LIS 450RR: GRANTSMANSHIP Assignment 8: REVIEWER COMMENT Summer 1999

Assignment Due: Aug. 1 (Sunday night). Note: Date was extended from original date of July 30 because of late posting of assignment.

Preparation. Please read Chapter 17, "Grant Review and Funding Decisions" (also check out the NEH Proposal Evaluation Criteria (given in Exhibit 22, p. 31)) in Miner et al and Appendix A, "What the Funders Have to Say," in Geever (optional).

Overview. This is an INDIVIDUAL assignment for all students. You are asked to critique the proposal of one of your colleagues as though you were a reviewer making a decision about whether or not to recommend it for funding. You are asked to complete an Evaluation Rating Form assigning a point value to each of seven criteria and add a few comments supporting your rating on each criterion.

Evaluating Rating Form. Not all funding agencies use a point distribution system but many do. Some share the point distribution allocation with prospective grantees; others do not.

For this exercise, I have created a Evaluative Rating Form (as indicated above) that I hope will be easy and fun for you to complete.

Section of Proposal to Evaluate. My original plan was that each student would evaluate one proposal of a different type (Letter vs. Full Proposal) than the one he/she wrote and that each student would then receive one or two review from fellow students that might be helpful in revising their final proposal. The numbers didn't work out as nicely as I had hoped nor could I match interests easily. In the end, I decided not to exercise quite so much control and to let you make your own choice of a proposal to evaluate (although, of course, I'd be glad to make a suggestion to you if you find it difficult to choose).

Between the two sections there are 13 1 credit full proposals and 7 1/2 credit letter proposals. You may choose one from either section. The only restriction is that I ask you not to choose one of the proposals from a member of your immediate group. The list of proposals appears below:

Groups and Teams for Section 1
Groups and Teams for Section 2

To find the full proposals, you will have to collect URLs from four different webboard conference areas: Needs, WorkPlan, Evaluation and Dissemination, Budget -- in the appropriate section of course. Letter proposals are easier as you need only look in Letter Proposals to find them.

Some folks have sent in revisions to their first submissions so be on guard for that. If I have time later today, I'll try to collect all the URLs and the correct short title names for the project and include them on the lists above -- but I may not have time so don't count on it.

Submission. The submission should be automatic from the form. I'll send you an email acknowledgement so you know I've received it. I will pass on the reviewer information to the project owner(s) without the name of the reviewer (unless given permssion.