NCSA’s New Proposal Development Office Open for Business

As part of its effort to bolster the work of researchers, the National Center for Supercomputing Applications announced new resources and services provided by the Proposal Development Office (PDO), which will offer expanded support to NCSA researchers and faculty affiliates.

Previously, proposal submissions fell under the responsibility of the NCSA Business Office. Now assembled as part of the Engagement Directorate, the revamped PDO is better structured to offer a full suite of services to support researchers and their work. The PDO will continue to offer strategic research and proposal development services to support the innovative, collaborative and multidisciplinary work of researchers, and its staff will serve as the primary contact for all NCSA-managed proposal submissions, working in tandem with NCSA staff and research administration professionals across the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign campus to provide the best in research-related services.

But the PDO goes beyond just helping with proposals.

As part of NCSA’s Engagement Directorate, it’s the PDO’s mission to help researchers build and sustain successful partnerships and collaborations. That’s a key part of our overall goal to increase funding through successful submissions – by supporting proposals from individual PIs, research teams and their collaborators inside and outside the university.

Alaine Martaus, PDO Research Development Coordinator

The PDO offers four distinct areas of service:

• Funding Opportunities – Searching for up-to-date information about upcoming solicitations and potential new funding sources, including multidisciplinary research initiatives looking for new collaborators.
• Proposal Development – Support for upcoming proposal submissions, including checklists and timelines, budgets and budget justifications, supplementary documents, and other services.
• Research Development – Help in finding new potential funding opportunities, building collaborative research teams and offering pre-merit reviews of upcoming proposals.
• Researcher Resources – Useful information for upcoming proposal submissions in a curated repository of funders, documents, process descriptions and more.

The PDO has expanded to a team of five to connect collaborators to possible opportunities and resources.

“The focus of the PDO is on strategic growth. Our team will achieve our goal of increased successful submissions by maintaining and growing relationships, supporting training and education, coordinating proposal planning resources and matching funding opportunities to our NCSA researchers and campus faculty affiliates,” said Proposal Development Lead Tamara Roosevelt.

To connect with the PDO for help in planning for future proposals or developing and submitting a current one, visit the website or email the team here.