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Proposal Development Support

Faculty at Pitt have access to a range of resources to help them think about, design, develop and write an application for an Institutional Training Grant. The following pages give you a preview of the kinds of support each of these resources or offices offers.

Clinical and Translational Science Institute (CTSI)

CTSI Data Management Consultation

The CTSI Biostatistics, Epidemiology, and Research Design (BERD) Core provides data management consultation for research projects. The consultation may include guidance on data collection form and survey design, organizing data management for the project, selecting the best data management tool, designing a data collection system, requesting and utilizing health record data, and processes for integrating complex data.

  • Consultation up to 10 hours of support per project is provided at no cost to Pitt researchers.
  • If the project exceeds 10 hours, plans for additional time and resources will be discussed. 

To learn more, contact CTSI or submit a request for a data management consultation.

Grant Application Support

CTSI provides grant application support in the form of assistance in planning, preparing, and submitting grant applications. 

  • Consultation up to 10 hours of support per project is provided at no cost to Pitt researchers.
  • If the project exceeds 10 hours, plans for additional time and resources will be discussed. 

To learn more, contact them or visit the CTSI Research Facilitator Page for assistance.

Informatics Tools

CTSI provides access to a number of informatics tools. 

Data Resources and Support

Many ITGs require data on Pitt as an institution, on prospective student populations, and/or on related regional or national workforce/labor market prospects. This section offers some resources for PIs to consider for accessing the needed institutional, student, and/or labor market data.

Data for Proposal Preparation (General)

Maintained by the Office of Sponsored Programs, this webpage provides facts or information about:

  • Applicant Organization
  • Assurance Compliance Information
  • Facility Administrative (F&A) Costs
  • Fringe Benefit Rates for Federally-funded Projects
  • Fringe Benefit Rates for Non-federally Funded Projects
  • Financial Information
  • Key Identification Numbers
  • Legislative Districts

Data Analytics Assistance Through the Office of the Provost

Amanda Brodish is the Associate Vice Provost for Data Analytics. She provides day-to-day management of the Data Analytics Team and oversees the Office of Institutional Research. Amanda is the liaison for Academic Analytics, guides the development of various university reports, and serves on several working groups/committees related to the use of data. In addition, she oversees various analytics projects using both internal and external benchmark data. If you need specific data or metrics on prospective student populations or academic programs, please reach out directly to her.

Additional Data Resources

Many ITGs ask for contextualizing data on regional and/or national workforce needs and projections. The resources listed below may be able to assist PIs in locating needed data points OR might be able to direct PIs to other sources of information.

Urban and Regional Data Analysis (URA) 
The URA program analyzes major economic and demographic trends in the Pittsburgh region in national and international contexts. URA brings together faculty, research staff, and graduate students to examine important urban and regional issues, with the results disseminated widely to state and regional policymakers, local officials, and community and economic development organizations. URAP also partners with other researchers and organizations around the globe to advance urban and regional knowledge. URAP’s research extends from regional development to community change and examines their consequences for regional restructuring, equity implications, and policy analysis. In addition to the performance of the regional economy, specific strategic economic sectors are examined through in-depth studies and their implications for workforce development and job creation. URA focus areas include:

  • Regional economic competitiveness
  • Local and regional economic and demographic changes
  • Economic impact analysis
  • Long-rage regional economic and demographic forecasting
  • Pittsburgh REMI model – Regional economic models describe the flow of monetary and labor resources within and across both regions and economic sectors. Previous applications of Pittsburgh’s REMI model include economic, population, and labor forecasting and regional economic impact analysis. Training grant applicants may find it helpful to work with REMI staff to analyze census data or explore answers to questions about regional job prospects. 

Western PA Regional Data Center (WPRDC) 
WPRDC provides a shared technological and legal infrastructure to support research, analysis, decision making, and community engagement. It was created in 2015 and is managed by the University of Pittsburgh Center for Urban and Social Research, in partnership with Allegheny County and the City of Pittsburgh. Information intermediaries help faculty find and use information to improve their research and teaching. The Data Center institutionalizes the role of a data intermediary within a regional open data infrastructure.

