Grant Proposal Requirements

Funding requirements are controlled by the current solicitation or notice of funding opportunity (NOFO), the effective agency guide, and the submission portal. A general agency summary never overrides the call.

Reviewed: 2026-07-20

Required Order of Authority

Use sources in this order:

1. current solicitation, NOFO, or Broad Agency Announcement (BAA);
2. amendments and agency notices;
3. effective agency application guide and form set;
4. submission-portal validation; and
5. institutional sponsored-research guidance.

Record the source URLs, versions, and date checked in the proposal workspace.

NSF

Current policy basis

• PAPPG landing page: https://www.nsf.gov/policies/pappg
• Proposal preparation overview: https://www.nsf.gov/funding/preparing-proposal
• Current PAPPG Chapter II: follow the version marked current on the landing page
• SciENcv: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sciencv/

As reviewed on 2026-07-20, NSF 24-1 remains the current PAPPG for proposals submitted or due on or after 2024-05-20, with later supplemental policy notices listed on the PAPPG landing page. Recheck this status for every deadline.

Verified common research-proposal rules

Unless the solicitation modifies them:

Component	Current general rule
Project Summary	No more than 1 page; include Overview, Intellectual Merit, and Broader Impacts
Project Description	Up to 15 pages for a standard research proposal
References Cited	Separate section; follow PAPPG content rules
Data Management and Sharing Plan	No more than 2 pages
Biographical Sketch	Generated in SciENcv for each senior/key person; no old three-page cap
Current and Pending (Other) Support	Generated and certified in SciENcv
Synergistic Activities	Separate document, up to 1 page and up to 5 examples per senior/key person

General formatting

• Times New Roman or Computer Modern at 11 points or larger under the current general rule.
• No more than six lines of text in one vertical inch.
• Margins of at least one inch in every direction.
• Portal-generated forms and solicitation-specific instructions may control individual sections.

Important change from older guidance

Do not use the obsolete “three-page NSF biosketch with Synergistic Activities inside it” pattern.

Current workflow:

1. prepare and certify the Biographical Sketch in SciENcv;
2. prepare and certify Current and Pending (Other) Support in SciENcv; and
3. upload Synergistic Activities as its own one-page document.

Project Summary

Clearly label:

• Overview — proposed activity, objectives, and methods;
• Intellectual Merit — potential to advance knowledge; and
• Broader Impacts — potential to benefit society and produce desired societal outcomes.

The summary should be understandable to a broad scientific audience and is not merely the proposal abstract.

Project Description

A practical drafting structure is:

1. problem, prior work, and gap;
2. objectives or hypotheses;
3. research plan and methods;
4. expected outcomes, risks, and alternatives;
5. timeline and team roles;
6. Intellectual Merit and Broader Impacts; and
7. Results from Prior NSF Support when required.

This is writing guidance, not a required section order. Follow the solicitation.

Data Management and Sharing Plan

Address applicable plans for:

• data and other research products;
• standards and metadata;
• access, sharing, and any justified restrictions;
• reuse and redistribution;
• preservation and archiving; and
• roles and responsibilities.

Directorate, office, division, or program guidance may add requirements.

Bundled NSF scaffold

assets/grants/nsf_proposal_template.tex is a planning scaffold for common narrative components. It is not an NSF-issued upload package. Split content into the appropriate Research.gov or Grants.gov fields and use SciENcv/common forms where required.

NIH

Current policy basis

• Application Guide: https://grants.nih.gov/grants-process/write-application/how-to-apply-application-guide
• Attachment formatting: https://grants.nih.gov/grants-process/write-application/how-to-apply-application-guide/format-attachments
• Page limits: https://grants.nih.gov/grants-process/write-application/how-to-apply-application-guide/page-limits

Use the form set and instructions applicable to the due date. The NOFO always takes precedence over general page-limit tables.

Verified common page limits

As reviewed on 2026-07-20:

Attachment	General limit unless the NOFO says otherwise
Specific Aims	1 page
R01 Research Strategy	12 pages
R21 Research Strategy	6 pages; combined mechanisms can differ
Introduction to resubmission/revision	1 page
Project Summary/Abstract	30 lines
Project Narrative	3 sentences for most activity codes
Legacy Biographical Sketch	5 pages
Biographical Sketch Common Form and Supplement	No hard page limit; length is controlled through SciENcv data entry

Not every activity code uses every attachment. Check the NOFO and activity-code instructions.

