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Home Division of Research & Innovation Researchers Find Funding Reverse Site Visit Best Practices

Reverse Site Visit Best Practices

This document provides best practices to assist University of Memphis (UofM) teams in their RSV preparation.

The key theme that emerges across these many recommendations is that a successful RSV requires careful planning, practice and preparation; these are key to ensuring your team is on the same page in delivering a cohesive message about why the project merits funding and why the team is best suited to accomplish the task.

RSV Overview:

What is the goal of an RSV? RSVs involve the principal investigator (PI) and team visiting agency program personnel and/or a review team at the agency offices (may be virtual). The purpose of the RSV is to convince the review team that the project should be funded. Key to this is ensuring reviewers understand the project, are excited about the project, understand the impact and transformative nature of the project, believe the project can be accomplished, and believe this is the right team to tackle the project.

Who does NSF want to hear from? There is typically a specific number of participants NSF wants to hear from. This will include the PIs/PDs as well as additional personnel, which could be as little as four people or as many as 20 for very large projects. In these presentations, the PI needs to show they are a strong/competent leader and the full team must appear to be cohesive.

How long is an RSV? Presentations are typically about two hours, but may also be up to four hours or even span more than a single day. NSF typically provides a structure for the presentations with detailed and specific questions. The structure may include time allotments to address specific topics. Most importantly, program personnel want to be able to participate and ask questions. Build in time for this during your preparation and also develop a strategy for limiting your team’s responses if they go too long. The presentation is typically followed by a Q&A session with the review panel for about an hour (or a designated time per presentation). This may include breaks for the review panel to formulate questions.

What is expected beyond the presentation? In addition to presentations, a revised budget, state of work, or management plan may be requested. Possible questions to consider in RSV preparation include:

  • Is the budget appropriate for the proposed activities?
  • Is the proposed management plan likely to be effective?
  • Are intellectual property issues adequately addressed?

 

RSV Strategies for Success:

Read your proposal again. Proposals at this level and stage are highly polished, well developed, articulate documents that demonstrate your initial (and winning) program design. This content should form the foundation of any presentation. Reusing graphics, language, and narrative structure provides a familiar starting point for your team and the reviewers. In the same breath, do not assume that reviewers have read your proposal (even the relevant sections).

Purposely design the interaction. Your seating arrangement, order of presentations, and who speaks should be scrutinized. This is your opportunity to visually demonstrate the diversity of your team. Be aware of how you have distributed everyone (audience and presenters) according to ethnicity, race, age, discipline, career level, and gender. Also, everything should be in compliance to all requirements provided by the sponsor. If they say you have 30 minutes on a specific topic, you have only 30 minutes on that topic.

  • A previous NSF STC awardee noted that they prepared binders for the reviews. Their binders included an agenda, a copy of the presentation, a copy of the proposal, notes from their review, their response to review notes, a pouch with pens, highlighters, page tags, and a USB with all media files.

Invest in the presentation. Consider contracting a coach or engaging Research Development (RD) to help with the message, anticipate questions, prepare the team, and debrief the RSV. A professional presentation coach can ensure clarity and an approachable format, be able to comment on the sponsor agency expectations, and review slide content.

  • NORDP experts note their recommended inclusion of RD personnel. Send a representative from the RD office, although that person may not be in the actual meeting (due to limited seats). If RD staff can attend, have them take notes.

Practice makes perfect. Across the board, more than three practice sessions made the difference between flailing and polished. In person (or Zoom) practices are good for content development and immediate feedback. Each practice should have at least one new, unbiased audience member to provide constructive comments. Add senior faculty with sponsor experience to play the role of the review panel. Encourage questions from the audience.

  • A previous NSF AI Institute awardee noted they had four planning sessions as well as four to five practice sessions. In the practice sessions, they invited people from all over their campus to listen. This included Associate Deans for Research (ADRs), people who were PIs of successful large proposals and/or had been through an NSF RSV. These groups listened and provided honest feedback. The awardee noted that this feedback was very helpful.
  • A previous NSF STC awardee also emphasized the need to conduct a red team review. This awardee recommended teams plan for a red team review three weeks before the RSV and noted that the red team should include science experts, education experts, NSF experts, and campus leadership.

Craft a consistent message that emphasizes the importance beyond the research. Be sure to emphasize that the Center or Institute is about more than just the research. Use your proposal themes to describe the project's impact quickly and easily. In addition, each presentation section's theme should reflect and reiterate an overarching message. Polish your slides so that they look crisp, clean, uncluttered and message driven.

  • A previous NSF AI institute awardee noted that teams must be able to show how the research will advance foundational knowledge of AI while also simultaneously advancing knowledge in the thematic discipline. Be sure to highlight more than the research by discussing the broadening participation, education, workforce, and social science aspects.

Cohesion is important. The RSV provides an opportunity to demonstrate team cohesion and understanding of roles within the institute. There must be a team approach throughout. Show how the team will function well together.

  • A previous NSF STC awardee noted that design elements make the team look cohesive. Consider logos, PI pictures, group pictures, and PowerPoint templates. Professionally developed graphics are essential for messaging, presentation, logos, banners, and conveying data.
  • A previous NSF AI Institute awardee noted to be sure that the minority partner/HBCU is involved in all aspects of the institute and a part of the RSV team. This shows that partners are engaged and valued participants.

Accept any and all sponsor feedback. If they mention it, address it fully and politely.

  • A previous NSF STC awardee noted that on the night after the first day of a multi-day RSV, teams should plan to spend the evening answering questions. The awardee noted that their team was given 12 questions and prepared a 10-page response to present to reviewers the next morning.

Present the obvious, plus the less obvious, minus the distracting. Again, don't assume the audience has read your proposal or are aware of the reviewer criticisms. Your presentation should balance existing content (the proposal) and new content (adjustments based on the reviews), and introduce new information that bolsters your project, but doesn't distract from it. For example: Program A is innovative but reviewers say it lacks X factor. Your team met for a month to find the X factor, and discovered that Y was neat too. Present your original program A, bring up added X factor along with Y, but don’t distract with details that you had to meet for a grueling month to discover X and Y.

By purposefully designing your RSV interaction, meticulously planning and preparing, and focusing on clear messaging and team cohesion, you’ll have the best chance for success in highlighting why your project merits funding and why your team is best suited to tackle the project. Good luck!