• Look at the Funding Resources web page.
• Find out who funds closely related research (competitors, recently published relevant data).

• The percent of proposals typically funded?
• The sponsor's funding priorities?
• Who will review your proposal?
• The review process timeline?
• Whether examples of successful proposals are available?
• What qualifications they are looking for?

4) Visit our Proposal Help web site.

5) Draft a proposal and seek feedback from colleagues, collaborators, or anyone experienced in working with the sponsor.

6) Prepare an absolutely error-free proposal.
Take time to be sure your proposal meets the sponsor's specifications (e.g. font size, margins, page limits, use of URLs in references). Funders typically receive many proposals and can easily refuse to review applications which haven't conformed to their instructions.