Expert Proposal Development

From idea to submission, ORDC helps faculty craft competitive, compelling proposals. Whether you're pursuing large-scale center funding or submitting your first grant, our team supports you through each phase—planning, writing, reviewing, and coordinating logistics. We assist with:

• Developing timelines, checklists
• Managing team communications and agency coordination
• Hosting strategy meetings and deadline planning sessions
• Reviewing proposal drafts for clarity, structure, and agency alignment
• Assisting with coordination and communication between the project team and the Office of Research Services (ORS), as well as the project team and external partners.
• Providing high-level proposal review and feedback to ensure that all of the sponsor requirements are met.
• Connecting faculty with editors knowledgeable in grant writing to assess the readability, clarity, and organization of the proposal.
• Interpreting reviewer comments to strengthen resubmissions and providing feedback to adapt and modify proposals to be more competitive.

To ensure a high-quality review, we request that proposal drafts be submitted at least 7 business days in advance of the agency deadline.

Shorter timelines may limit the depth of review we can provide.

SCAN: Swift Critique Analysis & Notation Sessions

Pre-submission SCANS:
ORD will conduct a review of your grant proposal in its near-finished state (1/2-2/3 complete). Our high-level review will focus on the solicitation's review criteria and the agency's expectations.

Resubmission SCANS:
ORD will meet with you to discuss the reviewer comments for your declined proposal and help you strategize for a successful resubmission.

Letters of Support

Need a compelling letter of support to strengthen your proposal? RDC provides coordinated, high-quality letters of support for faculty researchers seeking external funding.

We work closely with university leadership to ensure your letter reflects the strategic value of your work and aligns with sponsor expectations.

To request a letter, faculty must submit a draft proposal or executive summary, full details about the funding opportunity, and any required language at least 10 business days before the deadline.

While we do our best to accommodate all requests, late submissions may not be guaranteed.

Research Graphics Assistance

Graphics capture attention and convey complex concepts in a way that is easy to understand by a wide range of audiences.

We offer graphics assistance to faculty for proposals, publications or presentations.

We understand that some projects have short deadlines and try to accommodate as many faculty as we can. However, graphics requests should be submitted at least five days in advance to ensure our designer has the appropriate amount of time to produce high-quality artwork.

See the Graphics Request Policy to submit a request for assistance.

Video Production

Some grants request video pitches in addition to proposals, and RDC can help with script writing, filming and editing a high-quality video that makes your research stand out from a crowd.

We offer video production to faculty for proposals.

Requests for videos under two minutes should be made through the RDC services form at least 10 business days before the required delivery date.

Videos that are over two minutes or that have several required filming locations or interviews should be made as soon as possible and may take more time.