Essentially a letter of intent, this brief (pre-) proposal is expected to demonstrate how well a proposed project fits an emerging IPY research plan that includes physical sciences, biological sciences, engineering, and health sciences, in various combinations.
Here and elsewhere, a pre-proposal can be a great time-saver.
So, for instance, if a person is destitute on an island, and someone proposes to employ this person for a life-sustaining pittance, this proposal may count as an offer, since it is an improvement over the "pre-proposal" situation.
lIn his pre-proposal of ECOL INC, Brouwer also refers to the connection between the two ecogenomics programmes: "… a fundamental ecogenomics research program will be added to the ECOL INC proposal, funded by a separate source, namely the Earth & Life Science Program of the Netherlands Science Foundation" (Brouwer [2008], 2).
About one third of "white papers" (10-page pre-proposals suggested by DARPA) submitted result in requests for full proposals.
"We recently put out a request for pre-proposals and prepared the panels to give recommendations," he says.
For new award initiatives, candidates can submit pre-proposals to explain their preliminary research plans to the NSF.
December 2004 saw a call go out by the IPY for pre-proposals from the Canadian science community.
A solicitation for this program was issued, pre-proposals were reviewed, and several applicants were selected to submit follow-on full proposals.
Interested scientists are encouraged to contact the appropriate TPOC (technical point of contact--listed on the BAA); pre-proposals are encouraged.
"The panel discussed the pre-proposals for 3 days and by Thursday, one day after the panel ended, everybody had the results of their review!" he exclaims, describing how program officers used e-mail and other electronic resources to notify the applicants.