Geographic Information Systems (GIS) 
Training grant applicants may want to incorporate GIS data into their proposal to visually represent areas of need, the potential impact of hosting trainees, or other pertinent facts. Pitt's GIS team manages and analyzes spatial data, including executing original research and providing data publishing, technical assistance, online decision support, and data education and training. Staff have led GIS-driven projects across a diversity of domains, including environmental policy, health care, land use and housing policy, and public health.  Exemplary recent projects include tools and training developed by the Western Pennsylvania Regional Data Center, interactive maps of neighborhood data in the Southwestern Pennsylvania Community Profiles, and other collaborations.

Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Accessibility (DEIA) Resources

To build an inclusive mentoring and support plan, you can leverage resources and tools already built by various University of Pittsburgh offices and centers. The sections below offer an inventory of such resources organized by six key categories you might consider as you build your plan. Each resource is linked and includes a short summary with explicit suggestions about how you might leverage it within a ITG proposal.

Professional and Personal Development for Inclusivity

Diversity and Inclusion Certificate Program (DICP)

“The Diversity and Inclusion Certificate Program" (DICP) is designed to reinforce the University’s core values of diversity and inclusion through a series of six introductory-level workshops open to all faculty and staff. The workshops address both individual behaviors and University policies that can impact an environment of opportunity and success for all members of the University community. Participants will leave these workshops with an increased awareness of the importance of diversity and inclusion to an environment of academic and workplace success.” PIs might have all project staff/leadership complete this series to provide systematic programming that addresses DEIA competency.

Institutional Equity Workshops

The Office for Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion offers six stand-alone workshops for graduate students, faculty and staff on topics such as diversity awareness, fostering an inclusive environment, harassment, bullying and generational differences in the workforce. PIs might have all project staff/leadership complete this series to provide systematic programming that addresses DEIA competency.

Racial Equity and Consciousness Institute

The Center on Race and Social Problems at Pitt offers a series of seven modules to build racial equity consciousness in participants. The Racial Equity and Consciousness Institute is grounded in structured cognitive behavioral training to support addressing biases and behaviors that uphold racism in our institutions. PIs might have all project staff/leadership complete this series to provide systematic programming that addresses DEIA competency.

Civil Rights and Title IX Trainings

With a goal of educating faculty, staff and students to identify, prevent, report, and respond to sexual misconduct, the Office of Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion offers a range of orientation trainings, educative videos, and workshops related to civil rights and Title IX. PIs might have all project staff/leadership complete this series to provide systematic programming that addresses DEIA competency.

Ability to Request Workshops for Various EDI Topics

Pitt’s OEDI office can consider requests to customize educational sessions for faculty, staff and students. With three weeks advanced notice, the office can develop sessions for groups great than 10. PIs might work with OEDI to customize training experiences and then have all project staff/leadership complete this series to provide systematic programming that addresses DEIA competency.

Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences Training Series

"The Dietrich School’s Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion workshops are anti-bias educational programs that establish welcoming, inclusive and diverse environments where faculty and staff can engage in productive conversations on topics such as identity, the impact of stereotypes, bias and discrimination. Participants experience each of the four consecutive sessions as a cohort through interactive and engaging discussions and activities. Each individual gains strategies to positively impact the campus climate in the Dietrich School." PIs might have all project staff/leadership complete this series to provide systematic programming that addresses DEIA competency.

Inclusive Practices in Scholarship, Research, and Teaching

Briefing Sessions on Diverse Recruitment

The OEDI offers customized briefing sessions to support the search for excellence and diversity in recruitment.  PIs might engage with these sessions to identify and enact diverse recruitment practices for the ITG proposal.

Provost's Diversity Institute for Faculty Development 

This institute was established by Pitt’s Office of the Provost to offer Pitt faculty a resource and space to “increase awareness about equity and inclusion and develop skills needed to teach in a diverse, multicultural environment.” Each year brings a new thematic focus that is explored through ha series of virtual sessions. PIs might have all project staff/leadership complete this series to provide systematic programming that addresses DEIA competency.

