Proposal Writing Resources

The University of North Carolina at Charlotte is North Carolina’s urban research university. It leverages its location in the state’s largest city to offer internationally competitive programs of research and creative activity; exemplary undergraduate, graduate, and professional programs; and a focused set of community engagement initiatives. A doctoral/research intensive institution, UNC Charlotte is the fourth largest of the 16 constituent members of the University of North Carolina and the largest institution of higher education in theCharlotte region. The 1,000-acre main campus holds 75 buildings, including residence halls, academic and student support buildings, and the J. Murrey Atkins Library, which contains two million volumes, state-of-the-art computer labs, and various special collections. The 11-story Center City Building opened in uptown Charlotte in 2011.

UNC Charlotte has seven colleges: the College of Arts and Architecture, the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, The Belk College of Business Administration, The Cato College of Education, The William States Lee College of Engineering, the College of Computing and Informatics, and the College of Health and Human Services. Offering 75 bachelor’s degree programs, 65 master’s degree programs, and 24 doctoral programs, the University’s faculty includes more than 1,000 members, with nearly 80% of the full-time teaching faculty holding the highest degrees attainable in their field.

Enrollment in Fall 2018 was 29,710 students (51% men, 49% women), including 5,323 graduate students. Enrollment is expected to increase annually through the year 2020, bringing the University a projected student body of more than 32,000. Minority students make up approximately 36% of the student body.

Recognized by the Carnegie Foundation as a Community Engaged University, UNC Charlotte is fully committed to the discovery, dissemination, synthesis, and application of knowledge and aspires to national and international excellence in these activities. Grant and contract research totals nearly $51 million a year. The Office of Industry and Government Partnerships, the University’s industry-collaborative arm, builds on disciplines in which the University already excels: precision metrology and intelligent manufacturing, visualization, optoelectronics, bioinformatics, biomedical engineering systems, energy production and infrastructure, information security, motorsports and automotive engineering, nanoscale science and translational research.

University Research Computing offers consulting services for faculty developing research grant proposals that include needs for access to high performance computing and/or networking resources.

UNC Charlotte faculty and staff can access grant-writing resources and workshop materials through the Center for Research Excellence’s Canvas page: Proposal Development Resources and Materials. Just enroll using your NinerNET username and password.

Resources include an ebook – New Faculty Guide to Competing for Research Funding – that offers information on what new faculty need to know about finding funding and writing research proposals. This ebook was published by Lucy Deckard and Mike Cronan of Academic Research Funding Strategies LLC., who provide consulting services to colleges and universities on a wide range of topics related to research development.

Online Resources & Tips

(most of these tips are not agency-specific but general enough to apply to any proposal)

Department of Education (ED):

FIPSE:

Environmental Protection Agency (EPA):

National Institutes of Health (NIH):

NIH Office of Extramural Research

National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases

National Science Foundation (NSF):

The Foundation Center’s “Virtual Classroom” offers several online tutorials including the following: