1、How to get that first grant: A young scientists guide to (AI) funding in America,Jim Hendler University of Maryland,All opinions are the authors and do not reflect official policy of the AAAI, the University, the US government or any other fund-granting organization,This is not a grant writing semin
2、ar!,Many places offer grant writing seminars If you think you need help WRITING a grant, take one. Offered by Universities, US Govt, others You should be able to take one at low cost or free, high cost ones also exist This talk focuses at a different level than those seminars grant strategies as opp
3、osed to writing tips,Outline,Entre Acte: grant writing is a skill Background: the main funders of AI/CS Corporate DoD services DARPA Grant Advice some hints from researchers and funding agts,Entre Acte,The SCIENCE must be there Doing good science is a necessary condition to receiving any grant from
4、anyone It is not, however, sufficient Getting a grant is not a “game” it is a skill (like writing a good paper, giving a good talk, etc.) Like these other skills it cannot be easily taught, but there are pointers and tips that can help,Terminology: Gifts, Grants, Contracts,Gifts have few strings att
5、ached Corporate Education Funds Industrial Affiliates Programs Grants are “monitored” Deliverables generally underspecified PM primarily interested in the Science Contracts, legal documents Deliverables specified PM has specific programmatic goals PM may often direct/re-direct efforts,strings,attach
6、ed,LOW,HIGH,$,$,$,AI/CS funders,Where do grants and contracts come from? Companies The National Science Foundation The Department of Defense Darpa Service Funding programs Labs Other Govt Agencies NIH, NLM, DoE, NASA, etc. The DoD funds more than 80% of CS research in the US! (not incl. High perform
7、ance computing),Corporate Funding,Corporate Contracts,Corporate funds generally answer to “The Bottom Line” Your research must be “value added” one exception is education/training function Gift funds, unusual but not unheard of usually small compared to a contract You need to show where it will have
8、 a real, and usually fairly direct impact Corporate contracts generally have strings attached in the form of deliverables prototypes improvements to their systems,Corporate Contract Caution,(Local) Corporations are often interested in more than your technology Your name on their grants Your schools
9、reputation YOUR STUDENTS Take this as both opportunity and caution Your name is an asset you should keep control over Companies may be more interested in the universitys CS undergrads, rather than your grad students You can end up a local corporate recruiter - for better or worse,Corporate Contract
10、tips,Personal contacts are everything Work closely with groups at local corporations Take advantage of university contacts The written proposal is often a “formality” money is committed based on statement of work but may be needed for higher level Often require iterations and patience Pitfall: Legal
11、 issues make sure licensing/patenting etc. are worked out in advance (if applicable),Government Funding,US Government Funding,Important to understand the mechanics How is funding announced? RFPs and BAAs How is govt funding categorized?6.1 - 6.3 Who makes the funding decisions? Funding Decision maki
12、ng Program Oversight,Calls for proposals,BAA: Broad Agency Announcement RFP: Request for Proposal Goals of Program Requirements for Proposers Format of proposal Program Budget Deadlines and dates Where to look for further information Who is in charge,Finding out about funding,All govt external fundi
13、ng (BAA/RFP) must be announced in the “Commerce Business Daily” but that goes way beyond AI/CS Fedix Alert is a push service (keyword based) for routing CBD announcements but free service doesnt include all agencies (incl. DARPA) Agencies announce RFPS & BAAs on their Web sites But this means you ne
14、ed to monitor,Tips,Many universities/companies have someone who monitors the CBD You need to search them out if your school/company doesnt have an active grants group (ORAA) The PMs send out email to lists of people they think might be interested some of the folks in your community are likely to kno
15、w Form Alliances (it is NOT a zero-sum game!) If your PM knows your work you are more likely to be informed more on this later,Government Funding Types,6.1 Basic research 6.2 Exploratory Development 6.3 Advanced Technology Development (6.4 Development, Test and Evaluation) (6.5 Management and suppor
16、t),Funding Decisions,Virtually all federal grants receive some sort of peer review Scientific Review Panels (NSF, NIH) External Reviewers (NSF, AFOSR, ONR, ARL) Source Selection Teams (DARPA, DoE, etc,)Different agencies give PMs differing constraints re. these reviews Regardless, someone must be im
17、pressed by your proposal,Program Managers,The PM is a scientist or a scientific manager who has proven him/herself to be very knowledgable solid scientific background in their field The PM has different scientific objectives than yours yours: Give talks, Publish papers, get grants PMs: Give talks, P