Attachment formatting

Verify the current guide for:

• accepted PDF format;
• paper size and margins;
• approved fonts and minimum size;
• file naming;
• hyperlinks;
• headers, footers, and page numbers; and
• whether a format page or common form is mandatory.

Do not compress text or figures to evade a page limit.

Specific Aims

A useful writing pattern is:

1. significance and unresolved gap;
2. long-term goal and proposal objective;
3. central hypothesis or guiding premise;
4. concise aims with approach and expected outcome; and
5. impact and next-step payoff.

The pattern is not an NIH-mandated outline. Adapt it to the mechanism and science.

assets/grants/nih_specific_aims.tex is a writing scaffold for the one-page attachment. Confirm the current font, margin, and PDF rules before use.

Research Strategy

For R01-style research applications, organize around:

• Significance;
• Innovation; and
• Approach.

Address rigor, feasibility, analysis, expected outcomes, potential problems, alternatives, milestones, and relevant biological variables where applicable. Mechanism- and NOFO-specific instructions can add or replace requirements.

Biosketch and common forms

Do not rely on the old assumption that every NIH biosketch is a manually edited five-page PDF. Determine whether the application uses:

• a legacy biosketch format page; or
• the Biographical Sketch Common Form and NIH supplement through SciENcv.

Use the current forms directory and due-date-specific instructions.

DOE

Official starting points

• Office of Science funding opportunities: https://science.osti.gov/grants
• DOE funding opportunities: https://www.energy.gov/funding-financing
• SAM.gov: https://sam.gov/content/opportunities

DOE requirements vary substantially by Funding Opportunity Announcement. Extract exact rules for:

• pre-application or concept paper;
• project narrative;
• resumes/biosketches and support disclosures;
• data management or data-sharing plan;
• budget files and cost sharing;
• current/pending support;
• milestones, deliverables, and technology readiness; and
• submission system.

No DOE template is bundled in this skill.

DARPA

Official starting points

• Opportunities: https://www.darpa.mil/work-with-us/opportunities
• SAM.gov: https://sam.gov/content/opportunities

Every BAA defines its own volumes, page limits, abstract/full-proposal stages, security markings, cost package, and submission channel. Do not apply a generic “20–25 page DARPA proposal” limit.

Use the Heilmeier questions as a thinking aid when relevant:

• What are you trying to do?
• How is it done today, and what are the limits?
• What is new, and why might it succeed?
• Who cares, and what difference will success make?
• What are the risks, cost, schedule, and measurable tests?

The BAA controls the actual proposal structure. No DARPA template is bundled.

Private Foundations

Foundation programs change frequently. Start from the exact open call and capture:

• eligibility and geographic restrictions;
• concept-note or invitation stage;
• narrative questions and character limits;
• indirect-cost policy;
• budget template and currency;
• required partners or letters;
• data, open-science, and intellectual-property terms; and
• portal deadline and timezone.

Do not use remembered award sizes or historical success rates as current facts.

Proposal Compliance Matrix

Create a matrix before drafting:

Requirement	Source and section	Limit/format	Owner	Status
Project narrative	NOFO §IV	Example: 12 pages	PI	Drafting
Biosketch	Agency guide	SciENcv common form	Each senior/key person	Pending
Budget justification	NOFO §IV	Portal PDF	Administrator	Pending
Data plan	Policy + NOFO	Example: 2 pages	Data lead	Drafting

Use the exact source language rather than paraphrasing ambiguous limits.

General Proposal Checklist

• Solicitation/NOFO number and amendment date recorded
• Effective agency guide and form set confirmed
• Eligibility and registration complete
• Every component mapped to a portal field
• Page, character, font, margin, and file rules verified
• Biosketch/support forms use the required current system
• Budget and cost-sharing rules reviewed institutionally
• Human/animal subjects, export control, security, and data rules addressed
• Required letters and certifications collected
• Portal validation and institutional review completed before the deadline

Timing

Begin compliance mapping before writing. Build in time for:

• collaborator and subaward documents;
• SciENcv/common-form certification;
• institutional budget and compliance review;
• PDF conversion and portal validation; and
• correction of errors before the deadline.

Never use a generic template as evidence that the final package is compliant.