Since its beginning earlier this year, the Strategic Proposal Development Service has helped University of Missouri researchers and scholars prepare more than $100 million in grant proposals.
A research support service offered by the Division of Research, Innovation & Impact (RII), the 10-person team assists MU researchers and scholars with large or strategically important grant proposals, coordinating with and acting supplementary and complementary to MU academic units and departments.
Sarah Polasky was hired as the director of the Strategic Proposal Development Service (SPDS) in November 2021. The first three team members started in February 2022.
“The SPDS team is a unit within RII that provides grant proposal support service for complex grants, particularly centers, institutes and training grants,” Polasky said. “We also support strategically important proposals, such as multi-phase opportunities or early career awards.”
Among the support offered by the team are proposal management; narrative development; management plans such as budgets, biosketches and similar documents; editing support; graphic design work; and grant evaluation plan consultation.
While principal investigators can request evaluation consultation, illustration and proofreading for any proposal, proposal management, proposal narrative development, budget development and personnel document creation are limited to higher value and complex grants, or the work of centers and institutes.
“The work of the SPDS team has been a valuable addition to the research support offered to the MU community, and I’ve been thrilled with the team’s work,” said Susan Renoe, who oversees SPDS as associate vice chancellor for research, extension and engagement. “The Division of Research is here to help MU faculty and staff succeed with their research and scholarly pursuits, and SPDS is a great asset for supporting that mission, especially regarding the quality of proposal submissions and increasing collaborative, cross-disciplinary and team proposal submissions.”
Since its start, SPDS has worked with 19 principal investigators to submit 19 proposals. One of those investigators is Michael Hill, interim director of the Dalton Cardiovascular Research Center and professor of medical pharmacology and physiology in the School of Medicine.
“The service was excellent and very helpful in advancing to the point of grant submission,” he said. “The editing was thorough and attention to the fine points of the 'call' very much appreciated. The multiple tables that were prepared helped make the document look professional. The weekly meetings leading up to the submission were very helpful in keeping me on track.
“I would certainly like to work with SPDS again, particularly on complex, multi-investigator grants (as this was). I also plan to encourage our researchers to use the service.”
The team and their work
Debbie Blaisdell works as a senior grants and contracts specialist with SPDS.
“We help develop proposal budgets and the justifications, communicate with sub-recipients to complete associated forms and budgets, and complete sponsor-required forms,” Blaisdell said. “We ensure proposals meet all MU, Sponsored Programs Administration, sponsor and federal compliance rules and policy to submit competitive, compliant applications for externally sponsored research. It’s critical to our position to understand the nuances of agency policies.”
Another SPDS team member, Julie Svetlik, works as a proposal development lead, which focuses primarily on the “big picture” items of grant proposals, such as idea formation, funding opportunity analysis and strategies/guidance for responding to complex grant opportunities.
“During the proposal development process, we provide guidance and developmental editing for proposal narratives and other major proposal components, and help teams identify necessary resources and partners that add value to their proposals,” she said. “Another service that’s becoming popular is Reviewer Feedback Analysis, where we analyze a previously submitted proposal and its associated review comments and provide a report to the principal investigator containing suggestions for improvement for the resubmission.”
Gabrielle Trippe serves as a proposal manager with the team, guiding the proposal process by developing timelines, facilitating meetings, collecting and reviewing investigator documents and maintaining the location of all proposal documents.
“A key part of the role of the proposal manager is to ensure the principal investigators are staying on track, and therefore will be able to meet the submission deadline,” she said. “I believe it is also imperative that the proposal manager be engaging with the principal investigators and key personnel from the beginning as this helps to integrate trust and a supportive environment.
“I think it is great that we have been able to work on proposals for so many different agencies, including the National Science Foundation, the National Institutes of Health, the U.S. Department of Transportation, the U.S. Department of Agriculture and more.”
Since the team is new, it’s too early to know if many of the initial proposals they’ve worked on will be funded, but as the team grows (two more hires will complete the team), it’s looking to work with more MU researchers and scholars who are enthusiastic, responsive and attentive about their proposals.
The SPDS website includes a full list of unit contacts and copying the research development contact from the unit up front helps SPDS and units be more effective and efficient. A SPDS proposal intake form also is available on the page. MU researchers and scholars with questions about working with SPDS should email the team at spds@missouri.edu.