A personal take on 2 federal agencies funding research: NSF and DARPA

1. Proposal Writers Cheat Sheet
2. My history
   1. Summer visits to TEC, 1991-2
   2. IPA at NSF from Jan 2000 thru Aug 2002
      1. Chronology of getting the job
      2. reinvented me at RPI
   3. CARGO - 2 joint solicitations with DARPA
   4. Geo*
3. Organization
   1. NSF
      1. Program Director ⇔ faculty member
      2. Division Director ⇔ chair Head
      3. Assistant Director ⇔ Dean
      4. Director ⇔ President
   2. DARPA
      1. Program Manager - of several programs
      2. Office Manager - e.g. of DSO
      3. Director (Tether)
      4. Secretary of Defense
   3. Good results make the organization look good
4. Rotators
   1. 1/2 of NSF
   2. all of DARPA
   3. Several RPI faculty
   4. first year: you're a clerk
   5. later years: more interesting
   6. financial aspects
5. New sells
   1. NSF
      1. Program Directors are open
      2. they hope to recognize good ideas when they see them
      3. you can propose workshops to study new programs
   2. DARPA etc
      1. Program Managers are expected to be crazy have strategic goals
      2. welcome help in filling in details to their broad visions
      3. you can send white papers
6. Review process
   1. NSF
      1. Panels for anything big
      2. Workshops, SGERS by PD
      3. Committees
      4. Fixed budgets (sort of) at all levels
   2. DARPA
      1. white paper then invited proposal
      2. PM likes it
      3. Must sell it to Director
      4. Money is then assigned
7. Success metrics
   1. NSF
      1. publications
      2. press mentions
   2. DARPA
      1. transition to DoD
      2. Geo* purpose