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Proposal Guidelines

The Scholarly Communications and Information Technology (SCIT) program of the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation will only review proposals that potential grantees have been specifically invited to submit.  Once a proposal is invited, Foundation staff then generally prefer to receive a draft and to work with the potential grantee to shape the proposal into its final form.  All proposal drafts should be submitted in electronic form only.  

Proposal elements


Invited proposals should contain the following seven elements:

 

  1. Proposal cover sheet

    During the drafting process, the cover sheet should be completed except for the signatures.  When Foundation staff accept the final version of the proposal, they will ask for signatures of the principal investigator and by an officer who would be responsible for the financial administration of the grant.

     

  2. Cover letter

    A cover letter from the principal investigator of the institution requesting the grant will serve to submit the proposal.  The letter must appear on institutional letterhead and, when a final proposal is accepted, contain an original signature.  The submission date on the cover letter should match the submission date on the cover sheet.

     

  3. Letter endorsing the proposal

    When a final draft of the proposal is accepted, Foundation staff will request a letter endorsing the proposal from the head of the institution submitting the proposal.  The endorsement letter can be sent separately from the final proposal, but should refer to the proposal by mentioning the title of the proposal, the proposed grant amount, and the date of the cover letter.  This letter must be submitted on institutional letterhead and contain an original signature.

     

  4. Proposal summary

    Briefly describe the project and rationale for the grant request, the total amount requested amount, and length of time that it will take to the complete the project.

     

  5. Proposal narrative

    Foundation staff are flexible about the format of the proposal narrative, which will vary according to the nature of the project.  The following list is intended to be suggestive of the topics that should be covered: 
    1. Background:  Provide a brief history of the institution, its mission, significant past and current activities, and past and present support from foundations or other funders.  It is important to include a discussion of the institution’s scholarly and educational influence.

       

    2. Rationale:
      1. Area(s) in which the institution sees a need to advance its mission or serve a particular constituency for which outside funding help is required.
      2. To what extent, if any, such needs are filled by other institutions, and what still needs to be done.
      3. The means by which the institution can provide this service or services.
      4. What the institution needs to accomplish these tasks.
      5. Which of those needs require help specifically from the Mellon Foundation.

         

    3. Project Description:
      1. Clear, concise description of the project(s) that the institution would like to carry out to meet the needs identified.  The nature of the description will vary depending upon the type of project being proposed.
      2. Collaborators or partners with which the institution would be working and their role in the project
      3. Job titles and job descriptions (of people already employed by the institution, as well as newly-created project positions) for all personnel who will work on the project.
      4. The names, affiliations, and qualifications of the principal investigator(s), along with CVs.  We realize that some of the participants might not be hired until the project is underway.  CVs do not needed to be included with the initial, rough draft.  
      5. Length of project, along with a timeline that shows the steps by which the project will proceed and how staff will participate. 

        6.  

    4. Expected outcomes and benefits of the project 

       

    5. Intellectual property issues:  if the institution plans to develop software, other technologies, or electronic content with Foundation funds, discuss the means by which the technologies and/or content would be distributed, including the type of license that the institution would issue to users.  Grant projects that involve the development of technology or content are subject to an intellectual property agreement between the Foundation and the grantee institution in accordance with the Foundation’s intellectual property policy.  See http://www.mellon.org/about_foundation/policies/AWMF-IP-October-2011.pdf.

       

    6. As appropriate, the long-term sustainability of the results:  How does the institution propose to continue the project after the term of the grant ends?

       

    7. Reporting: the Foundation expects interim and final narrative and financial reports on all awards made.  Reports usually describe the activities during one year of the grant term, and are expected each year no later than three months after the anniversary of the grant start date.   However, you may suggest reporting dates that coincide with your fiscal year, or that are particularly convenient for you given the timeline of your project.  In this section of the proposal, you should also: identify who will report to the Foundation; describe the structure of your reports; and outline the criteria that will be used to evaluate the progress of the proposed project.  For information about the reporting expectations of the Foundation, see the following two documents: Reporting Instructions and the Financial Reporting Template.

       

  6. Budget narrative

    The proposal should include a full description of the budget, explaining the need for each budget line and the method(s) used to compute the projected costs.  If software or equipment is being purchased or work is being outsourced, the vendors being considered should be mentioned. 

    Note that the Foundation expects each grant to be invested in its own interest-bearing account, and that the interest be applied to the purposes of the grant.  This section should, accordingly, include a brief description of its policies for managing unspent grant funds, calculating interest, and applying it to the grant.  

     

  7. Budget

    The Mellon Foundation does not fund capital improvements, overhead, indirect costs, fees to administer a grant, contingency, or student tuition.  

      
    The budget should be entered onto an Excel spreadsheet using formulas, and must use the categories that would be used in the official financial reports.  If the proposed project is for the renewal of a current grant, please do not combine the budgets of the current grant and of the proposed new grant.


    The budget should include the following details:
     

    1. Salaries and benefits should be listed separately, and if benefits are computed on a percentage basis, state the percentage, and provide an explanation in the budget narrative. 
    2. If the proposed project will last more than one year, the budget for each year should be listed in a separate column, and annual increases should be noted. 
    3. The annual increase requested for salaries should be consistent with salary policies in the institution. 
    4. Travel and meeting lines should contain breakdowns of the number of travelers, plane fares, hotel costs, meals, and ground transportation. 
    5. If the grantee is outside the US the budget should show all amounts in both foreign currency and US dollars; quote a current exchange rate; and cite a trusted source of that rate.  The Foundation suggests that grantees use www.oanda.com

 

Submission Formats


All proposal iterations are to be submitted in MSWord and MSExcel formats, although PDF files are acceptable for supporting materials, such as letters of support, contracts, or reports. Please ensure that draft proposals sent via e-mail contain no more than 3 attachments: a Word file of the narrative and cover sheet, an Excel spreadsheet for the budget, and one PDF file containing all supporting materials.  Because SCIT staff check Excel formulas, please do not insert Excel sheets or other kinds of page images as embedded objects in Word files. During the proposal preparation period, we do not accept faxes, or hard copies. Please do not submit a hard copy of the proposal unless Scholarly Communications staff have accepted the final draft and have instructed you to send hard-copy materials.

Once you have been instructed to send the hard copy of the proposal, please send one copy only, unbound, with the principal investigator’s submission letter. The endorsement letter can be sent separately from the proposal. In addition, please send the final proposal as ONE searchable PDF document.

Timetables


During the middle of most months of the year, the officers of the Foundation meet to consider proposals for "officers' grants," which are generally for amounts under $50,000 and occasionally as much as $100,000 when time is off the essence. SCIT expects to receive a first draft of an officers' grant proposal no later than approximately six weeks before the meeting at which the proposal would be considered, and will work with the applicant to produce a final draft by approximately three weeks before staff would recommended it to the officers. 

Trustees meetings at which all other grants are approved are held four times per year:  mid-March, mid-June, mid-September, and mid-December.  SCIT requires that a short prospectus of approximately 3-4 pages, including a budget outline, be submitted 4.5 months before a Trustees meeting.  If staff solicit a proposal based upon a review of the prospectus, the first full proposal draft is due 3.5 months before the Trustees meeting.  If SCIT decide to consider the proposal for funding, staff work with the applicant to finalize the proposal and might ask to review several proposal drafts before they request the final draft. The final draft is due 2.5 months before the meeting.

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