[Dev] seeking NSF grant application advice/info

[Paul D. Boyle]

Brent Verner wrote:
> There are NSF grants that are available to only univ., but there are
> some available only to non-educational entities (including
> individuals)... <smacks self for not staying in school...>  Yeah,
> I know univ. are major consumers of the NSF funds, so I'm hoping
> some kind individual might help me find my way into that circle ;-)
> 

I have written both successful and unsuccessful NSF proposals.  These were
for equipment/instrumentation proposals, rather than software development 
projects.  At least in Chemistry money for software development gets 
severely short changed.

The place to start is to go to http://www.nsf.gov and look at the programs
for Computer and Information Science.  For example, there is the 
NSF Middleware Initiative (NMI) outlined in in NSF document 02-028.  Here
is the link to the HTML version of the document:

http://www.nsf.gov/pubs/2002/nsf02028/nsf02028.htm

The deadline for this program is 1 March 2002.  This is a very open
program in that there are no limitations on eligibility.

Other programs you may want to check out are:
Trusted Computing (NSF 01-160) (next deadline is 12/2002)
Embedded and Hybrid Systems (NSF 01-161) (next deadline is 12/2002)

If you want to write a proposal you must adhere to the specifications
spelled out in Grant Proposal Guide (GPG) NSF 02-2.  You will also have
to conform to any proposal specs spelled out by the individual guides
for the particular program to which you are applying for money.  NSF can
be very anal about this, and will throw away perfectly good proposals if
they don't have margins set right or you run a page or two over the limit.
StarOffice 5.3 worked for me in preparing my last proposal.

You should also have a very hot sounding C.V. which demonstrates you have
the competence and experience to do what you set up to do.

Another thing NSF likes is to show how the project can benefit other
segments of society (i.e. have a "broad impact"), especially with
underrepresented segments like women and racial minorities, and
ably-challenged individuals (to use the politically correct term).


Good Luck,

Paul

-- 
Paul D. Boyle			    |	boyle@laue.chem.ncsu.edu
Director, X-ray Structural Facility |	phone: (919) 515-7362
Department of Chemistry - Box 8204  |	FAX:   (919) 515-5079
North Carolina State University     | 
Raleigh, NC, 27695-8204
http://laue.chem.ncsu.edu/web/xray.welcome.html