Pitt Mentoring and Advising Summit

The Office of the Provost hosts a summit each year the brings together faculty and staff who mentor and coach students to discuss emerging needs and evidence-based practices in mentoring and advising.  PIs might participate in the Summit to learn about and infuse effective practices for mentoring and advising within the training grant design. 

Diverse and Inclusive Culture

The Inclusion Network

This network brings together interested Pitt community members (faculty, staff and students) in a Community of Practice to learn with and from one another and advance the University’s strategic goals for DEI.  PIs might engage with this network to expand access to people, practices and tools to support  the design of an inclusive training program.

Faculty and Staff Inclusion Groups

Pitt offers a variety of programs and committees for faculty and staff to connect with others interested in DEI concerns. PIs might connect with one or more of these groups to consider ways to provide more specialized support to trainees.

Student Organizations

Several student organizations are available to connect students to others for information, resources, and support. These groups include societies and alliances based on minoritized racial and/or ethnic groups, disability, religion, and gender and sexuality. PIs might connect with one or more of these groups to consider ways to provide more specialized support to trainees.

Ecological Belonging Intervention

This evidence-based intervention conducted at the beginning of a collegiate course normalizes adversity and struggle and results in increased sense of belonging and academic performance in STEM courses. PIs might explore whether adoption of this intervention within the proposed training program might be beneficial to trainees.

Equitable Processes and Procedures

Supplier Diversity Program

If a research proposal includes suppliers and or consultants external to Pitt, the supplier diversity program can help identify and onboard a diverse pool.

Policies, Procedures, and Practices for Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion 

To enact its core values around DEIA, Pitt has a robust set of internal policies and procedures intended to directly influence campus climate. These policies include accessibility, nondiscrimination, equal opportunity and affirmative action, sexual misconduct and Title IX, and agencies, laws and regulations. 

Infrastructure

DEI Resources Inventory

OEDI is building a university-wide resource inventory in order to improve coordination, development and visibility of existing resources.

Anti-Racism Resources

This link provides a list with links to key anti-racism resources including guides, readings, and recordings of seminars and town halls. PIs might review and consider whether adoption of these resources within the training program can contribute to a coherent and effective DEIA plan.

Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Glossary

A Pitt reference for commonly used terms in work related to DEIA and social justice.

Disability Resources and Services

Designed for both students seeking services and/or accommodations and for faculty/staff intending to support students with disabilities, this resource is a launching pad to gather more information and get connected in with staff who can assist.  PIs might review and consider whether adoption of these resources within the training program can contribute to a coherent and effective DEIA plan.

Accountability

Association of American Universities (AAU) Climate Survey is administered to 27 higher education institutions to assess student attitudes and experiences regarding sexual violence and harassment. Data are available to support PIs in understanding the scope of the challenge and incorporate university-wide action steps that have been identified.

2023 Campus Climate Survey on Diversity and Equity was administered between January 16 and February 10 to all community members, including students, faculty, staff, and administrators across all campuses. Principal Investigators can review the report when available and consider how to address any concerns identified and how to build on assets.

Pitt Concern Connection is web-based reporting system in which any member of the Pitt community can ask a question or report concerns about culture, ethics, harassment, or compliance with workplace discrimination protections. Principal Investigators can include this tool as part of their project personnel onboarding. 

Additional Resources

Advanced degrees are necessary for careers that once required only a college education. Yet little has been written about who gets into grad school and why. In her book, Inside Graduate Admissions: Merit, Diversity, and Faculty Gatekeeping, Julie Posselt pulls back the curtain on this secret process, revealing how faculty evaluate applicants in top-ranked doctoral programs in the humanities, social sciences, and natural sciences. PIs may find insights helpful for considering equitable approaches to identifying trainees.

Evaluation Plans & Logic Models

Evaluation is a critical capacity for ITGs, both for building a competitive proposal and implementing a high-quality experience once funded. It can be daunting to identify an evaluation expert with whom to partner and to build an evaluation plan that serves to support the achievement of the training grant goals. Typically, PIs would identify an external evaluator with whom to work and then, with that expertise, construct an evaluation plan and budget. Be sure to read the solicitation to understand requirements around the evaluation component.

