Grant Writing & Strategic Funding
Funding Science, Not Hardware: Strategic Narratives for High-Impact Research Grants.
The Narrative of Breakthroughs
Securing funding for HPC is highly competitive. Agencies do not fund "faster computers"; they fund transformative science. To win, you must shift your narrative from hardware specs to identifying the critical bottlenecks preventing breakthrough research. We provide the strategic framework and technical "boilerplate" to make your proposal unassailable.
1. Building the "Consortium" Narrative
The Major User Group (MUG)
Single-PI models rarely win equipment grants. We help you identify and unify 3-5 Principal Investigators from diverse departments (e.g., Biology, Engineering, Physics).
"Dr. A needs GPUs for protein folding. Dr. B needs them for LLMs. Dr. C for climate modeling. This single cluster satisfies all three diverse needs, maximizing federal ROI."
2. The "Facilities & Resources" Boilerplate
Institutional Commitment
We document the University's contribution: data center space, power, cooling, and the FTE salaries of system administrators to prove long-term viability.
Technical Maturity
Detailing the existing ecosystem (storage, backup, high-speed network) to show that the new machine plugs into a mature, low-risk environment.
Compliance Stance
Explicitly mentioning HIPAA, NIST, or GDPR compliance to assure reviewers that sensitive data generated by the grant will be handled securely.
3. Mandatory Data Management Plans (DMP)
Generic DMPs lead to rejection. We follow the FAIR Principles (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, Reusable):
Repository Deposit
Defining standard domain repositories like GenBank or Zenodo for code and data.
Retention Policy
Differentiating between raw simulation data (3-year tape retention) and derived code (permanent archive).
Embargo Management
Stipulating how metadata is published immediately while lifting full dataset embargos post-publication.
4. Budgeting for Total Cost of Ownership (TCO)
We ensure you don't forget the "Hidden Costs" that can derail a project after the grant is awarded:
| Expense Item | Typical Cost | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|
| Shipping & Installation | 2-5% of Hardware | Professional white-glove delivery and rack-and-stack services. |
| 5-Year Warranty | +15-20% | Grant cycles are long; don't lose vendor support in year 4. |
| Software Licenses | Variable | Compilers (Intel/PGI), debuggers, and scheduler support fees. |
| Physical Infrastructure | Variable | New PDUs or cabling required to handle higher GPU power density. |
Strategic Grant Radar
| Agency | Grant Name | Target | Winning Strategy |
|---|---|---|---|
| NSF | MRI | Consortiums ($100k-$4M) | Demonstrate broad impact across multiple research fields. |
| NIH | S10 | Biomedical ($100k-$2M) | Must prove MUG members have active NIH research grants. |
| DOE | INCITE / ALCC | Compute Time | Demonstrate capability to scale beyond 10,000 cores. |
| DOD | DURIP | Defense Outcomes | Focus on specific defense-relevant research without cost-share. |
Secure Your Research Funding
Download our "Facilities & Resources Boilerplate" and "Data Management Plan Template" to jumpstart your next major grant submission.
Download Funding Toolkit (.docx)