What Reviewers Look For in the NSF GRFP — Graduate Research Plan
This rubric evaluates whether your plan presents a clear research problem, a focused question or objective, and an approach that shows what you will do and how the results will answer that question. It also looks for a feasible plan, a specific contribution to knowledge, concrete broader impacts, and a connected explanation that a broad-field panel can follow.
What We Check
Whether the plan identifies a research problem, the gap it addresses, and a question or objective that can guide the proposed work.
Whether each central research step states what the applicant will do, what evidence or output it produces, and how that evidence bears on the question.
Whether the plan fits graduate-scale work and identifies the resources, sequence, and decision points needed to carry it out.
Whether the plan states how its expected results would advance knowledge rather than only confirming that the topic matters.
Whether the plan identifies a beneficiary, mechanism, and bounded societal outcome for its Broader Impacts.
Whether a broad-field GRFP panel can follow one connected line from problem to approach, expected result, Intellectual Merit, and Broader Impacts.
Mistakes We Flag
- Explaining why the field matters without naming the gap
- A reader still needs to know what is unknown, untested, unexplained, or unbuilt, and what question or objective follows from that gap.
- Listing methods without explaining their purpose
- For each central method, explain the aim it serves, the evidence or output it will produce, and how you will interpret that output.
- Assuming the plan will work without alternatives
- If a meaningful uncertainty or failure point is visible, state what would prompt a change and what alternative or narrower path you would take.
- Calling the work novel without saying what is new
- Name the new comparison, explanation, method capability, dataset, proof, or design knowledge your work would provide.
- Making broad impact claims with no route to people
- Identify who benefits, what they receive, and how your research result or planned activity reaches them.
References
Frequently Asked Questions
Do I need to use a hypothesis?
No. A hypothesis, research question, design objective, theorem, model, or exploratory aim can guide the proposed work.
Do I need preliminary results, a named adviser, or a named institution?
No. These are optional. Your plan should instead make clear the resources, sequence, and decision points needed to carry out the work.
What should I include under Intellectual Merit?
Explain how the expected results would advance knowledge. Do not rely only on the importance of the field, societal urgency, or a summary of methods.
What should I include under Broader Impacts?
Give a concrete beneficiary, mechanism, and bounded societal outcome. A research-mediated benefit or one specific future activity can provide this connection.
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