PRO TIP: As soon as you start building an ITG, engage an external evaluation partner. The earlier the evaluator is included, the stronger your overall ITG will likely be because evaluators typically help leaders more clearly articulate program objectives, activities, and outcomes.

Find Competent Evaluation Consultants

This document provides contact information for individuals who are highly regarded as Competent Evaluation Consultants for federal agencies, training programs, and STEM programming.

General Evaluation Resources

The 2010 User-Friendly Handbook for Project Evaluation - This Handbook was developed to provide project directors and principal investigators working with the National Science Foundation (NSF) with a basic guide for evaluating NSF’s educational projects. It is aimed at people who need to learn more about both the value of evaluation and how to design and carry out an evaluation, rather than those who already have a solid base of experience in the field. It builds on firmly established principles, blending technical knowledge and common sense to meet the special needs of NSF and its stakeholders.

This evaluation toolkit from UNC contains links to surveys, scripts, resources, and logic models you can use to strengthen the effectiveness of your T32 training programs.

Study Logic Models and Design Your Own

Logic models are a core tool for both designing a program and building a coherent, meaningful evaluation. This document, Logic Models - STEM PUSH Network, provides a great overview of "Logic Models: Getting Started" that the STEM PUSH Network, an NSF-funded Alliance house here at Pitt, provided to its participants. It reviews logic model purposes, describes the "logic” of a logic model, and explains the key elements of a logic model.

  • Basic Logic Model Template
    • Once you understand generally what a logic model is, it may be helpful to download this template and begin building your ITG logic model. Ideally, you collaborate with colleagues and flesh out the key components so that you could read both vertically and horizontally and discern how the proposed training design is structured and what it is intended to accomplish. Download the Basic Logic Worksheet.

Where To Get Evaluation Consultation

Please email Jennifer Iriti, Assistant Vice Chancellor for Research Inclusion and Outreach Strategy, for questions and support related to proposal evaluations. She can connect you with additional resources and provide high level guidance.

Learning Lab

The Learning Lab has educational videos and other resources to support faculty progressing through the sponsored programs lifecycle.

Current videos include:

  • Finding External Funding for Your Research Idea
  • How to use Pivot-RP
  • Reading a Solicitation
  • Limited Submissions
  • Proposal Preparation

More videos will be added regularly, so check back often!

Office of Research, Health Sciences

The Office of Research, Health Sciences, (OORHS) staff members are available to assist Health Sciences faculty members by providing editorial assistance for grant applications that will be submitted for external funding. This free service is available to all faculty members in the Schools of the Health Sciences. Faculty members for whom English is not their native language, new investigators, and junior investigators who have been unsuccessful in obtaining significant external funding may find this assistance to be especially valuable. OORHS's editorial assistance service offers help with early career development awards. Their support also includes:

  • Scientific review of specific aims and study design
  • Grantsmanship advice
  • Editorial review for language and clarity
  • Review for consistency with funding announcement focus and funding agency priorities
Pitt Research Navigator

The Pitt Research Navigator delivers personalized customer service to connect faculty and research-related staff to Pitt research services, offices, and experts.

  • Connects faculty and research-related staff to the resources necessary to:
    • Initiate and continue research projects
    • Improve the communication between researchers and the offices that support them
    • Ensure compliance and best practices
    • Help resolve research-related problems across campus
Proposal Editing Service

The Proposal Editing Service offers a full range of proof-reading and copyediting services for all types and sizes of externally sponsored funding proposals. This service is available to Pitt faculty from any campus, school, or department. This is a free service, and edits are returned within 10 business days.

The Service can also link you to:

  • Grant Proposal Boilerplate Language
  • Proposal Writing Guides
  • Professional Development Templates that can help you draft letters of recommendation and enhance your online presence

The Proposal Editor, Christine Barberio, is available for virtual visits to discuss any grant writing-related topic. Visit the website to schedule your appointment with Chris.

