| The information provided below
are general tips on applying for an HED grant. Be sure to carefully read
the RFA to which you are applying, since some RFAs may contain specific
criteria not covered below.
For
budget preparation guidelines, click here.
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Follow the Request for Application (RFA) format! Make sure you include
all of the required elements specified in the RFA (i.e., title page,
table of contents, abstract, narrative, annual workplan, summary budget
and annual budgets, budget detail with explanation of costs, resumés,
signed letters of support, signed letter from official at applicant
institution, and USAID Mission Response if required). Applications
missing any of these basic elements are reviewed unfavorably.
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Study the “Application Review Guidelines” in the RFA.
While writing your application, keep in mind the various criteria
and sub-criteria the peer reviewers will use to evaluate your application.
Effectively addressing each of these elements ensures a stronger application.
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Become familiar with USAID and its goals. Link partnership goals
with USAID goals and the strategic objectives specific to the USAID
Mission in the host country and/or with the strategic goals specifically
targeted by the RFA. Then, make a clear and concise link between what
your partnership proposes to do and the development results that the
USAID Mission wants to achieve. USAID’s website is: www.usaid.gov.
Please note, USAID is not the appropriate source for funding cultural
activities or study abroad for U.S. students.
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Think about what would make for a successful partnership project
in concrete development terms. Describe the expected short- and long-term
development-related outcomes and how these will be tracked and measured.
Reporting numbers of workshops or training programs – or how
participants feel about them – does not go far enough.
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Clearly demonstrate true partnership. Make a convincing case that
the partnership will, indeed, be mutually beneficial. That is, clearly
state how the proposed project will benefit not only the host country’s
institution and local community but also your institution and its
local community. Clearly state both parties’ objectives and
needs. For example, how does the United States benefit if your institution
helps improve water quality monitoring in country X? Reviewers respond
better to applications that indicate the proposed collaboration is
of keen interest to both the lead U.S. and overseas institutions and
that the ideas have been developed jointly. Letters of support that
all read the same, or that say it is fine for College USA to conduct
their program activities at their campus, are less convincing.
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Clearly demonstrate an institutional partnership. The application
should reflect an institutional partnership, rather than an activity
mainly between one principal U.S. investigator and one principal overseas
investigator. An application that appears dependent on only one or
two people will not be judged as having enough organizational strength
and the potential for sustainability.
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Address sustainability in concrete terms. Explain how you and your
partners intend to sustain your collaboration beyond the award period,
aside from saying “We plan to look for additional funding.”
(e.g., will you leave behind a “legacy” of a trained cadre
of local technicians? Will you have made ties with host country industry
to ensure employment for recent graduates and/or trainees? Will you
have developed distance-learning capacity at your partner institution?)
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Include the USAID Mission’s Response form (when applicable).
Peer reviewers place tremendous importance on the Mission’s
response as validation (or non-validation) of the proposed project’s
relevance to USAID’s development objectives for the host country.
Absence of the Mission Response often is viewed unfavorably by peer
reviewers. Therefore, communicate early and often with the relevant
USAID Mission. Plan ahead and remember that USAID staff are not pleased
when they receive a Mission Response form a few days before the application
deadline. Not all HED programs will require a Mission Response.
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Do your homework before contacting the USAID Mission when developing
an application. Find out from the USAID website what the priorities
and strategic objectives are for the host country. When querying the
Mission, provide a concise paragraph or two that indicates what institutions
comprise the partnership, what development objectives the partnership
plans to address, what the partners intend to do and how, what will
be the specific development results, and what resources the partners
will bring to the collaboration. Then invite USAID staff to suggest
any ways in which the partnership could better address the Agency’s
interests.
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Use grammatically correct, clear, and concise English. Peer reviewers
are quick to notice spelling errors and unnecessarily long, convoluted
sentences. They also do not like sentence fragments and poor punctuation.
Consider using an editor or a successful grants writer to review your
application before submitting it. Do not forget to add page numbers
and make sure the page numbers match the table of contents.
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Be creative. Be innovative yet realistic in your approach to international
development.
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Define your acronyms. Spell out all acronyms the first time they
appear in your application. Do not assume that peer reviewers are
familiar with all abbreviations, even those commonly known.
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Less is more. Do not exceed the 20-page, 12-font, double-spaced limit
(excluding the title page, abstract, and appendices). If you can present
your partnership project effectively in less than 20 pages, feel free
to do so.
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Make sure you’re applying for an HED award. Reviewers look
unfavorably on applications that appear to be “recycled”
from another funding source. If you rewrite an application prepared
for another organization, at least perform a global search to replace
organization “X” with “HED.” It is not uncommon
for peer reviewers to see applications that were written for another
funding group, where “HED” suddenly drops out of the picture
and becomes organization “X.”
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Bring your own resources to the partnership. USAID funding is expected
to be only a portion of the resources that are brought to the respective
partnerships. Unless specified in the RFA, twenty-five percent (25%)
of the requested award amount is used as a suggested reference point
for cost share. In the vast majority of cases, however, the proposed
total cost share significantly exceeds 25%. Partnering international
institutions usually contribute some resources, to the extent they
are able. Most U.S. institutions reflect this in the application but
choose not to report it in their financial reports of cost share because
of the difficulty of verification. Overseas institutions, private
sector partners, and other U.S. institutions are encouraged to contribute
resources.
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Try to convince the peer reviewers that the award would be a good
investment. Peer reviewers have an obligation to identify the applications
that are most responsive to the stated evaluation criteria; that is,
responsive to USAID interests, well conceived, likely to achieve significant
development results — hence, a good use of taxpayers’
money.
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