Capabilities

Unparalleled knowledge. Creative tactics. Known network.


Broad-based understanding of the federal grant and contract process

TIG is headquartered in Washington, D.C. and has a long-standing history and understanding of the federal grant and contract process, particularly the National Science Foundation. The firm’s co-founder, Joseph G. Danek, has nearly 40 years of experience in this arena. Dr. Danek spent 26 years at the National Science Foundation (NSF) before co-founding TIG. He brings a unique perspective and understanding of the federal grants practice. The company Vice President, Kelvin Chu, Ph.D. has been PI or co-PI on over $45M in grants from NSF and NIH, the majority of which were large center-type awards and programs to increase institutional and state research competitiveness. Together, with Andrea Boldon, Tom Devlin and Eleanor Bowling, the team possesses over 125 years of federal agency program experience. The TIG team is augmented by a diverse cadre of Senior Associates. Our Senior Associates have served as agency officials, PIs of major centers and other large-scale awards, reviewers on agency review panels, and members of high-level agency advisory boards. Each has significant experience building institutional infrastructure, having worked with large-scale NSF programs, and having mentored hundreds of faculty.

Ability to assist in proposal development for all federal R&D and education agencies and work across required elements in proposal development

Most consulting firms specialize in a given agency or set of agencies. TIG principals and consultants are drawn from awardees and former officials of all federal R&D and Education agencies. These Associates are national scientific and educational leaders. This diverse set of talents and relationships sets TIG apart from other consulting firms. TIG has a 25-year successful track record of advising faculty teams, conducting pre- reviews of proposals prior to submission, and working directly with individual researchers and teams to materially strengthen their proposals. Our understanding of the federal grant and contract process is based on broad experience in developing, administering, and implementing research and development, technology, education, arts, diversity, workforce development, and other capacity building initiatives across the major federal agencies.

Ability to conduct pre-submission reviews, utilizing a network of national multi-disciplinary experts

TIG staff are supplemented by a network of 250 disciplinary experts who bring needed expertise to projects, proposals, and other client efforts. This network is comprised of leading science and technology (S&T) and education researchers, directors of large-scale Centers, ex-agency officials, international researchers, and other funded investigators. These experts pre-review applications for all federal agencies, offer specific suggestions to improve the competitiveness of a given application, and participate in color team reviews. In addition to this external review process, TIG also completes an internal review to ensure that proposals are responsive to guidelines and that the final project is well-articulated, well-supported, and properly assembled. TIG’s individualized technical assistance – primarily in the way of external and internal pre-reviews – is critical to increasing competitiveness of a given application.

Ability to meet short deadlines and provide rapid turnaround times

Given high faculty workloads and the increasing complexity of contemporary science and demands to cover a plethora of issues in federal grant proposals, institutions often find themselves up against tight deadlines. TIG is acutely aware of these situations. Through staff time allocations and our dedicated extensive external consultant network, we are able to provide turnaround times on proposals, when necessary to meet client needs, of as short as a few days.

Demonstrated track record of performance

TIG works directly with faculty and administrators to craft proposals, sponsor proposal development and funding opportunities workshops, facilitate faculty visits to agencies and agency visits to client institutions, establish partnerships, and provide direct assistance writing/editing proposals. TIG has helped clients to attain small, medium, and large-scale awards from virtually every major funding agency, including the Department of Education, the Department of Energy, the Department of Homeland Security, the Department of Labor, the National Institutes of Health, and the National Science Foundation.