals indicating the presence of past life on Mars. We have published several papers about the relevancy of these markers and have demonstrated in our lab that these markers can be detected with our innovative technique. We are now looking to mature our lab demonstration into a compact instrument that can be flown on an upcoming space mission. Please send money. 

Yes, the last sentence will need refining, but you get the broad idea. Start with goal of the sponsor and take them step by step to the work you want to do. Note that this bridge is more than rhetorical flourish. The connection between the sponsor goals and your work must be an evidence-based chain of reasoning. Say you have perfected detecting and measuring the spectral signature of a certain mineral. That’s your expertise. And a recent paper has indicated that biological activity leads to a surplus of this mineral. Great. But what if there are other, non-biological processes that also produce this mineral? Now your positive test result may or may not be an indicator of past life. 

This is where you may have to bring in help to finish the bridge. Perhaps you need to read more of the literature about the connection between biological processes and minerals. Perhaps you need to collaborate with a colleague who can close the gap. In the very least, your argument will grow stronger as you debate it with others. Just don’t forget to aim for the goal of the sponsor. Because your proposal isn’t about you.