Research Grant Proposal and Report Template
Four documents and three sheets that turn every promise in the narrative into a dated row you will be asked about later.
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Reporting Calendar
Every date computed from the award, not typed
| Report | Period ends | Interval rule | Due | Commitments assessed | Of which unfunded |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Year 1 performance report | 31 Aug 2027 | No later than 90 days after the reporting period | 29 Nov 2027 | 9 | 3 |
| Year 2 performance report | 31 Aug 2028 | No later than 90 days after the reporting period | 29 Nov 2028 | 11 | 4 |
| Final performance report | 31 Aug 2029 | No later than 120 days after the period of performance | 29 Dec 2029 | 8 | 2 |
| Nothing covers these | Deposit window, retention period and an agreement that outlasts the award | After 31 Aug 2029 | 3 | 3 |
31 commitments came out of a 12-page narrative. 12 have no budget line, and 3 of those come due after the money stops, so no report ever asks about them.
The pack is four documents and three sheets and one rule. The sheets hold the record. A commitment register carries every promise in the application with the sentence that created it, the budget line that funds it, and the date it comes due. A budget justification says which commitments each line is carrying. A reporting calendar computes the dates from the award terms. The documents hold the application itself: the aims page, the narrative, the sharing plan and the progress report. The rule is that every promise in the narrative becomes a dated row.
Every sheet ships filled in for one illustrative three-year award. The 12-page narrative produced 31 commitments, 13 required by the solicitation and 18 volunteered in the writing. 19 have a budget line behind them and 12 do not, which is 39 per cent of the promises in the application. Three of the 12 come due after the period of performance ends, so no report covers them and no money remains.
Every other grant template stops at submission. The promises inside the narrative become obligations on dates nobody computed, because the award terms fix them and not a calendar. An annual performance report falls no later than 90 calendar days after the period it covers, and the final one within 120. Open the pack in River and every date derives from the award. Or download the sheets and keep the register beside the rest of the research packs.
What's in the pack
Commitment Register sheet
One row per promise, carrying the sentence that created it, whether the solicitation required it or the narrative volunteered it, the budget line behind it, and the date it comes due. It is the compliance checklist and the promise list at once, because they are the same list.
Budget Justification sheet
The lines, and beside each one the commitments it is carrying. Read in that direction it finds the line somebody used as a default, and the promises with nothing behind them at all.
Reporting Calendar sheet
Every report with its due date derived from the period of performance and the interval the award sets, plus the rule that produced it. A date with no rule behind it is a date somebody will change.
Specific Aims
The one page most reviewers decide on, with every deliverable on it already a register row. Numbers are commitments here: 120 units is one, three sites is one, and a full season is one.
Proposal Narrative
Structured to the solicitation's evaluation criteria, in its order and its words, weighted roughly as the criteria are weighted. The literature underneath it is built the way a review synthesis builds one.
Data Management and Sharing Plan
One page, and in the worked example 8 of the 31 commitments, 7 of them unfunded. Naming a specific repository, licence and metadata standard is what a progress report can be checked against, the way a variable codebook can.
Progress Report
Written from the register rather than from memory. Every commitment due in the period gets a line, the ones that went badly get the most space, and the unfunded count is stated in year one rather than year three. It is the same move a response to reviewers makes against a decision letter.
Every promise in the narrative becomes a dated row
The standing space rule every prompt reads first. Deliverables, activities, standards and every number attached to them, each with a source, a budget line and a date. If a reviewer could later ask whether you did it, it is a promise.
How to use it
- 1
Open in River, or download it
Open the pack in River and the agent reads the solicitation and opens the register with you, or download the three CSV sheets and four Word documents instantly, filled in with the worked example.
- 2
Read the solicitation for what comes after the award
The period of performance and the reporting intervals, before anybody drafts a sentence. They fix every date in the pack. Record the source the way a documented search strategy records its own.
- 3
Register each promise as you write it
Not afterwards. Afterwards means rereading twelve pages looking for verbs, and the ones that get missed are buried in a subordinate clause or a letter of support.
- 4
Price it, date it, then submit
Name the budget line for every row, write none where nothing pays for it, and decide before submission whether to fund it, soften the sentence or keep it on purpose.
Frequently asked questions
Is this template free?
Yes. Download the whole pack as CSV sheets and Word documents with no signup and no credit card. Edit with AI is a separate, optional path that has the agent read the solicitation and build the register with you. The template library holds the rest of the packs.
What format are the downloaded files?
CSV for the three sheets and Word documents for the aims page, the narrative, the sharing plan and the progress report, in one zip. They open in Excel, Numbers, Sheets, Word, Pages and Google Docs with nothing to convert. Inside River the same content opens as live Docs and Sheets.
Which funders does this work for?
Any funder that publishes a solicitation and requires reports. The dates in the worked example come from federal award terms, which apply across agencies, and a foundation or a research council slots in the same way once you have its intervals. What does not change is that promises become obligations.
How can a promise come due after the award ends?
Easily, and usually in the sharing plan. A deposit window running 12 months from a publication in the final year lands past the end date, and so do retention periods. Federal award terms require every financial obligation to be liquidated within 120 calendar days of the period of performance ending, so the promise is live and the money is gone.
My proposal is already submitted. Is it too late?
No, and it is worth doing in month two rather than year three. Build the register backwards from the submitted narrative, then compute the calendar from the award terms. Expect it to surface commitments nobody has thought about since submission, some of which are already due.
What happens if I miss a milestone mid-year?
You tell the funder then, not at the next report. Federal award terms treat a delay that will affect your ability to meet a milestone as a significant development to be notified between reporting due dates. In the worked example the slip landed 270 days before the next report, which is most of a year of nobody knowing.
Does River write the science?
No. The aims, the approach and the judgement about what is worth promising belong to whoever will defend them in a progress report. River reads the solicitation, holds the register, prices the promises against the budget and computes the dates. Methods sections work the same way, and so does an ethics application graded section by section rather than read as one persuasive document.
Find out how many promises in your proposal nothing pays for
Send the solicitation and whatever draft exists. The register comes back with a budget line and a date on every row, and none where there is none.
Edit with AI