Writing Your Proposal
Guidelines for a Successful SURG Proposal
Writing a research proposal will help you clarify your project and will give you valuable experience for any proposal writing you may do beyond Carnegie Mellon. All proposals submitted to the Undergraduate Research Office are read and scored by a selection committee made up of faculty from each of the colleges on campus. Your proposal will be read by someone in your college, but it will also be read by faculty members who are not familiar with your discipline. For this reason, a successful proposal will be written in such a way that an intelligent reader who is not familiar with your field can still understand the research question you are proposing and the significance of this research in a larger context. The committee should be able to understand easily what you are studying and why it is important.
Proposal Contents
Please follow the headings that are laid out on our website for SURG - Proposal I or Proposal II
The effectiveness of your proposal will depend on your ability to explain the nature, context and scope of the project. The selection committee will also be looking for an indication that your project will be more than just a learning experience—what does it contribute to your field that we do not already know?
Please make sure to put the key question or theme at the very start of the paragraph. Readers should not have to search through the body of the paragraph for the answer to "what are you studying and why is it important."
Budgets
Please also consider your budget carefully. Include a listing of all the items you propose to purchase and your best estimate of the cost of each item, including specific vendors. All expense items should be explained either in the body of your proposal or in a budget narrative included on your budget page. For example, if you are asking for funds to purchase a piece of software, is that software available in a public cluster? Does a faculty or staff member have the software that you could use when they aren't there? If your budget is over the maximum amount of SURG funding, please let us know where you are getting the additional funds. The selection committee reserves the right to dis-allow certain line items and frequently approves partial budgets. Please also consider:
- Conference fees are not allowed (apply separately to the Presentation Award program)
- The committee rarely approves course fee requests
- Travel costs must be directly related to the proposed research and fully justified
- The committee expects specific information on material and supply requests (i.e., vendors, item costs)
- Equipment purchases must be fully supported in the proposal and equipment must remain at Carnegie Mellon; state who will be responsible for it when you complete your project; students are expected to check with departments to see if the equipment is available through the department
- Book purchases are approved only if you can show it is impossible to get what you need from a library or on loan
- Food costs disallowed
Proposal Format
Your proposal may be up to three pages in length, single-spaced; the budget may be a fourth page. At the top of the first page place your project title and the names of all students submitting the proposal. The next item should be your abstract. Print single sided sheets only (double sided copies will not duplicate and the committee will not receive your full proposal). We recommend at least a 12 point, serifed font (such as Times or Palatino), justified left (right ragged). Illustrations may be used in the body of the proposal but should duplicate well on a copier. If you are using color graphs or illustrations, please submit four complete copies of your proposal for the selection committee. Do not include a cover sheet, title page, or resume: they will be discarded. Instead, include any relevant information in the body of your proposal. Remember to spell check! You are requesting funds and your proposal should be a reflection of your commitment to the project.
Please bring the supporting materials with your hard-copy proposal submissions by the published deadline to Warner Hall 531.
Review a Draft
You are strongly encouraged to work with your faculty advisor on your proposal and to meet with the Undergraduate Research Office Director or Associate Director at least once prior to submitting a SURG or Summer Research Fellowship proposal to review a draft. To schedule an appointment, email Stephanie Wallach at sw4s@andrew.cmu.edu, or Jennifer Keating-Miller at jkeating@andrew.cmu.edu, or call x8-5702.