18、ublish papers, get grants but very different than yours,Program Managers Needs,The PM must defend his/her program to higher management Program Objectives How it will have scientific &/or military impact What great research/researchers have been supported Awards won Papers written Transitions to indu
19、strial or military development Your work must help him/her do this!,National Science Foundation,NSF Requests for Proposal (RFP),NSF accepts two kinds of proposals Unsolicited (Sent in on “open” RFP) goes to a PM in an area for action Reviewed by panel or by external reviewers Special Programs Yearly
20、 Career Instrumentation Big “one of”s KDI, Govt I, RI,NSF Open RFP,Objective: Support best basic research Typically have one or two Pis academic researcher generally small $50-100k/yr Stress personnel support PI support Grad Students Review criteria: Scientific basis, work plan Lack of work plan is
21、#1 rejection reason,NSF Special RFPs,Science with specific characteristics Support some specific govt objective encourage interdisciplinary research provide research infrastructure for universities Features Multi-PI (often multi-dept, university) Some go to $1M/yr or more Personnel and infrastructur
22、e,NSF RFPs cont.,NSF Special Programs are a very good way for a younger researcher to get funding but generally NOT as PI Especially good for interdisciplinary or team-oriented researchers These larger grants are team oriented Most common error:Team is formed for sake of grantGrant makes that obviou
23、s Common Example: N PIs, N sections, each section has one author,NSF Career Awards,NSF has a special program for young researchers Science Based (whatever you may have heard) grant is more important than track record Panel reviewed Your work must stand out among similar projects Not everyone will be
24、 a specialist in your subarea Most common errors This is a grant, not a thesis chapter! Lack of enthusiasm (overly passive writing) “Trust me” doesnt work in this program Assume everyone else is as good as you are!,NSF tip,NSF is one of the few govt CSD funders that returns reviews USE the reviews t
25、o revise and resubmit your grant Never resubmit without serious rework/rethinking Assume the reviewers will be similar Assume the mistaken review was YOUR fault Pretend you must have written it wrong if you could have given such a misleading impression (Example: If the reviewer says you didnt discus
26、s X, but you did, assume you didnt make it prominent enough),Department of Defense Funding,DoD Service Funders,The Services each have their own 6.1 funding organizations Air Force: AFOSR Navy: ONR Army: ARO Each organization has an “Open BAA” dont get overly excited when the new BAA comes out These
27、offices administer special programs for the OSR(OFC DOD DDRE) These are like NSF special program RFPs generally for large funding, big groups (MURI) Sometimes specialized for govt priorities (Depscor, HBCU),DoD Labs,DoD labs can administer/award 6.2 and 6.3 funding contracts AF: AFRL (Wright, Philli
28、ps, Rome, others) Rome Laboratories (AFRL/I), Rome NY for IT and especially AI Navy: NRL Naval Center for Applied Research in AI Army: ARL Adelphi Maryland: Agents, language, robots But, .,DoD Lab BAAs,Getting funding from the labs (without Darpa in the loop) is pretty rare BAAs usually call for Whi
29、te Papers Geographic Proximity often a must Personal contacts and joint work often prerequisite The labs put out calls for White Papers Watch for these! These are a good opportunity to get lab people to know your work - can lead to funding in the longer term,Know your Program Manager,The people maki
30、ng the funding decisions are trying to make sure they support high quality work The quality of the scientists is important Track Record Knowledge of your past work by PM is often important The PMs are typically scientists They enjoy meeting and talking to you (with certain caveats),Know Your Program
31、 Manager,You should try to get to know your PM Useful for NSF, very important for services and DARPANote:PMs often come to conferences attend talks ask people about their work - knowing who is who can be useful!,Visiting (or calling) a PM,Use the analogy of visitors to your labs You treat an interes
32、ted student different from a know-it-all kid Do your homework before your meetings Think about what you want to ask These are busy people, but theyll give you time if youre not wasting it like you would a perspective student Be prepared to listen learn what the PM needs and is looking for,The White
33、Paper,A good outcome is if the PM asks for a white paper A SHORT description of your research This is a great opportunity if you do it right Think of it as an “advertisement” for your work Why is what you are doing IMPORTANT What are you doing differently than others Use 3-4 pages Technical argument
34、s must be focused Technical arguments must be precise,Service/Lab Open BAAs,Rarely, if ever, is an unsolicted grant submitted under an open BAA funded Dont just send grant All grants received MUST be treated correctly lots of paperwork, headaches for PM and reviewers, especially when there is no mon
