Use the latex template
proposal_template.tex
as a starting point. Write text to fill the sections.
Note that this template uses the Times font, which converts nicely to pdf,
but NSF guidelines now specify fonts, and this format might need to be
updated.
Complete bibliography information in
the draft.bib file. (Emacs has a macro that will
help you fill in bibliography information. Make sure the file that you are
editing
ends .bib, and emacs will set up the templates, specified in drop down
menus. The emacs command sequence ^C^C will clean up an entry once it has been
filled in, ^X^S will save, and ^X^C will quit. Web of Science now allows
you to save bibliographic information in bibtex format, and only minimal
typing/editing should be required.)
You'll need two special style files: proposalnsf.cls is a proposal class file for latex originally developed by Stefan Llewellyn
Smith (updated 1 June 2008. An older version is also still available:
proposal.cls). jponew.bst is a bibliography style
file based on AMS bibliography style. It was hacked from the AGU bibliography
style file. Download them and insert them in your working directory.
Figures can be included using epsfig or psfig. Alternatively, they can be
inserted as pdf, png, or jpg, and the proposal can be processed using pdflatex
(rather than latex).
Here's a pdf version of the template file: proposal_template.pdf.
You might find that you need to include a graphics package:
\usepackage{graphicx}
You shouldn't need to use any flags with it.
The template resets page numbering with each section but doesn't reset section numbering. If you want to have numbered sections in your budget justification, for example, reset the numbering at the start of the seection:
\setcounter{section}{0}
And if necessary, reset the formating of numbering at the start of the section using a command of this form:
\renewcommand\thesection{\Alph{section}}
(as an example, to make lettered sections).
dvips -f -tletter -Ppdf -G0 filename >! filename.ps
ps2pdf filename.ps filename.pdf
Note that ps2pdf uses ghostscript, and in the past NSF would reject the results if
you did not use a sufficiently current version of ghostscript. (Version
7.03-1 works.) In dvips, you should use "-Ppdf" in order to fix the fonts; NSF is now fairly adaptable in what they can accept, but originally,
they had a pdf checker that complained if you missed this flag.
NSF or your contracts and grants office
might request that each segment of the proposal be submitted as a separate
document. To subdivide the latex file use the dvips flags -nnumber_of_pages -p=starting_page_counting_from_beginning_of_document.
Sarah Gille, 2002-2021