Proposal Process

Proposal Preparation Instructions for 2008-2010 Omnibus Proposal

     Full proposals must be e-mailed to Peggy Foster no later than 5 p.m., June 20,2007.
     In addition, two (2) printed copies of the proposal and one universally formatted CD must be sent to the Texas Sea Grant office, 2700 Earl Rudder Freeway South, Suite 1800, College Station, TX 77845 no later than Thurday, June 21, 2007.

Forms:
The 90-2 (Project Summary) form and the 90-4
(Sea Grant Budget) form should be downloaded from http://www.nsgo.seagrant.org/funding/forms.html
      Use the Microsoft Word versions.

The Cover Sheet/Approval Form is available here.

Order of Documents
•     Cover Sheet/Approval Form (with all relevant signatures)
•     Project Summary Form 90-2
•     Narrative Description
•     Form 90-4 (budget)
•     Biographical Sketch(es)
Texas A&M University proposers also must submit:
•     Proposed Sources of Matching Funds
•     Certification of Use of Teaching Salaries
•     Certification of Use of Operating Funds
These forms are available from individual departments.

Instructions
Cover Sheet/Approval Form
     All blanks should be completed. It is particularly important that the percentage of time be shown for both the principal investigator and any co-principal investigator. This percentage must agree with that shown on the Sea Grant Project Record Form and must be converted to “Man Months” on the NOAA form 90-4 (budget). (Example: 10 percent time = 1.2 man months).
     Place a check (√) in the appropriate box to indicate if this is a New Project or a Continuation of an existing Texas Sea Grant project.
     Enter the date you anticipate the work will be completed on this project under Estimated Completion Date. This should be the actual completion date, not simply the end of the grant period.
     This form must be signed by the head of your department, dean of your college, director, or anyone else required by your organization. Attach an additional page for signatures if necessary.
     The form with the original signatures must be attached to one of the two copies of your proposal. Photocopies of the Cover Sheet should be attached to the remaining copies.

Project Summary Form
     The Sea Grant Project Record Form is extremely important and should not be treated as an afterthought. It is the only part of your proposal that many people will see. Their judgment of your project could hinge entirely on what they can see from reading this form. The Project Record Form will be separated from the narrative and used by the National Sea Grant Office for various purposes. It is often the sole source of information about your project for Congress, federal agencies and the National Sea Grant Program.
1    Project Title: The title can be no more than 16 words, including articles (a, an, the) and conjunctions (and, or).
2    Principal Investigator: Enter the last name first, followed by the first name or two initials (do not give just one initial). Enter the number of man months this person will devote to the project.
3    Affiliation: Give the full, correct name of the department and institution (at Texas A&M, the correct style is Department of Biology, Department of Oceanography, etc.)
4    Co-principal Investigator: Follow the same format as for Principal Investigator.
5    Objectives: Use clear, concise language. List objectives in descending order of importance (1., 2., 3., etc.), with the most important first. Begin each objective with the word “To.” Each objective must be one, single statement and must be identical to those listed in the “Objectives” section of your narrative. This list should be no more than ten (10) single-spaced lines.
6    Methodology: Identify the general approach to be followed in meeting the objectives. This space also can be used to show sub-objectives that indicate the approach to be taken.
7    Rationale: Sea Grant supports activities that are responsive to a particular problem or opportunity that is marine-related. Tell how the results you expect to achieve will contribute to solving a problem, enhancing the use of the marine environment and/or increasing the understanding of a marine-related issue. If potential users of the information to be developed have been identified, they should be mentioned here.
8    Accomplishments: Accomplishments are the result of project activities directly related to the stated project objectives. They are statements of progress toward the stated objectives, and can be the findings before or after appearing in print or in the transfer to Texas Marine Advisory Service personnel. In the case of new projects, it is acceptable to cite recent accomplishments of the investigator or his or her colleagues that show that the objectives are timely or attainable.

Continued Projects Only
9    Benefits: Benefits result from the application of accomplishments of a single project or a group of related projects and can accrue during or after a project is completed. Benefits can be quantifiable, such as when a research product has a known economic impact. Benefits also can be non-quantifiable, i.e. they can reflect the use of project accomplishments that cannot be measured numerically. Formal adoption of teaching materials, for example, would be non-quantifiable. Benefits must be specific. Patent acquisition is a benefit while publication of a report is an accomplishment.

