Before You Get Started...

Project Descriptions

The narrative project description should address the following questions:

• What is the marine-related problem, issue, need or hypothesis requiring this work?
• What will be your approach? Include theoretical studies, laboratory analyses, and/or fieldwork, and the approximate amount of time needed for these activities.
• Who will use and benefit from your research? How will results be made available to the user?
• What is the project's relevance to the MIT Sea Grant College Program goals as outlined in the Strategic Plan?
• How does this project contribute to the basic scientific discipline involved?
• What about this project demonstrates support, cooperation and/or collaboration with industry, government and community groups (e.g., sources of non-federal matching funds?)

For a Focused Research Proposal, the Full proposal should also answer the following two questions:

• What is the plan for seeking alternative funding sources in case this proposal is in response to the Focused Research Program Competition?
• Have you identified the team members and their capabilities and established that these capabilities complement one another?

Format Specifications

Length: The project description should be twenty pages, double-spaced, Times New Roman, 11 pt. (Bibliography may be single-spaced.) Only Word (*.doc) or Acrobat (*.pdf) documents are accepted.

DO NOT include page numbers, headers and footers.

Resumes

Provide a curriculum vitae (resume) for each investigator. You may use the MITSG resume template, or your own format.

DO NOT include page numbers, headers, or footers in resumes. Uploaded pages with these items included will be refused.

Budget Preparation: a Note on Matching Support

By law, each Sea Grant program is required to match its award from NOAA with contributions from non-federal sources. This helps ensure the relevancy of Sea Grant activity to the marine community and potential users. The matching requirement is a major constraint for the MIT Sea Grant College Program. Therefore, every investigator should strive to obtain at least one-third of the total cost for any proposed project from non-federal sources. For example, if you are requesting $75,000 from MIT Sea Grant, you should strive to obtain in addition at least $37,500 from qualified matching sources. Matching support may be provided in-kind as well as in cash. Examples of in-kind contributions include salaries, wages and benefits of investigators and students working on the project, expendable supplies and equipment, ship time, and donated supplies, space or equipment. Indirect costs may also be used as matching support. Private foundation grants, state and local government contracts, and co-sponsorship by industry are especially good sources of matching support as they demonstrate the importance of the activity to the marine community and/or potential users. Foreign government funds also qualify, but funds from federal sources do not.

Complete documentation of matching funds is required in the Full proposal. A change of more than 10% in from the amount entered in the "Anticipated non-federal contribution" section on the Preliminary Proposal Cover Page should be explained.

For More Information

If you have questions regarding proposal preparation, please contact one of the following MIT Sea Grant representatives:

Timothy Downes, Assistant Director
(617) 253-7138, tdownes@mit.edu

Kathy de Zengotita, Program Coordinator
(617) 253-7042, kdez@mit.edu

Ben Bray, Webmaster
(617) 252-1675, bbray@mit.edu