1. What is a panel?
2. The presentation
3. Question and answer period
4. How to prepare as a peer panel member

A. What is a panel?
Research grant proposals submitted to government agencies (e.g. the National Science Foundation) are considered by a group of people drawn from those who submit proposals. People on these panels read a portion of the submitted proposals, write reviews of them, and then discuss the proposals in order to arrive at a prioritization of which ones should receive funding. Those submitting proposals get both the ultimate decision and the reviews. The submitters often receive them with frustration, wishing they could have been present at the deliberations so they could clear up confusion that the reviewers experienced.

Your research proposal will be considered by two separate panels. One panel will consist of three or four of your peers, your colleagues. The second will meet a week later and will consisting of two or three faculty members. There will be some significant differences from the scenario outlined above. First, there will be no thought of prioritizing the proposals, since none will be funded. Second, you will have an opportunity in two ways to supplement what you wrote in your proposal. You will give a seven-minute presentation, after which the panel will have an opportunity to question you regarding matters of interest related to your proposal.

Your time before the panels will be strictly limited, so it is imperative that you make careful preparations beforehand to make as efficient use of your time as possible.

B. The presentation
The presentation gives you the opportunity to frame your proposal in the way you want it to be framed, supplementing the story on paper with a story in words and images. You'll have seven minutes for your presentation -- very little time (but consider how many other people require time as well as you). At six minutes you'll be given a signal that you have only one more minute remaining. At seven minutes, your presentation will be completed, one way or another.

See How to Give a Presentation Focused on an Experiment for further advice.

C. Question and answer period
The faculty panel will spend seven minutes asking you questions aimed at fleshing out what appears to them to be weak points in your proposal. You can prepare for this by asking yourself questions before hand. With each point you make, ask yourself, How do I know this? or What would I do if I got a different result from what I am hoping for? Be tough on yourself, and that will make the toughness of others more bearable. Owing to the limitation in class time, the peer panel will have less opportunity for questions. However, their comments will be sent to the speakers by e-mail.

D. How to prepare as a peer panel member
Your responsibility is to offer written advice to the presenter on how to improve the research proposal and how to improve the presentation. Please make sure you are familiar with the guidelines for preparing critiques. You will also have a limited opportunity to ask questions of the presenter immediately after the presentation. For this to be a useful exercise, you will need to prepare beforehand. You will have a draft of the proposal at least 45 hours before the presentation.

E-mail your comments to the presenter (copying me and the TA) within 24 hrs of the presentation, so that the presenter will have time to act on them.

Here is an example of how a panel might work.