Narrative
     The abstract should be limited to 200 words or less. It should describe the scope and intent of the project in language comprehensible to a non scientist.
The “Background and Purpose” section should be a series of paragraphs that tell a complete story and lead the reader into the “Objectives” and the “Project Plan.” Explain the details of what, why and how in the “Project Plan” section.
     Stress Texas’ needs as determined by interaction between yourself and potential users/beneficiaries and the Texas Marine Advisory Service or Marine Information Service. If the project is being developed in response to or in cooperation with an outside organization, tell how that organization was involved in the planning, and specifically how it will contribute and/or use the anticipated results.

Text
1.   While there is no required length for the narrative, 15 double-spaced pages should be more than adequate in all but extremely unusual cases. Clarity is more important than length.  Also, this narrative is not an exercise in scientific jargon. Grammatical, easily understood English will ensure that reviewers cannot mistake both the relevance and goals of your project.
2.   The omnibus proposal will be produced on Apple Macintosh computers using Microsoft Word.  There is no Macintosh version of the current Word Perfect so all submissions need to be in Microsoft Word.
3.   Text, tables and/or illustrations must be in separate files. DO NOT embed tables or illustrations in the text file.
4.   Text should be entered as running copy, all in regular typeface. The only exceptions will be in Publication listings or in References. Use bold face type for names of books or journals.
5.   Illustrations, such as charts, graphs or drawings, should be used only when necessary. If used—all illustrations should be furnished on disk in an EPS or TIFF format. These should be black-and-white line drawings only.
6.   Tables, if used, should be prepared with tabs rather than the Tables feature of the word processing software.

Objectives
     List the objectives in order of descending priorities (1, 2, 3) with each statement beginning with the word “To.” The total list must not exceed ten (10) typewritten lines. Be specific. Do not elaborate in narrative form or use more than one sentence for each objective.

Project Plan
     This is the core of the proposal that conveys what you intend to do and how you plan to do it. Discuss technical and scientific procedures, describe equipment and facilities and how these are to be used. Include a milestone calendar or time/task chart that reflects anticipated progress throughout the history of the project.
     Wordiness should be avoided; length is not as important as a demonstrated knowledge of the subject and a well-organized plan for accomplishing objectives.
     Because Sea Grant wants to disseminate useful knowledge about the marine environment and its resources, great emphasis is placed on reporting research results in a way that reaches the widest possible audience. The Marine Information Service works closely with researchers and advisory personnel to ensure appropriate distribution of information.
     Describe the anticipated products of your research as best you can. Publication in refereed journals is preferred, but since Sea Grant supports problem-oriented basic research, publication of agency documents and technical reports is also encouraged. Acknowledgment of Sea Grant support in such publications is required.

Budget Statement
     This statement should summarize, justify and explain the budget shown on NOAA Form 90-4 (except for fringe benefits and indirect costs). One paragraph should be sufficient. Do not simply list the information as it appears on Form 90-4. Discuss such items as number and type of project personnel (e.g., one principal investigator at 20 percent time, two technicians at 100 percent time each, one graduate student at 50 percent time, etc.); computer costs; unusual mailing costs, etc. Permanent equipment, travel and expendable supplies should not be included; they are detailed in the following section.

Itemization of Expendable Supplies, Permanent Equipment and Travel
Expendable Supplies
     If the total amount requested exceeds $1,500 or 5 percent of the total budget, an itemized list of items must be included.

Permanent Equipment
     Itemize all permanent equipment with an initial purchase price of $1,000 or more according to  the accompanying format. NOAA requires prior approval of all equipment purchases in excess of $1,000. Equipment with individual costs in the $50 to $1,000 range should be entered under Expendable Supplies.

Travel
     Summarize the number of trips, destinations and purposes under subheadings of “Domestic” and “International” according to the accompanying format. This applies to both federal and matching funds. NOAA requires prior approval for all travel expenditures. Give full details on “International” travel. Domestic includes all U.S. possessions or trusts (Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and the Trust Territories of Guam and Samoa). All other travel, including Mexico and Canada, is considered International.

Publications, Reports and Presentations
     If the proposed project is a continuation of previous Sea Grant work, list publications, reports, articles and presentations that have resulted to date from your Sea Grant-supported work in the same or a related subject area. Be sure that all refereed journal articles listed have cited Sea Grant support and have been submitted to the National Sea Grant Program office through the Marine Information Service.

