Abstract

Proposal templates in the EU for research projects have three sections: excellence, impact, and implementation. US federal agencies have a different approach: the application package consists of several shorter documents. Some parts in an EU research proposal correspond to a part in a US application. Other parts require adaptation of both the content and the mind-set. Collaborative projects often differ in size between continents, but for a university grants office the amount of support needed is comparable.
Our starting point is a collaborative research proposal (RIA) to the EU Horizon Europe programme. We compare contents of the ‘Part B’ with what we have learned about application packages to NIH and CDMRP in biomedical research.
-- What is different? Terminology in Funding Opportunity Announcements. Pre-application step and invitation to full proposal. Cascade of portals from Grants.gov to agency retrieval. Terminology in project contents. Required proposal elements. -- What is easily transferred? Summary from HE-RIA to Project Summary and Project Narrative (NIH), or Technical Abstract and Lay Abstract (CDMRP). Section (1) Excellence to Project Narrative, Specific Aims, or Research Strategy – the name for the actual research plan varies at US agencies. -- What requires some effort? Section (3) Implementation splits into Statement of Work, Research Strategy, Support, Partnership, or Consortium/Contractual Arrangements. Dissemination and communication (2.2) correspond at least to Data and Research Resources Sharing plan. -- What US elements are difficult to formulate? Section (2) Impact is difficult as such in a HE proposal. For a US application, connections run from Expected impact (2.1) to Impact Statement and from Exploitation (2.2) and Impact pathways (2.3) to Transition Plan or Project Narrative.
The poster gives examples on these analogies in order to meet the evaluation criteria at the US funding agencies better.