Proposal Repositories

Pitt faculty have access to two proposal repositories. Both contain examples of successfully-awarded Pitt proposals to support faculty in submitting competitive applications to a wide variety of sponsoring agencies.

Research Development Resources & Services

Pitt's Research Development Resources & Services:

  • Helps faculty access search tools to identify relevant funding opportunities
  • Provides sponsor and University resources to support research and scholarship
  • Publishes This Week in Funding newsletters
  • Manages the Internal Limited Submissions process that many institutional training grant proposals will need to go through
Strategic Collaborations

Competitive institutional training grants demonstrate a robust and established ecosystem of partners and resources that will deliver on an innovative and rigorous leading edge training program. Establishing strategic partnerships with Pitt offices/units/departments and centers can help in this task tremendously. We list here a few critical potential partners that could be helpful to reach out to and explore intersections of your training grant idea and the other entity's mission and capacities. We introduce this here, rather than embedded within specific training grant funding streams both because such relationships are critical to all proposed traineeships and because these relationships take time to initiate, elaborate, and nurture and so typically need to be prioritized in the proposal development process.

1) The Office of Engagement and Community Affairs (ECA) is the core unit at the University of Pittsburgh with responsibility to advance a community engagement strategy for the University, to ensure that Pitt is a partner and asset to the region, to mobilize the University’s response to community-identified problems and concerns and to support faculty and staff in delivering sustainable and substantive engagement and outreach activities. To achieve these goals, ECA partners with all major divisions of the University and connects the various community-focused programs across academic units with the University’s larger community engagement agenda. Strategically, ECA focuses on four areas:

Reach out to the various ECA offices and initiatives to explore possible collaborations for community-engaged research or partnerships.

2) The Educational Outreach Center (EOC) is dedicated to expanding relationships throughout the city, county and region to help strengthen equitable pathways to college for youth scholars. The EOC facilitates, implements, and evaluates the following flagship programs:

  • Investing Now is a college preparatory program created to stimulate, support, and recognize the high academic performance of pre-college students from groups that are historically underrepresented in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics majors and careers.
  • The Pitt Horizon Scholars program is an initiative designed to provide comprehensive support to youth and young adults who have experienced the child welfare system, guiding them to and through their educational journey at Pitt.
  • The Pittsburgh Admissions Collaboration (PAC) provides a pathway to admission, beginning in high school to the Community College of Allegheny County (CCAC) and through the University of Pittsburgh. Open to grades 10–14 and students within Pittsburgh Public Schools are eligible to participate. All valedictorians and salutatorians in the Pittsburgh Public Schools system are guaranteed admission to one of the five Pitt campuses.

The center is focused on building more equitable pathways to Pitt undergraduate study by serving as the epicenter for early academic outreach efforts. The center includes of all university K-12 outreach efforts that is searchable. Departments might engage with these outreach programs to expand and/or target recruitment efforts. You can reach out to the EOC to explore opportunities to build recruitment pathways or extend your proposed ITG's reach for broader impacts.

3) The Broadening Equity in STEM Center, founded in 2019 in the Kenneth P. Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences at the University of Pittsburgh. Faculty and staff from five schools, the Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences, Swanson School of Engineering, School of Computing and Information, School of Education, and School of Medicine, along with several academic and administrative units, including the Center for Urban Education and the Learning Research and Development Center, comprise BE STEM’s multidisciplinary collaborative team at the University of Pittsburgh. The team leverages academic and professional expertise centered on broadening equity work. BE STEM’s mission is to increase diversity in Pitt’s STEM programs by serving as a hub interconnecting like-minded but siloed efforts in STEM broadening participation initiatives and providing programs with relevant organizational support. BE STEM also aids in developing new initiatives. As a University-wide resource, BE STEM can strengthen a culture for broader impacts at Pitt and leverage new partnerships and networks to successfully pursue external funding.

The BE STEM Center was created to support the work of a cross-School team that was awarded $10 million from the National Science Foundation (NSF) as an elite Alliance, the STEM PUSH Network. The STEM PUSH Network is the first national collaborative of pre-college STEM programs to work together for racial equity. It brings together professionals from STEM precollege programs, regional ecosystems, college admissions, and equity experts using a networked improvement community model to innovate more equitable practices in out-of-school time programming and in STEM undergraduate admissions. This national network of about 40 precollege STEM programs that collectively serve about 6,000 high school students every year can be a link to both rising undergraduate students and to potentially recruit graduate students and other project staff.