References
     Cite only those references that are particularly pertinent to the study. Be selective. Include only those references actually cited in the narrative portion of the proposal. This reference list should not exceed one single-spaced page except on extremely rare occasions. To ensure consistency in the omnibus proposal, references should be in the following format:
Journal Articles
Beveridge, C.M., M.J. Phillips and R.M. Clarke. 1991. A quantitative and qualitative assessment of wastes from aquatic animal production. Fishfarmer 1(10):38-39.
Book Chapters
Jensen, J.B. 1991. Environmental regulation of fresh water fish farms in Denmark. InNutritional Strategies and Aquaculture Waste. Cowey, C.B. and Cheo, C.Y. (eds.), University of Guelph, Guelph, Ontario, Canada. pp. 251-262.
Reports or Books
Piedrahita, R.H. 1994. Managing environmental impacts in aquaculture. Bulletin of the National Institute of Aquacultue. Suppl. No. 1:13-20.

Current Research Support of Principal Investigator
     List current and pending research support of the principal investigator(s). Identify the funding agencies, project beginning and ending dates, funding level, and percentage of time involved.
Current Research Support of Principal Investigator

Funded
     “Gulf of Mexico Status and Trends Project”; National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Contract 50-DGNC-5-00262 with Texas A&M Research Foundation; Sept. 20, 1996, - Dec. 20, 1998. $1,473,470, 16 percent.
Pending
     “Insect Adipokinetic Hormone Gene: Isolation and Characterization”; National Science Foundation (Texas A&M Research Foundation #RF-87-223); Oct. 1, 1996, - Sept. 30, 1999; $187,557, 50 percent.

Biographical Sketch
     A biography is needed for each named participant in the project. Preferably, this should be no more than one page.
     List degrees, employment and publications in reverse chronological order. Each biography needs a full address, telephone number and e-mail for the individual named.

NOAA Form 90-4
     Prepare a separate NOAA Form 90-4 for each fiscal year of your proposed project. Enter the title and name of principal investigator in the designated blanks.
PROJECT NUMBER—Leave blank.
DURATION—Enter the time period for each budget period (3/1/06 to 2/28/08, etc.)
PERSONNEL—Actual number of persons working on the project should be shown.
MAN MONTHS—Insert man-months of effort by personnel category to be supported by Sea Grant funds and by matching (grantee) funds). Man-months must correspond to percentage of time shown on the Cover Sheet. (Example: 6 man-months = 50 percent time.) The dollar totals for all categories should appear in the two right-hand columns.

SALARIES AND WAGES—Salary and wage calculations should be based on institutional planning figures for the current State biennium or on similar planning figures even though legislatively mandated salaries are not known for the entire three-year period.

FRINGE BENEFITS—Texas A&M University System personnel: Enter 23 percent of salaries for faculty and budgeted staff and 17 percent for graduate students and 8 percent for undergraduate students to cover medical insurance, Social Security, workman’s compensation and unemployment compensation insurance.
      Personnel at Other Universities: Consult your institutional fiscal office and use the appropriate fringe benefit rate.

PERMANENT EQUIPMENT—Enter total under Sea Grant funds and under Grantee funds. This must be the same amount as shown in the narrative “Itemization of Permanent Equipment and Travel.”

EXPENDABLE SUPPLIES AND EQUIPMENT—Show only totals. If these items are discussed in the narrative, the totals must be the same. If the total exceeds $1,500 or 5 percent of the total budget, these items must be included in the narrative.

TRAVEL—Enter totals as shown in the narrative in the Itemization of Permanent Equipment and Travel section. Include all travel from both federal and matching funds.

PUBLICATION COSTS—Enter the costs of acquiring essential publications and all page and reprint charges for publication in refereed journal articles. As a Sea Grant-funded investigator, you will be responsible for furnishing fifty (50) copies of all journal article reprints to the Marine Information Service for forwarding to the National Sea Grant Office. The cost of these reprints must be included in the project budget.

OTHER COSTS—In addition to computer costs and health care costs, itemize any other project costs such as mailing or shipping, telephones, consultants, boat time, photocopiers, etc.
      Amounts budgeted for all printing should be included under “Other Costs.”

TOTAL DIRECT COSTS—Enter the sum of lines A through G.

MODIFIED TOTAL DIRECT COSTS—Enter total direct costs less the cost of permanent equipment (for Texas A&M University System projects only).

INDIRECT COSTS—The on-campus indirect costs rate for all Texas A&M University projects is 45.5 percent of Modified Total Direct Costs (MTDC). The off-campus rate is 26 percent of the MTDC. As a general guideline in applying on-campus versus off-campus rates, if the work is to be done in Texas A&M University System facilities (either owned or rented) and unless the project can be directly charged for the use of the facilities, the on-campus rate should be applied. Rates for other institutions and organizations must be determined in consultation with the Sea Grant Office.