Proposal Format

Below is an example of what a proposal may look like (though the relative length of each section may differ by proposal). The full proposal should be a maximum of 5 pages:

• [Maximum 3 Pages] The proposal overview, proposal body, data policy.

• [Maximum 2 Pages] The CV of the primary Principal Investigator, which is required for all applications.

We would prefer proposals to respect a minimum 10pt font size and 1-inch (2.5-cm) margins. Our reviewers value readability.

1. Overview

   • Proposal Title

   • Principal Investigator full name, contact information (postal address, email address, phone), affiliation (university, school, college and/or department)

2. Proposal Body

   • Abstract

   • Research goals, including a problem statement.

   • Description of the work you'd like to do, as well as the expected outcomes and results.

   • How will your research work impact an underrepresented group?

   • How this relates to prior work in the area (including your own, if relevant)? What makes you qualified to do this research work?

   • References, where applicable.

3. Data policy

   • Our goal is to support work where the output will be made available to the broader research community. To that end, we ask that you provide us with a few sentences sharing what you intend to do with the output of your project (e.g. open sourcing code, making data sets public, etc.). Please note that the awards are structured as unrestricted gifts, so there are no legal requirements once a project is selected for funding. This is simply a statement of your current intentions.

4. CV format for the principal investigators

   • The maximum length of a Principal Investigator CV is two pages. Any submitted CV that is longer than 2 pages may be cut off at 2 pages before the proposal review process begins.

   • We require a CV for at least the primary Principal Investigator on the proposal. We will accept CVs from each of the Principal Investigators listed on the proposal (up to two are allowed). Each CV must be limited to two pages.

Please do not add a budget section on your proposal since it will not be considered. We will be providing funds up to 60K based on regional data.

A good research grant proposal:

• Clearly specifies a problem. Good research is driven by a great problem or question, and a good proposal starts with a clearly specified one.

• Describes a specific, credible, relevant outcome. Try to identify a specific and appropriately sized outcome, to give us a clear notion of what the research award would be enabling. What will likely come to be that might otherwise not happen? While this outcome should be a decisive step towards achieving your vision, it generally won't be adequate to completely achieve it. It often helps to describe both the minimum that is likely to be accomplished and a potential best-case. Since picking the right datasets and test cases is often important, tell us which ones you plan to use.

• Crisply differentiates the proposed contribution from prior work. Please apply normal practices (citations, etc.) for documenting how your work will materially advance the state of the art. Make it clear how your work will be changing the state of the art, and not simply trying to match it.

• Tells us how the research challenge(s) will be addressed. Successful research projects combine a great problem with ideas for solutions, too. We recognize that all the answers won't be known yet, but we'd like to feel that the direction has been established, and a plausible path has been identified. (Try to avoid proposals of the form "We want to look at problem X".) It's hard to have a big impact without taking risks, but please identify what the difficulties are likely to be and how you plan to mitigate them. It may help to explain how you succeeded in addressing analogous problems in other projects.

• Puts the proposed work in context. Most projects we fund also have support from other sources. To help us understand the expected impact of Google support, please explain what funding you already have for this area of research and how the proposed work relates to your existing plans. Do you plan to build a capability for other research, provide a tool, reproduce a prior result, collaborate with others to try something out, follow up on a promising idea, or explore a new one? All are potentially of interest; we just want to know.

• Makes the case to a non-expert. While we try to have your proposal reviewed by a Google expert in your field, it will also be read by non-experts, so please make at least the motivation and outcomes broadly accessible.