Get Grant Ready

The Principal Investigator (PI) has primary responsibility for achieving the technical success of the project, while also complying with the financial and administrative policies and regulations associated with the award. Although Principal Investigators may have administrative staff to assist them with the management of project funds, the ultimate responsibility for the management of the sponsored project award rests with the Principal Investigator.

To serve as PI, one must be a full-time employee of MSU Denver. Several employment titles automatically confer PI/co-PI status due to the roles and responsibilities that come with that title. Titles of Professor, Associate Professor, and Assistant Professor and to library faculty holding the titles of Senior Librarian, Librarian, and Associate Librarian. Other administrative titles are also eligible for automatic PI status provided the individual is a full-time employee: Vice President, Associate Vice President, Assistant Vice President, Dean, Associate Dean, Assistant Dean, and Director. However, Emeritus faculty do not automatically confer PI status. Emeritus faculty may serve as co-PI or senior key personnel but not as PI.

The PI must have an active appointment with MSU Denver and is responsible for executing and financially managing the grant or project. Since a proposal and subsequent award are a commitment for MSU Denver in many ways, it is important to establish the qualifications and ability of PI’s and Co-PI’s to carry out the work on externally funded grants and sponsored projects.

The downloadable Project Development Form  is a tool designed to walk you through some key considerations prior to searching for a funding opportunity. Below are questions from the form to ask and answer as you develop your grant project concept.

A program? Faculty/Staff Development? A capital project, ie: construction? Funding basic operating costs? Research? Something else?

What is the issue or opportunity facing the target population or MSU Denver community that your project seeks to address? This might be a significant problem that needs to be addressed or an opportunity to build upon existing strengths or momentum in your area of interest. Consider these questions: Can MSU Denver impact this issue in some way? Does MSU Denver have experience in impacting this issue? Why have you chosen this population and this issue to address? If your project is a research project, what is your specific hypothesis or research question/s?

What are the characteristics of the target population?  The OSRP can provide institutional data on our student population but if your target population is more specific than that, what are their characteristics?

What strategies or methods are you proposing to implement that would impact the specific issue or respond to the opportunity? Can you provide a basic timeline of what will happen when? Can you indicate when the start-up, implementation, and evaluation phases begin and end, or when other key benchmarks specific to your program or project will occur?

Have you documented what has already been done to address the specific problem? Where does current literature leave off, and where does this project pick up? How are you building on existing practice and research, and how are you adding something innovative to that body of knowledge?

Who are the key personnel carrying out the proposed activities, and who is doing what? How much time does each personnel need to commit to the project? What are their qualifications for their role?

What partners do you have, or would you need to recruit, to carry out the project successfully?

What are your outputs? That is, what are the activities, efforts, and/or work products you propose to produce or provide during the project period to support your goal? This is often expressed in terms of number of participants, number of workshops held, number of people served, number of partnerships established, etc.

What are your outcomes? Outcomes are the results, effects, or consequences that will occur as a result of the activities or outputs that are supportive of the program’s goals. Consider your project’s short-term, medium-term and long-term outcomes.

• Short-term outcomes: include increased learning, knowledge, skills, attitudes and motivation.
• Medium-term outcomes: are changes in the target population’s actions as a result of newly acquired learning.
• Long-term outcomes: are the ways the changed actions of the project’s participants will ultimately impact the social conditions of the larger community.

Methods of evaluation are the tools used to determine whether or not outcomes have been met. Are the outcomes you have described measurable?  What tools can you use to measure those outcomes?  Does the funder list any mandated outcomes you must measure? Consider ways to measure outputs and outcomes both quantitatively and qualitatively, and include both formative (measures the extent to which the program is operating as intended) and summative (measures the extent to which the program is resulting in the proposed outcomes) measures. Are there methods of evaluation that are considered “best practices” for this type of project? Will you need to use an external evaluator? How will the evaluation results be used and/or disseminated?

How will this project beneficially or adversely impact MSU Denver? Is this project new or ongoing? How will this promote the University, and to what audience?

How does this project support the mission, strategic plan or vision of MSU Denver and/or your department/program/center? Can you give specific examples?

How does this project align with and address the priorities and goals set forth by the funder/sponsor as described in the RFP, on their website, and/or as evidenced through projects they have previously funded?

What are the expected expenses for this project?  If cost sharing is required, what is your plan for matching funds?

How will MSU Denver continue to pay for this project once the grant funds are depleted? Are there any other committed sources of funding for this project? What is the three-year plan? What is the five-year plan?