35、ey in the budget Better:visit or call, white paper, invite for grant You can iterate the grant ideas with the PM dont submit a final grant until it is ready Be responsive (especially about budget) Money is usually very limited being told there is no funding available is the expected value!,DARPA,(De
36、fense) Advanced Research Projects Agency http:/www.darpa.mil,The Key to Understanding DARPA,DARPA is a results-oriented funding agency They do like science and want/need to support it, but that is not the primary mission The primary mission is to bring science to a military customer That science mus
37、t be “revolutionary” by MILITARY standards innovative science coupled with innovative doctrine or new technology,Common Misunderstanding,“Some people seem to get a lot of Darpa funding, all those grants must be wired” DARPA is torn between two needs Support the best scientists GET RESULTS Going with
38、 a proven performer lowers the risk Already a well-known scientist track record of getting results The DARPA review process is closed, so there is no feedback if you are not funded helps perpetuate this misunderstanding,DARPA Reviewing,A panel of reviewers, usually all from DoD entities and/or natio
39、nal laboratories, rates all grants and ranks them with respect to fixed criteria All proposals are ranked into two categories Selectable Not selectable The BAA specifies the criteria of review The PM chooses weighting factors within criteria The PM funds some, but not all, of the selectables as his/
40、her funding allows and based on program needs,Example Review Criteria/ranking,1. Overall scientific and technical merit of the proposed program (30%) 2. Applicability of proposed technologies to (30 %) 3. Expertise and experience in and ability to complete the proposed work successfully (25%) 4. The
41、 degree to which technical data and/or computer software developed under the proposed contract are to be delivered to DARPA with unrestricted rights (15%) 5. Proposed cost, cost realism, and availability of funds. Applicable only in case of significant cost estimate error (0%) Legally budget not inc
42、luded in selectable/not selectable ranking!,DARPA desires new ideas!,Darpa wants to bring in young scientists and new ideas e.g.: Darpa sponsored a workshop at AAAI 97 for young AI scientists to present their ideas to a number of PMS (many of these folks were funded under 1998 BAAs) BUT DARPA is a r
43、esults-centered organization most young scientists havent learned to portray their ideas appropriately,A Funded NSF Proposal,NSF grant on planning (Nau/Hendler): Developing control strategies which use knowledge about goal interactions to guide planning by making better selections among alternatives
44、 Exploring how limitations on goal interactions lead to characteristics of task networks which constrain the size and structure of the search space, thus enabling hierarchical planning to be done more efficiently doing a theoretical analysis of several competing planning strategies in terms of how k
45、nowledge about limited interactions can improve their search efficiency implementing the results of the above research in a planning system for the efficient solution of problems of practical interest,A Funded DARPA Proposal,DARPA grant on planning (Nau/Hendler): Make realistic manufacturing example
46、 problems and knowledge bases available to members of the in a manner usable by the technologies being developed under current support Develop an ontology of machining information in the standard ontology package being developed by researchers Evaluate work on realistic manufacturing problemsand pro
47、vide comparisons with current tools used in manufacturing and manufacturing research Provide case-bases of manufacturing plans accessible to participants Make -based manufacturing results and tools available to the manufacturing community via the NIST tesbed,See the difference?,For NSF we stressed t
48、he scientific goals we later backed them up with details from the application of the technology to show that the theory was viable For DARPA we stressed the application of the technologywe later backed it up with scientific details to prove we had scientific credibility and knowledge,Specific DARPA
49、hints,Work with people who already know the DARPA world DARPA generally funds multi-PI projects and/or “consortia” of contract/subcontract groups Form strategic alliances with better known researchers Team with corporate research groups that have DARPA experience,Specific DARPA Hints,BEFORE a BAA is
50、 written, the DARPA PMs often sponsor a workshop on the topic to help them put together a credible scientific program Invite only, usually only to senior researchers great if you can get an invite Notes from these workshops are made available on the Web and elsewhere PMs and participants will steer you towards them After a BAA comes out, search for those notes! Can provide valuable hints as to what aspects of the technology are seen as most important,
