Proposal Preparation Proposal Preparation Sponsoring agencies generally have guidelines to help you prepare a proposal. In an RFQ, RFP or formal competition, these guidelines can be very detailed with specific forms accompanying proposal text. Often there are limitations for page length, type size, title length, or supporting documents. When no guidelines are provided there are some general rules of thumb. A cover page should always accompany your proposal.
Page numbers are essential and a table of contents helps the reviewers.
An abstract accompanying the proposal should be both concise and complete. Agencies often use abstracts in their annual reports. Abstracts also help DER prepare supporting documentation. The proposal text should include a clear statement of the project goals and objectives as well as a description of the proposed work. Your preliminary studies or those by other investigators should be summarized.