PIs can reach out to the BE STEM Center or the STEM PUSH Network directly to explore possible intersections between the institutional training grant idea and the work of the Center and the Alliance. Opportunity exists for building infrastructure for trainee recruitment pathways, broader impacts activities and partnerships, and potentially applied research experiences.

4) The mission of Pitt's Office of Government Relations and Affairs is to foster productive relationships with federal, state, and local government entities to support the University's education, research and service mission. The GRA team is Pitt’s primary point of contact with elected officials and government agencies. The team leverages Pitt's academic strengths and expertise to inform policymakers and advocate for the University's priorities – from research funding to student financial aid or any government action that impacts the Pitt community. Moving forward, the GRA team is focusing on strengthening internal partnerships at Pitt, building more relationships between Pitt's thought leaders and policymakers, and increasing Pitt's visibility and engagement. Contact this team to find out they can help leverage support for your proposal.

5) The Frederick Honors College provides a dynamic and interdisciplinary academic environment designed to cultivate intellectual curiosity, critical thinking, and leadership skills among high-achieving students. Through rigorous coursework, personalized mentoring, research opportunities, and global engagement, the FHC aims to empower students to tackle complex challenges and contribute meaningfully to society. There are a few key ways that FHC might intersect with an institutional training grant opportunity:

  • Offer funding for a trial run through the Martinson Applied Projects.
    • The Martinson Applied Projects provides funding to faculty who are able to take on a small number of FHC students and involve them in a research project for the fall and spring semester. The use of the funding varies from $2,000-10,000. This would be an excellent way to pilot a program that could then be submitted for an institutional training grant.
  • Support faculty in recruiting students
    • The FHC has a student population of over 2,000. Through regular programming, classes, and various types of advising, our staff interact with students on a regular basis. A frequent question from our students is 'how do I get involved with research?' When we become aware of research opportunities for our students, can direct them in those directions through our social media, email, Handshake, and in-person communication.
  • Support faculty and students in continued success (i.e. nationally competitive scholarships and funding) to support the reporting process
    • The FHC's Office of National Scholarships and Office of Research work with students on competitive funding applications, from Pitt opportunities to international ones. Success in these opportunities can strengthen reports sent to funding agencies as evidence of the quality of the training programs, which have worked to develop students into competitive applicants.

Please reach out to Josh Cannon if you would like to explore collaboration with the FHC for an institutional training grant.

6) The Learning Research and Development Center (LRDC) is an interdisciplinary hub dedicated to advancing the science of learning and education. By integrating research in cognitive science, psychology, education, neuroscience, and computer science, LRDC seeks to understand how people learn and apply this knowledge to improve teaching practices, curriculum design, and educational policy. The center fosters collaboration among scholars, educators, and policymakers to bridge the gap between research and practice, ensuring that innovations in learning benefit diverse learners in real-world contexts. Institutional training grants benefit from partnership with learning scientists and education evaluation specialists, for which LRDC is home to many. For more information, please reach out to Dr. Jen Iriti, Assistant Vice Chancellor for Research Education and Evaluation Strategy; Research Scientist, Learning Research & Development Center.

7) The University Center for Social and Urban Research (UCSUR) serves as a leading resource for urban and social research, addressing critical issues affecting communities locally and globally. UCSUR focuses on topics such as aging, urban development, public health, and social equity, leveraging data-driven research and interdisciplinary approaches. By fostering partnerships with policymakers, community organizations, and scholars, the center aims to generate insights that inform effective solutions and promote sustainable and inclusive development in urban and social contexts. UCSUR is home to a number of regional data warehousing projects that training grant PIs might find valuable to identify linkages between training grant focal areas and regional conditions.

Writing Institute

The Writing Institute for Faculty Writers: The Writing Institute offers a variety of resources for faculty writers.