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Proposal Development

The Proposal Development Office (PDO) of the College of Science and Technology at the University of Southern Mississippi was created to help meet the long-term institutional research and educational priorities of the university, e.g., promoting multidisciplinary research teams, enhancing new and junior faculty research, increasing opportunities for undergraduate research, and helping to meet diversity objectives for science and technology education.

The PDO supports:

• center-level initiatives and multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary research teams
• new and junior faculty
• long-term proposal planning
• diversity in the research enterprise

PDO services currently include:

• work with individual faculty in preparation of proposals, e.g. review of drafts for compliance with proposal requirements, editing and proofreading
• assist new faculty in identifying funding opportunities and facilitate their efforts to develop successful grant proposals
• identification of groups of faculty, administrators and staff for multi-disciplinary/multi-institutional research initiatives
• arrange and conduct meetings and/or brainstorming sessions; develop timelines, identify key activities and keep up with scheduled deadlines for assigned tasks

In addition, the PDO can help with all required paperwork for proposal submission, including uploading all or part of the proposal to FASTLANE and Grants.gov; develop searches via Community of Science to identify current funding opportunities; prepare lists of instrumentation and equipment; obtain letters of support; help prepare budgets; and provide writing resources. A proposal development seminar is available for faculty and graduate students and lecture materials on scientific writing for undergraduate students are available through the office.

The PDO's responsibilities are different from, and augment, those of Sponsored Programs Administration (SPA). The key to understanding how the PDO can help is the word "development." As soon as you identify a funding opportunity you are interested in pursuing, contact the PDO to discuss ways to streamline the process to save you time and increase your probability of success.

Why utilize the PDO? Program directors consistently stress clear and concise communication of good ideas. You may have a number of good ideas, but if you wish to enhance your ability to communicate those ideas to a specific audience...the PDO can help!

Diana Flosenzier
Proposal Development, College of Science and Technology
University of Southern Mississippi
TEC 105B, (601) 266-5060
diana.flosenzier@usm.edu