Grant Proposal Guidelines – Final Project
Instructions: This assignment involves preparing a grant proposal requesting support for a 12-month research project. The total amount of support you may request is $60,000 (including direct and indirect costs). You will choose a specific topic in neuroscience or neuropsychology and develop a grant proposal based on a review of the literature and identification of a research hypothesis. The grant proposal must be six to eight double-spaced pages in length (not including title page, references list, and appendix), 12- point font, and formatted according to APA style as outlined in the Ashford Writing Center. You must use at least 15 peer-reviewed sources in addition to the text.
The components of your proposal are outlined below. View the Sample Grant Proposal to see an example of a completed proposal in APA format. Use the Grant Proposal Template to create your grant proposal.
NOTE: All titles should be centered and all content should be formatted as in the Grant Proposal Template and the Sample Grant Proposal, not as outlined below in this guidelines document.
Title Page (1 page): • Title of your grant proposal • Your full name • Course name and number • Instructor’s name • Date submitted
Specific Aims: (1 page)
Clearly and concisely state the goals of your grant proposal. Summarize the expected outcome(s), including the impact that the results of the proposed research will exert on the research field(s) involved. List the specific objectives of your grant proposal (e.g., to test a stated hypothesis, create a novel design, solve a specific problem, challenge an existing paradigm or clinical practice, address a critical barrier to progress in the field, or develop new technology). Background: (6 – 8 pages for Background, Significance, Proposed Study, and Budget Justification sections)
The goal of this section is to provide a well-developed literature review that provides the basis for the research problem and illustrates to the reader that you are knowledgeable about the scope of the theory. Research as many studies pertaining to the theory as possible, and summarize them in a succinct manner.
In most respects, this section is precisely what you do when you write the introduction section to a research paper. Your background section should clearly state the rationale for the topic you have chosen. It includes the literature review you conducted to identify an area of neuroscience or neuropsychology that has not yet been studied. At the end of this section, you should clearly specify your research hypotheses. Significance:
Explain the importance of the problem or critical barriers to progress in the field that the proposed project addresses. Explain how the proposed project will improve scientific knowledge, technical capability, and/or clinical practice in one or more broad fields. Describe how the concepts, methods, technologies, treatments, services, or preventative interventions that drive this field will be changed if the proposed aims are achieved.
PSY625: Biological Bases of Behavior Ashford University
Grant Proposal Guidelines
Proposed Study:
This section will very much resemble a typical methods section like the one you would write in an empirical paper (except that the data have not yet been collected). You should describe the study that you are proposing to conduct to test your hypothesis. This section should include the following subsections:
• Participants: include a description of the population that will be used for the study. Point out any procedures, situations, or materials that may be hazardous to personnel and precautions to be exercised.
• Procedures: include a description of how the study will be conducted including any instruments that will be used and how the data will be collected.
• Hypotheses and Analysis: state hypotheses of the proposed study and general outline of how data will be collected and used to accomplish the specific aims of the project.
Budget Justification:
Provide a brief summary justifying your budget and the needs for the items listed in Appendix A: Budget. The actual numbers will be listed in Appendix A. The budget for this proposal is limited to $60,000.
References:
Cite a minimum of 15 peer-reviewed articles from the Ashford University Library or PubMed Central (PMC). All sources must be current (published within the 10 years unless it’s a seminal work) and relevant to your topic. Format all sources in APA style as outlined in the Ashford Writing Center.
Appendix A: Budget: (see Grant Proposal Template, Appendix A)
A typical grant proposal has a very detailed budget. For our purposes here, you should include an appendix with a completed budget. Your figures are just an estimate so feel free to make up the budget numbers and figures. Use the template called Summary Proposal Budget in the Grant Proposal Template, Appendix A to create your budget. There is also an optional Budget Calculation Spreadsheet to help you calculate your figures. The goal of this exercise is for you to spend time thinking about the costs of conducting research. Here are some examples of expenses you could include:
Direct Costs:
• Personnel: o Graduate research assistant salary – 20-hours per week for 12 months is roughly $25,000
(this covers salary, tuition, and fringe benefits). o Principal Investigator Salary – make-up your annual salary and divide it by 12, then
multiple this number by the number of months of salary you wish to pay yourself (this can range from 1-12 months; and from 10% to 100% effort).
• Equipment: o List major purchases (greater than $5000) that will be necessary to complete your project
(e.g., computers, video equipment, physiological measures, expensive software, etc.) and costs.
• Travel o Conference Travel o Other (e.g., travel for research assistant if needed for study)
• Participant Support o Costs for subject participation (e.g., reimbursement for time, travel, etc.)
• Other o Computers or other equipment less than $5000 o Miscellaneous Expenses (e.g., postage, phone bills, photocopying, etc.)
PSY625: Biological Bases of Behavior Ashford University
