Lise:
I enjoyed reading your comments.  Thanks for sharing!

Laura Murphy
Coordinator of Sponsored Programs
Office of Research and Sponsored Programs
University of South Dakota
605-677-6301

-----Original Message-----
From: Research Administration List [mailto:xxxxxx@hrinet.org] On
Behalf Of Liselotte Schioler
Sent: Wednesday, July 09, 2008 1:08 PM
To: xxxxxx@hrinet.org
Subject: Re: [RESADM-L] Sponsored Programs Brochure/Fact Sheet

Hi Lynn,

Many thanks for the brochure. At NIA, we are in the process of defining
and approving our internal procedures for proposal submission, and your
brochure will be helpful in preparing our SOPs.

As a former NSF program officer, I have to admit that I cringed when I
saw that you used the word "rejection" in the brochure. I'm sure people
think it's political correctness when NSF uses the term "decline to
fund" rather than "reject", but it's not really.  Probably close to half

the proposals reviewed in the program that I managed were "fundable" -
that is, the proposal is meritorious enough to warrant finding. The
issue is that there was never enough money to fund _all_ the meritorious

proposals, so only the very best were funded.  The overall funding rate
at NSF is close to 25%, which means that ~ 25% of the proposals received

that are fundable are not funded.  In my experience, another ~35% would
be fundable with specific improvements, and the final 15% are, well, to
be polite I would say unfundable even with major changes.  It seems to
me that "rejection" is too strong a word for all but the lowest ranking
15% of the proposals, since it implies that the proposal is totally
worthless.  Thus the term "decline to fund" - it doesn't say anything
about the merits of the proposal.  Only the program officer can tell you

(or the PI) where the proposal stood in the overall ranking, and what
improvements, if any, could be made to raise the chances of the proposal

being funded in the future.  Please keep in mind that the statistics I
use above are approximate numbers in a single-investigator program.
Different programs will have different statistics, but I can assure you
that there are always many more meritorious proposals than there is
money available to fund them.

Ok, I'll get off of my soap-box now.

Lise Schioler
------------------------------------------------------------------------

Liselotte J. Schioler, Sc.D.

Director, Research Program Development

National Institute of Aerospace

1000 Exploration Way

Hampton, VA 23666

757-325-6903 (direct)

757-636-8240 (cell)

xxxxxx@nianet.org

www.nianet.org

Lynn Rollins wrote:
> Hi Natalie - I'm attaching ours - because it's printed on 8 1/2 x 14
> paper and then folded and stapled - you have to follow the page
> numbers to know the order of the pages.
>
> Good luck,
> Lynn Rollins
> Associate Director of Pre-Award Services
> University of Southern Maine
> Office of Sponsored Programs
> P O Box 9300
> Portland, ME 04104-9300
> 207-780-4873
> xxxxxx@usm.maine.edu <mailto:xxxxxx@usm.maine.edu>
>
> "If at first you don't succeed, then skydiving isn't for you."

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